The nonprofit outlines three strategies for EMG; enriches Firefox Lite with new Travel feature
TAIPEI, Jan. 21, 2020 : The Web was a chaotic place in 2019. Mozilla, a long-term advocate of internet health, revealed its strategy for the EMG market in 2020, and said it hopes the word for the Internet in 2020 is “awakening”, calling on the public to increase their awareness and stay vigilant of privacy risks and security issues in an era where commercial interests come first and big data are heavily exploited online. Mozilla also announced a three-pronged strategy around talent development, product development and internet health advocacy in a bid to draw the attention of the industry, government and academia to the issue of the Surveillance Economy.
Over the past year, Mozilla continued to innovate and work toward creating a better internet. In 2019, Mozilla launched Firefox Monitor, a service that enables people to quickly respond to data breaches; offered Firefox Lockwise, which syncs passwords across devices and makes password management easier; and added Protections Report to Firefox to further realize its promise for safeguarding user privacy and security. Delivering on its promise of fostering the development of a more diverse, innovative voice technology ecosystem, Mozilla also released the first batch of multi-language dataset — Common Voice — in 2019 to empower researchers and startups. Besides product and service development, Mozilla’s Taipei Office released the first-ever Taiwan Internet Health Report last year, which disclosed the three internet health hazards plaguing the online environment in Taiwan. The company also organized Firefox Charity Run, the first of such events in Mozilla’s operations globally. With nearly 3,000 participants, the event successfully brought people’s attention to the importance of internet health.
Since its launch in 2018, Firefox Lite, the first mobile browser developed by the Taipei team, has been well received in Southeast Asia. At the end of 2019, the browser transformed into a multi-function mobile browsing platform and is now available in 30 countries. Today, Firefox Lite is further augmented with the whole new Travel feature, which helps to make travel planning easier and more efficient with one-stop browsing.
Stan Leong, Vice President & General Manager of Emerging Markets, Mozilla, said, “Moving forward in 2020, Mozilla EMG focuses our efforts on three strategic pillars – internet health advocacy, talent development and product development.”
“We aim to open local recruitment, foster innovative thinking and help local talents connect to the world. In terms of product development, in view of the deepening harms of surveillance economy on online security and privacy, we are exploring product innovation opportunities to tackle the issues of Content Discovery and Disinformation, Identity Systems and Data Commons, in hopes of discovering opportunities and technologies that truly empower users and allow everyone to benefit from what the digital world can offer,” he added.
Opening Recruitment Plan, Aligning EMG Product Development Resources, Driving Innovations for Addressing Surveillance Economy
In addition to recruiting local talent, Mozilla will roll out the Dev Tech Speaker Program that provides a platform for all the contributors to Mozilla, Firefox and Open Web to exchange ideas and increase their visibility around the world.
With regard to product development, Mozilla identified the big issues under the “surveillance economy” (or “surveillance capitalism”): security and privacy, decentralized web, AI, content discovery and disinformation, identity systems and data commons, which are detrimental to people’s online life. According to 2019 Iposos-World Economic Forum report[1], only 36% respondents trust various types of organizations with how they handle personal data. Mozilla is working on three key areas — content discovery and disinformation, identity systems and data commons — and conducting user research and product development in hopes of safeguarding people’s online privacy and security as well as the health of the internet.
Firefox Lite now a comprehensive mobile browsing platform, added with new Travel feature
Firefox Lite has won much praise from users since its launch. Staying true to the spirit of innovation, Mozilla launched the latest updates for the browser in December, transforming it to a multi-function mobile browsing platform. Users can compare prices across multiple sites with Smart Shopping Search, play more than 100 popular free games without installing gaming apps, and stay up to date with trending news.
Besides new additional features, Firefox Lite continues to deliver impressive speed and security. At only 6MB in size, and with the built-in Turbo Mode to speed the browser up, Firefox Lite provides a blazing fast online experience. With Enhanced Tracking Protection in Private Browsing, it protects users from third-party tracking cookies. Firefox Lite is now available in 30 markets, having expanded its presence to cover more countries in EMG such as Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
The Travel feature, the latest addition to Firefox Lite, partners with firms including Wikimedia, KKday and Booking.com to offer one-stop browsing experience. Users can search for destinations and instantly get travel recommendations and guides and hotel prices. The next adventure is just a few taps of the finger away. Users can also add destinations and relevant guides to their bucket list, making travel planning much easier and quicker.
Download the latest Firefox Lite
