If you are using the default Mozilla Firefox Start Page which may have the Google logo show to the left of the Search container, you're "good" until you use the Google search engine. All the content on the default start page is either on your PC or is supplied from Mozilla.

If you are using something like https://www.google.com/ for your start page - stop doing that! See - How to set the homepage

thanks for the answer... but it raises another question... i want fox news as my home page. i copied the foxnews url to the home page like you instructed me to do so. however, when i select google in the search engine (just left of the icons that include home page, options, printer, etc... it sends me to google home page which i want it to send me to the google home page that has the fox on the earth.. so i can use google and not worry about them selling my search information to others... any advice?

Google is Google, whichever web page their search engine is sitting on.