In all honesty Mozilla probably doesn't give a shit, most large companies already work closely with the FBI and NSA to put backdoors in their products to allow federal spying.

I'm vegan and opposed to snitches, but this is bad advice to use Opera instead of Firefox.

Opera is free as in beer, but it isn't free as in speech. It is closed source software and the license is restrictive meaning it can't be redistributed.

For a security perspective, it is very bad to tie yourself to one company when you can't see the source code. Firefox is totally open source so anyone can see exactly what it does. Closed source software is much more difficult to analyse for security problems or backdoors.

I would recommend any animal rights activists to use Firefox over Opera or Internet Explorer.

Another reason is that Firefox has many more security-based plugins to protect your privacy online.

Maybe the author knows this anyway and is just using this post to embarrass Justin Samuel and dissuade others from snitching. Still, it's not good to give bad advice about security, which makes does me wonder somewhat if this is genuine.

For the love of god, windows and IE are designed for autistic monkeys, use linux, then you have a choice of about 50 browsers, i like luakit, but whatever, firefox is alright (except the animal rights issue, you know using foxes and all). also use noscript plugin, and for the love of god setup tor and get the firefox tor button(plugin), then google "tor test" to be on the safe side.

Microsoft have admitted more then once putting backdoors in their OS (once by request from the CIA), it doesn't matter what browser you use if you use windows you have tons and tons of security issues (I know i know linux have a few too, but a lot less and there's a lot more to do about them)

and one very important tool that all security minded use is wireshark, if anything comes out of your computer that shouldn't you'll can see it.

get nmap and scan your own computer using several options, try and set it up so you can't tell which OS you're using, for example by using "netcat -lp SOME_PORT" to confuse a would be port scanner,

get snort - it's a very nice intrusion detection tool, it will email your root, and also have a /var/log/snort/alert file which you can look at at real time and know if you are being scanned, or whatever.

get vulnerability scanners, there are plenty and spend time trying to exploit your own computer

spend time know your tools, learn their limitations etc.

useful commands:
netstat -utpeeW : shows you all the connections (-uDP, -tCP, -pRogram's name,-eXtended view (twice), -Wide view)
netstat -lptu : shows you all the listening ports (-listening ports, -program's name, -tCP, -uDP)

tcpdump -i -vvv : shows you all of your network traffic, the same as wireshark (-iNterface, -vvv (very very very verbose.))
you can use -w to save in in to a file and then have a closer look at the packets with tcpdump -r

cat /var/log/auth.log will show you who's been logging into your machine ,when and how

lsof -i : will show you all the network files opened

Ok, i guess that's enough for now, it just demonstrates that there are plenty of things to do to secure your connection, and many of these tools are unavailable or proprietary in windows. if you still want to use windows then don't ever bitch about being insecure, it's your lazyass fault.

This might damage the credibility of Firefox as a nice company, but there is no evidence of it being a security issue. Firefox is open source meaning that the code that it uses is publicly available for anybody to view. If there was a security breech or a backdoor that allowed authorities to access your browser it would be there for all to see.

Opera is closed source - there could have been a backdoor in there for years for all we know (I'm not saying there is - just that there could be).

The most secure way to use computers is to use open source software, including the operating system.

Eric S Raymond has written at least as much Open Software code as the oft quoted Richard Stallman. He describes himself as a libertarian and an anarchist - so far, so good? Yet if you analysed his politics you wouldn't want to use any open software. A self-described gun-nut, he believes that the US should disband it's army and corporations should voluntarily hire mercanies to invade resource rich countries.
So should we boycott every project and cause he has worked on? Not unless you are happy to write your own operating systems and applications. His source code is available for anyone to read and check out, and so isn't affected by his personal politics.

Many people might not be familiar with the term "Open Source", or why it is good.

Computer programs are written in languages, which whilst not like plain English, are fairly readable to those that know the language. So you can see what is going on.

However, computers themselves can run the programs more efficiently if they are converted into "machine language", which is pretty unreadable to humans but very fast for computers. This process is called "compilation". If you only have the compiled program and not the original code, it is very difficult to work out everything the program does.

"Open Source" programs mean that as well as the final compiled program, you can see the program in its original language too. So you can check it for security problems or backdoors.

However, open source programs can't necessarily be distributed for free, so there is a further extension of the concept to "Free Software", which is like open source except in addition the programs are free to be distributed. You can charge for them if you want (it doesn't mean free as in free beer) but there isn't much point, since you can usually get the programs free elsewhere. The "free" in "Free Software" means free as in free speech, i.e. you won't get hassled by the copyright police for sharing the program with others.