Mozilla
Verified“Open-source soul, US-incorporated body, Google-funded wallet.”
- 2024 revenue
- ~$680M
- Google dependence
- ~86%
- Structure
- Non-profit-owned
- Engine
- Gecko
27 = midpoint of Control 23 & Data 30
Sovereignty Quadrant
Control ↑ who owns & governs the company · Data → where your data lives. Every dot is a company — click to open it.
Every number below traces to 16 sourced facts across 7 independent sources, last verified 2026-06-12. 4 open questions hold confidence at 88% — they lower confidence, never the score.
Control ↑
Who legally and economically controls the company
Legal & Jurisdiction
22
Both the Mozilla Foundation and Mozilla Corporation are incorporated and run in California, USA. Mozilla openly states its servers and organization are 'based in the United States.' EU offices (Berlin, Paris) are operational sites, not a controlling EU legal entity. EU law reaches it only via SCCs and extraterritorial GDPR exposure, not via EU incorporation or enforceable EU establishment as the principal entity.
Why 22? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Mozilla Foundation is a US non-profit
Mozilla governance / organizations · as of 2026-06-12
Mozilla Corporation legal home
Wikipedia: Mozilla Corporation · as of 2026-06-12
Servers/organization based in US
Firefox Privacy Notice · as of 2026-06-12
EU transfers handled via legal mechanism, not EU incorporation
Firefox Privacy Notice · as of 2026-06-12
Control & Ownership
24
Voting control and economic ownership both sit with the US-based Mozilla Foundation, which owns 100% of Mozilla Corporation. There are no shareholders, no stock, no public listing and no dividends — a clean, mission-locked structure — but it is entirely US-controlled. The economic majority and ultimate control are American, so on an EU-sovereignty rubric this scores low despite the absence of foreign private investors.
Why 24? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Foundation owns the Corporation outright
Mozilla governance / organizations · as of 2026-06-12
No external shareholders or listing
Wikipedia: Mozilla Corporation · as of 2026-06-12
Controlling parent jurisdiction
Mozilla governance / organizations · as of 2026-06-12
Revenue concentration creates de facto dependence on Google
Wikipedia: Mozilla Corporation · as of 2026-06-12
Data →
Where your data lives and who can reach it
Data & Infrastructure
30
A genuine bright spot relative to most browsers: Firefox processes much personal data on-device (history, form data, cookies) and never sends it to Mozilla. But server-side services (telemetry, crash reports, updates, downloads, Relay, Monitor, Sync) run on US hyperscalers AWS and GCP, and Mozilla's own servers are US-based — so the cloud footprint carries full US CLOUD Act exposure. Sync is end-to-end encrypted, mitigating content exposure, but there is no EU data-residency guarantee or EU-owned infrastructure.
Why 30? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Much data stays on device
Firefox Privacy Notice · as of 2026-06-12
Server-side services on US clouds
MozillaWiki: Firefox Operations · as of 2026-06-12
Servers US-located
Firefox Privacy Notice · as of 2026-06-12
Sync content protected
Firefox / How Firefox Protects Your Data · as of 2026-06-12
Operations & People
30
Operations are US-centered: HQ in San Francisco, a US-appointed CEO (Anthony Enzor-DeMeo, Dec 2025), USD reporting currency, and a board seated through the US Foundation. The workforce is genuinely distributed ('office optional') with real EU presence in Berlin and Paris, which lifts this above a pure foreign-operated score, but leadership, legal seat and money are American.
Why 30? 4 sourced facts · click to expand
Has EU operational offices
Mozilla careers / locations · as of 2026-06-12
Aligned to the EU Commission’s official Cloud Sovereignty Framework (SEAL, Jun 2026) →
What we don’t know
4 open questions — they lower confidence, never the score
- ?
Exact split of Firefox server-side workloads between AWS, GCP and any self-hosted/colo infrastructure, and whether any EU regions are used by default for EU users.
Could raise or lower the infra score; current AWS/GCP claim is from a wiki page, not a current primary infrastructure disclosure.
- ?
Whether Mozilla operates a GDPR Article 27 EU representative or an EU legal subsidiary acting as data controller for EU users.
Would affect legal enforceability/EU reachability and could modestly raise the legal score.
- ?
Current global headcount and the EU share of the workforce (latest public figure is ~750 from 2020).
Affects operations score and the 'distributed vs US-centered' characterization.
- ?
Post-September-2025 antitrust-remedy terms of the renewed Google deal and its expiry date.
Material to ownership/financial-independence assessment given ~86% revenue concentration.
EU Cloud Sovereignty Framework lens
SEAL was designed to evaluate cloud service providers; applying it to a browser maker is an analogous mapping for context, not a certification.
Strategic
US-incorporated and ~86% financially dependent on Google; mission is independent but money and jurisdiction are not EU.
Legal & jurisdictional
Both entities are US (California); Mozilla states servers and org are US-based. EU reach only via SCCs and extraterritorial GDPR.
Data & AI
Strong privacy-by-design: much data stays on-device and Sync is end-to-end encrypted, but server-side data sits in US clouds with no EU residency guarantee.
Operational
HQ San Francisco, US CEO, USD reporting; real but secondary EU offices in Berlin and Paris.
Supply chain
Core revenue and search infrastructure depend on Google; cloud on AWS/GCP — US-vendor heavy.
Technological
Open-source code under MPL; Gecko is one of only three independent browser engines, fully auditable and self-buildable.
Security & compliance
Mature security operations, transparency reports, GDPR mechanisms (SCCs, DPO contact); but US legal exposure (CLOUD Act) remains.
Environmental sustainability
No browser-specific EU-relevant sustainability data verified in this pass.
EU alternatives
Built by Swedish (EU) Mullvad with the Tor Project; strong privacy and EU-based vendor, but it is a hardened fork of Mozilla's Firefox, so the underlying engine and upstream remain Mozilla/US.
Headquartered and incorporated in Norway (EEA, not EU member); privacy-focused and EU-region data hosting (Iceland), but built on Chromium (Google-led engine).
Berlin-based EU company with strong mission credentials; its browser is Chromium-based and historically relied on Bing/Google for search results.
How the method works
Methodology v2 (provisional): the score is the midpoint of two axes — Control (who owns and governs the company) and Data (where your data lives and who can reach it). Each axis is scored only on verified evidence; unknowns reduce confidence, never the score. Every input below is sourced; the weights and judgments are open to challenge.
Spotted an error? Every claim is sourced — challenge it and we correct the record.
- 2026-06-12 — Initial golden profile, authored from primary sources (human + AI review).
Report Incorrect Data
Found an error in this company's profile? Help us improve our data by submitting a correction.
Verified 2026-06-12 · Human + AI joint review (sources independently checked) · Methodology