According to TheRegister.com, Mozilla has released Firefox 145 with significant privacy enhancements, better profile management, and PDF commenting capabilities. The update improves tracking prevention against fingerprinting and adds pop-up summaries for tab groups while making the password manager accessible from the sidebar. Firefox now includes automatic translation features that can mirror web content between left-to-right and right-to-left languages. On Windows, a new desktop launcher automatically installs Firefox if synced to machines without it. However, the release also integrates Perplexity’s “AI-powered answer engine” directly into the address bar, continuing Mozilla’s controversial push into AI features that many privacy advocates question.
Finally, Real PDF Collaboration
Here’s something actually useful: Firefox 145 now lets you add and read comments in PDF files. This is huge for anyone who’s ever tried to collaborate on documents without paying for Adobe’s expensive software. Basically, it brings Word-style track changes and commenting to PDFs right in your browser. I remember when only specialized tools like Okular could handle this properly. Now it’s built into Firefox, and that’s genuinely helpful for teams working remotely or students reviewing research papers.
privacy-gets-better-but-questions-remain”>Privacy Gets Better, But Questions Remain
The privacy upgrades are solid – better fingerprinting protection and enhanced profile management show Mozilla still cares about user security. The tab group summaries and improved password manager access are nice quality-of-life improvements too. But here’s the thing: when you’re pushing privacy as a core value, does it make sense to bundle AI tools that scrape web content and send your queries to third-party servers? It feels like mixed messaging at best.
The AI Elephant in the Room
So Mozilla went ahead and integrated Perplexity into the address bar. The Register’s team immediately went to Preferences and removed it, and honestly, that’s probably what most privacy-conscious users will do. The article mentions their previous coverage has been mostly negative toward these AI tools, and I get why. When you’re using a browser specifically to avoid Google’s data collection, why would you want another company’s AI scanning your searches? At least they made it easy to disable without restarting the browser.
Platform Changes and What’s Next
The Windows desktop launcher that auto-installs Firefox is clever – it’s like they’re fighting back against Microsoft’s Edge push. But the 32-bit Linux version is gone with Firefox 144, and support ends completely in 2026. That’s progress, I guess, but it leaves older systems behind. Looking ahead, Mozilla seems torn between being the privacy champion and chasing the AI hype train. The useful features like PDF commenting and better privacy protections show they can still innovate where it matters. But the mandatory AI integrations? They feel like corporate checkbox-ticking rather than serving user needs.
