Last updated February 3, 2021
Mozilla Location Services (MLS) is an open, crowdsourced geolocation service that can estimate your device’s location. MLS works on apps, websites, and services that are authorized to use MLS and that you have given permission to request your device’s location.
In this Privacy Notice, we explain what data Mozilla Location Services collects and shares, and why. We also adhere to the practices outlined in the Mozilla Privacy Policy for how we receive, handle and share information we collect from MLS.
What Data MLS Collects
Mozilla estimates your location when you choose to share your location with an application, or website, or service. Here’s the data MLS may receive when a request is made:
- Location data
- information about the publicly observable Wi-Fi access points, cell towers and Bluetooth beacons closest to you. We may also determine your location from your device’s (e.g., computer, phone, tablet) IP address. You can prevent your Wi-Fi access points from being reported to Mozilla - see how to disable this here.
- Technical data
- technical data like the time you made a location request and an approximation of how close you are to a Wi-Fi access point, cell tower, or Bluetooth beacon.
- You can see a complete list of the technical data we collect.
- Crash reports
- If MLS crashes, we receive information about what may have caused the crash. Crash reports include information about MLS at the time of a crash, which may contain data that identifies you or is otherwise sensitive to you. This could include your IP address, location information, and the time of the crash.
We use the information we collect to provide the service to you, and to improve the service.
How Your Data is Shared
- Cloud Storage Provider
- We use Amazon Web Service (AWS) as our cloud storage provider to store and process MLS data.
- Authorized applications and websites that request your location
- If you (or a product or service you’re using) makes a request for your location, Mozilla will share your approximate location with the product or service.
- Publicly
- We publish data on public cell tower locations on our website for public use and benefit. We will not publicly share Bluetooth or Wi-Fi location data, which can be more sensitive. You can view the reports here.
Mozilla Stumbler App
Note: The Mozilla Stumbler app was decommissioned on February 8, 2021 and is no longer supported. See here for more information.
Mozilla Stumbler (Stumbler) is an open-source Android application that collects GPS data to improve the Mozilla Location Service. Stumbler (and authorized applications that use the geosubmit API) automatically records location data when the app is open and you move around. In addition to the data MLS collects, Stumbler also receives your device’s GPS location and additional technical data, like your device’s altitude and speed.
The information is stored locally on your device until an internet connection is established. The data is then deleted from your device and sent to Mozilla. If you do not want to report data to Mozilla, you can delete the Android app or change your Firefox for Android (versions 69 and earlier) preference under Settings / Privacy / Data Choices.
We aggregate location points sent to Mozilla from users around the world in our data map. Location points are blurred to promote anonymity.