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Mozilla Is Reportedly Going To Sell VPN Subscriptions Within Firefox (trustedreviews.com)

Mozilla is reportedly preparing to offer a VPN service for Firefox users to help protect them when surfing the web. According to Trusted Reviews, Mozilla has partnered with the ProtonVPN service, "with a new notification piping-up when the browser detects an unsecured connection, or in a scenario when VPN might be preferable to users." From the report: However, it appears Firefox users will have to pay for the privilege. Austrian site Soeren-hentzschel reports the premium VPN service will be $10 a month, which is what ProtonVPN charges its users. Users will receive a "Firefox Recommends" pop-up when browsing an unsecured wireless network. The pop-up says the VPN service will provide a "private and secure' internet connection. According to the reports, a subset of Firefox 62 users in the United States will begin receiving the pop-up from today. Mozilla will reportedly get a cut of any subscription fee handed over by users to access the VPN service. MSPowerUser points out that this will be the first advertised service that costs money for Firefox users.

112 comments

  1. My about:config edit list is about to grow again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    How do I disable this popup?

  2. Ads from the browser itself. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where do I get the adblock for this shit? j/k, who tf uses firefox.

  3. At least it's not a TV show this time by mukinrestak · · Score: 4, Informative

    But they can keep their overpriced VPN ads to themselves.

    Also, ProtonVPN charges their customers $8/month, so the summary is wrong.

    1. Re: At least it's not a TV show this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      According to their chat person, it was 10 bucks per month until very recently. They are Switzerland based, btw.

      I donâ(TM)t mind firefox offering this... it will help the masses have more choices.

    2. Re:At least it's not a TV show this time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can get it much cheaper than that with a bundled discount.
      t. ProtonVPN user

    3. Re:At least it's not a TV show this time by pavon · · Score: 1

      ProtonVPN is $8/month for a yearly subscription, but $10/month month-to-month. Mozilla referred customers get the same pricing.

  4. lets shove more spam in the browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seriously, can the Mozilla people stop fucking up the browser by filling it full of shit that has very little to do with you know, web browsing.

    Seriously, what browsers are left that aren't full of some stupid crap, some political vendetta against third parties, or some such nonsense. My web browser is supposed to have exactly one function, render webpages...

    I'm so sick of this crap.

    1. Re:lets shove more spam in the browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is always Dillo, if you don't care abut that javascript crap. Support for cookies is kind of optional too - no need for adblock as the infrastructure needed for tracking isn't implemented.

    2. Re:lets shove more spam in the browser by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0

      Seriously, what browsers are left that aren't full of some stupid crap, some political vendetta against third parties, or some such nonsense. My web browser is supposed to have exactly one function, render webpages...

      There's Safari, but it requires macOS.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:lets shove more spam in the browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      if you don't care abut that javascript crap

      Sadly there are many websites that simply don't work without javascript. Some of which I actually need to use for work reasons. In a perfect world, you wouldn't need javascript, but that time has passed.

  5. This Proton VPN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    That supposedly kept no logs? https://www.zdnet.com/article/hacker-uses-protonmail-vpn-hacker-ddoses-protonmail-hacker-gets-arrested/

    1. Re:This Proton VPN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Someone committed a crime and they got caught. *yawn* Ok

    2. Re:This Proton VPN? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      From your article: "[ProtonMail]-- confirmed that information they provided to authorities following attacks on their sites led to Duke-Cohan's arrest."

      Tease a lion -- you may get bitten...

  6. about:config - NoFuckingAds=true; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IAmUsingAnAdblockerYouTonedeafTwirps=true

  7. Most don't need a VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If your a home user you probably don't need a VPN and if your using your PC at work then you probably can't use it, and unless your a traveler where this might be somewhat useful. This just sounds like a plan by Mozilla to scare Firefox users into paying for something they don't need.

    1. Re: Most don't need a VPN by CastrTroy · · Score: 4, Informative

      In the summary it says it will show up if it detects you connecting to insecure wireless networks. So you won't even see the ad on your home or work machines. Mostly just laptops if you take them to to the local coffee shop.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:Most don't need a VPN by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      It's the latest buzzword to fool the rubes.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    3. Re: Most don't need a VPN by ArchieBunker · · Score: 1

      Good to know my web browser is analyzing my connection for security... Next up a scan of all local executables to be sent off for analysis. Firefox does want to be Chrome Junior.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    4. Re: Most don't need a VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because you'd prefer your browser to accept fake and forged certs? The only way to flag such things is to analyze the connection.

    5. Re: Most don't need a VPN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most don't need until one day you need one! I am traveling around the world 365 days a year and thank the lord I have my trusted VPN connection. If you leave the borders of your country and have the pleasure to work in countries where surveillance and censoring is the standard, you will understand the importance. As humanitarian worker I had the opportunity to work long periods in countries like Pakistan, Aghanistan, Chad, Lybia, etc... and all are impacted by serious surveillance and censoring. Before you start to blame the countries, most of the time the countries co-operate with foreign countries to have their surveillance set. Intelligence agencies like Pakistan's ISI are basically trained by the USA, one of these countries praising their freedom of whatever. So yes, offering VPN trusted service like Swiss based proton will help the non tech internet users protecting and circumventing these nasty practices.

  8. Mr. Robot by fph+il+quozientatore · · Score: 0

    Technically, they also had ads for Mr. Robot, which is a "paid service".

    --
    My first program:

    Hell Segmentation fault

  9. There are no longer any web browsers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't link me to some one-guy-in-a-basement fork of the big ones. They are all a bad joke.

    1. Re:There are no longer any web browsers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are plenty of them, just have a look outside your cave...

  10. Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Opera's had free VPN service built in for over a year now..

    1. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I don't care if Mozilla, the company, offered a VPN service.

      I don't want shopping code in the browser.

    2. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by Gavagai80 · · Score: 1

      In the olden days, Opera was charging for their browser while Mozilla was giving one away free. Now Mozilla charges for what Opera gives away.

      --
      This space intentionally left blank
    3. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You trust a Chinese-owned browser to provide you with a free "VPN"? Are you serious?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Except for the fact you get this stupid "News Feed" that brings you every clickbaty article on boot up that you cannot disable.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    5. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by ArchieBunker · · Score: 2

      I'd rather the Chinese collect my browsing habits than Uncle Sam.

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    6. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'd rather the Chinese collect my browsing habits than Uncle Sam.

      Said no one from Falun Gong ever.

    7. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by gnick · · Score: 1

      I'd rather the Chinese collect my browsing habits than Uncle Sam.

      If the only benefit of not choosing "neither" is that you get the privilege of running Opera, then I'd pick neither. Running Opera is just volunteering all your bases to China with no payoff.

      Also, just because you're gifting your data to China doesn't mean Uncle Sam isn't watching too. Use a reputable VPN and something other than Opera.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    8. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      What could the Chinese possibly do to me? I'm serious. Let's say they know everything I ever do online. How could they possibly harm me?

      On the other hand the US government is far more frightening and well able to do me harm.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    9. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Let's say the Chinese government logs everything. Then it's only a matter of time before the U.S. government gets their hands on that data. Either via espionage, cooperation between the two governments, security weaknesses, leaks, etc.

      If the data is logged, it will be found one day or another.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    10. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by thegarbz · · Score: 0

      You trust a Chinese-owned browser to provide you with a free "VPN"? Are you serious?

      That depends entirely on who it is you fear. Most Americans have far more to worry about in their own government than the Chinese one.

    11. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by burningcpu · · Score: 1

      Exactly. And the Falun Gong trust the Uncle Sam more than the Chinese government.

    12. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by chefmonkey · · Score: 2

      Click the gear in the upper right corner of that page. Unselect anything you don't want to appear. Viola! Disabled.

    13. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Eh, that's pretty far-fetched. I'm not buying it.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    14. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What would be the difference since both have the same info already?

    15. Re:Why charge for something thats free with Opera? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      And governments and companies spying on regular people and logging everything we do was pretty far-fetched hollywood fantasy only two decades ago.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  11. Exactly: how to disable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We're in dire need of an alternative to Mozilla.

    1. Re:Exactly: how to disable? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Vivaldi. It's currently the best browser (by far) out there. Give it a try.

  12. Firefox is exceedingly good at by CptLoRes · · Score: 1

    finding new ways to make the community dislike them more..

  13. No trust for Mozilla as a service provider by temcat · · Score: 1

    Well, in fact, it's just no trust for Mozilla.

  14. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

    Uninstall Firefox, move to something better.

    Pale Moon is okay but lagging in development. It's got the old performance issues that Firefox used to have. Chromium maybe, at least it's open source although building it yourself is hard work.

    --
    const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
    SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  15. Use Opera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Opera private browsing automatically uses a VPN, and traffic from the output is anonymized. Of course, all VPN collect your IP at the VPN so don't be stupid.

  16. imaginary secrets society disbands into unsanity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    it's not over yet? remaining members are joining with the megaslothian bandwidth bandits investigations... mining btc was one of the allegations put forward in regards to the massive bandwidth heists.. + substituting product placement for news of actual events.. wheww?

  17. Protect me ? by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

    From what getting full speed out of my ISP ?

    When TOR isn't enough you really think someone's for profit VPN service will be ?

    1. Re:Protect me ? by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I have tried these VPN Services. Their biggest problem is they really don't make you much safer, just more inconvenient.
      Sure my IP Address/Geolocation is messed up (so half of my google searches are in German). But other then having targeted adds often for your local small businesses. If you follow safe browsing methods, having your IP Address and your location normally isn't a problem. IPv4 addresses are not that reliable way of tracking things, down. They can be spoofed, and also may be under many layers of NAT, plus for you normal home account you have an DHCP connection so your IP Address changes (in theory).
      However normally the real damage is the the browser says in its headers. HEY LOOK AT ME! THIS IS MY BROWSER, HERE ARE SOME IDENTIFIERS AND COOKIES being that most sites like to use sessions the session information is a better tracker then what a VPN can do.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:Protect me ? by gnick · · Score: 1

      Their biggest problem is they really don't make you much safer, just more inconvenient.

      If you're pirating, they make you much safer.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Protect me ? by Crashmarik · · Score: 1

      Their biggest problem is they really don't make you much safer, just more inconvenient.

      If you're pirating, they make you much safer.

      Yeah need to tell that to actual VPN operators

      Our VPN service and VPN services in general are not designed to be used to commit illegal activity. It is very naive to think that by paying a subscription fee to a VPN service you are free to break the law without any consequences. This includes certain hardcore privacy services which claim you will never be identified, these types of services that do not cooperate are more likely to have their entire VPN network monitored and tapped by law enforcement, thus affecting all legitimate customers.

      https://blog.hidemyass.com/en/...

    4. Re:Protect me ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And if you buy a gun, they'll tell you not to murder anyone with it. Doesn't mean it doesn't work.

  18. as long as by sad_ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    as long as they put a checkbox in that popup to 'never show this again', i'm OK with it.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:as long as by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      as long as they put a checkbox in that popup to 'never show this again', i'm OK with it.

      I'd by far prefer a "please show me offers from special partners" box which is unchecked by default, because screw having to actively tell my browser I'm not interested in each and every partnership which they think is a good idea. Seriously, there's a massive pushback on web adverts, so they're skipping the web bit and building it directly into the browser? No thank you.

    2. Re:as long as by ckatko · · Score: 1

      I wonder if people feel the same way about Microsoft's various "additions".

    3. Re:as long as by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There is one huge difference. Microsoft is driven by generating profits to secure the interests of their shareholders. Mozilla is looking for revenue streams to keep the development and infrastructure costs covered in the foreseeable futur without a goal to generate profits and to keep their product Mozilla and services like their sync free of charge for the endusers.

  19. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by phantomflanflinger · · Score: 2

    Probably not even going to happen, but if so I will also be tweaking about:config to turn it off , even though it would only appear if I browsed an unsecured wireless network, which I never do. Firefox is still the best browser overall and they have to try and earn some money somehow. Pale Moon? Really?

    --
    shin phantomflanflinger
  20. I hope I hope by AndyKron · · Score: 1

    And Mozilla, every time I open Firefox please popup a big annoying message to buy your VPN and subscribe to your fucking newsletter.

  21. English Translation Please ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can anyone translate:

    "pop-up when browsing an unsecured wireless network" into English?

    Because this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. How the hell would a web browser client program know that the destination URL is served by a server that is connected to the internet by an unsecured (whatever that means) wireless network?

    Furthermore, of what possible use would a CLIENT POXY be in that instance?

    1. Re: English Translation Please ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Translation: "Give us your money so you can feel safe again."

  22. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's OK, this feature wasn't for you anyway.

  23. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Seamonkey?

  24. What for? by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 2

    Why would people use VPN with a web browser which is leaking tons of information and makes your fingerprint totally unique even if you're browsing in incognito mode? Changing your IP address in this case is simply futile and inconsequential.

    Maybe for Netflix/Hulu? But they've long implemented technical measures which makes using them via VPN impossible. I can only think of pr0n/shady websites you don't want your ISP to know about but that's less than 0.1% of people in the world. And those will most likely use Tor browser with VPN.

    1. Re:What for? by Zocalo · · Score: 1

      It's really not about the users. It's about cold hard cash flowing from ProtonVPN to the Mozilla Foundation in return for the advertisement and any click throughs it might generate. Ultimately, Mozilla's business model requires they have cashflow to operate, so they need to use partnerships like this or having a search engine paying to be the default for the browser to generate enough of it, albeit with a choice of partnership that is somewhat questionable due to the number of users that will have no interest in the VPN but still have to deal with the notification popups. It's also kinda redundant long term, assuming that Project Fusion's efforts to integrate more functionality from TorBrowser directly into the Privacy Mode code come to fruition.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    2. Re:What for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why do you assume the a ProtonVPN will be intrusive? If it's done via the normal snippets I dont see any issue honestly. Many people as well complaining about pocket but you can fully disable it? Aren't we just complaining to complain each time? Seems to become the standard of our generation.

  25. Endless Cycle by TAz00 · · Score: 1

    Users: 'Oh this new chrome thing looks sharp' *users migrate to chrome* Mozilla: 'shit shit shit, people like the new X, quick transform into new X aswell' Users: 'hmm I no longer like new X and want to go back to old X' Mozilla: 'no way josé' Users: gg

  26. Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Isn't this a little bit similar to the case about Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  27. Will there be a way this triggers *my* VPN? by Herve5 · · Score: 2

    My small and collaborative ISP offers a VPN to its subscribers, that I have to activate and deactivate by hand.
    It would be very nice if Mozilla's detection mechanism allowed autoconnecting through *my* VPN, not just the recommended one... (Even if the recommended is preset by default, which would allow some revenue to Moz...)

    --
    Herve S.
    1. Re:Will there be a way this triggers *my* VPN? by sveinki · · Score: 1

      Seems like it does: https://protonvpn.com/support/... This page is already up: https://support.mozilla.org/en...

  28. Re:Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, not at all. Mozilla doesn't hold a monopoly in anything, which was the premise of that case.

  29. Another Monthly fee. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    I am sick of all these monthly fees. And turning Goods (like software) into services.
    Let me pay $2000 for Creative Suite, and I can have the software on my system for as long as I wan't vs charging me $70+ per month.
    Sure the monthly fee is cheaper if I wanted to keep up to date. However I may not need all the features they are currently offering, and the new features I don't need anyways. For that $2000 I could use the software for 8 years before upgrading (Making it worth $20 a month for me).

    There is pride of ownership, not pride monthly service.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Another Monthly fee. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You'd be stupid to truse a free VPN for anything, same for a free proxy service.You are paying for them to not keep records and to maintain high bandwidth servers to route you through in dozens of countries around the world.

  30. Re:Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit by Zocalo · · Score: 1

    No, because they're not abusing a position of dominance in the market to gain an unfair advantage over their competitors. Same reason why Apple didn't get into legal hot water for doing exactly the same thing as Microsoft at the same time (IIRC they had about 5-10% of the desktop market share at the time); not being a near monopoly gives you a lot more latitude in what you are able to do or, conversely, why Google is being pressured into allowing Android device makers to optionally unbundle Google's own apps, even if it is for a fee, because they currently have about 75% of the mobile device OS market.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  31. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How do I disable this popup?

    I don't know, but in the screenshot in the article the popup seems - it's a bit hard to read - to have a "Don't tell me about this again" checkbox. If I ever see the popup, that's what I'll try.

  32. So Firefox is an ad for VPN now huh? by digitaljc · · Score: 1

    Uninstalled.

  33. You get what you pay for? by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah there are a lot of free FPNs out there so $8 a month seems outrageous. Thos people offering the free ones must be losing a lot of money if it really costs $8 a month. I wonder how they can afford it.

    When you consider WHY you even want a VPN, then paying for it can seem like a good idea.

      But if you actually are trying to protect yourself from various attacks, people scavenging your browsing patterns, targeted ads linked to your IP, hinkey wifi eavesdropping, certain types of man-in-the-middle attacks or people snooping your messages then a trustworthy VPN seems like a good idea

    But how do you know which one is trustworthy. You might guess from the price. But an endorsement from firefox, and a well known name like proton is probably the best you can do yourself to find a good one.

      If all you are trying to do is violate your employers security firewall blocking you from shopping online during work then a free VPN is a great deal.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:You get what you pay for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those offering free VPN services is the same as those offering free proxies.
      The way VPN is used nowadays is basically what proxies already did for a long time, although the tunnel to the server is not encrypted, but I think personally that's the least of your issues when using either VPN or proxies.
      You basically commit yourself freely to a MITM. All the traffic goes through a third party server, and they can see all of the traffic (if they have ill intend, takes some work in some cases).
      I personally think that the majority of free offerings will have some malicious intend. I would keep far away from those.
      And paying for a MITM is maybe a little better, but I'd rather have no MITM to be honest. Some further reading;
      https://gist.github.com/joepie91/5a9909939e6ce7d09e29

    2. Re:You get what you pay for? by dnaumov · · Score: 2

      You have ZERO reason to trust a free VPN service, because it means you are the product.

    3. Re:You get what you pay for? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      for that 'price', you might as well just use opera and its built-in, and 'free', vpn, and give all your data to the chinese government (among other entities)..

  34. How? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How does Firefox 'detect' you are on an unsecured wifi? I guess its now poking around in new system locations where a traditional browser should not be poking its nose....

  35. Opera does this free! by biggaijin · · Score: 1

    You can get a perfectly serviceable VPN attached to the Opera browser for free. Why would I pay Mozilla for this one?

    1. Re:Opera does this free! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not a VPN, it's just a proxy. And if you just want to use a free (or very cheap) VPNs, there are tons of them out there that integrate pretty well with many browsers, so why bother with Opera and its mere proxy?

    2. Re:Opera does this free! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I came here to say this, I switched to Opera because of the free VPN, it also seems to include a good degree of ad-block, out of the box (so to speak).

  36. Re:Proton Suddenly Less Appealing by HarrySquatter · · Score: 0

    It's not like mommy was gonna let you use her credit csrd to buy this anyway so it's no big loss to anyone.

  37. Run your own VPN for less by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I know Slashdot has a pretty low opinion of cloud services, but with AWS and a little automation you can have your own OpenVPN setup for as little as $3.50 / month.

    https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/run-your-own-vpn-less-than-5-month-andy-rosen

    1. Re:Run your own VPN for less by ledow · · Score: 1

      Same price you could just rent a VPS or even a really cheap dedi (I have a dedicated server for 10GBP a month - about $12) and do the same.

      What makes you think you need cloud for that? Or Amazon being the "trusted endpoint" of all your computing?

      Either way, I don't care about the VPN service. I care that they can't make money making a browser (what happened to all the money from Google to be the default engine?), so they try to monetise users with vaguely-related services instead.

      I've never liked Firefox, not because of the browser (it's not the best but it's serviceable) but the culture behind it. I just want something that browses the web and doesn't get in my way, and there's not really much left that does that. From forcibly becoming the default browser, to being unextendable, to being full of pay-for bolt-ons, I just want a browser that's a browser.

  38. Adware by guacamole · · Score: 1

    So is Mozilla now an adware driven business? What has the world come to.

    1. Re:Adware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So is Mozilla now an adware driven business? What has the world come to.

      Better than Google's approach as spyware...

    2. Re:Adware by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And slightly less evil than Windows 10 approach as malware..

  39. oh the irony by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 1

    Mozilla, which has kicked out its co-founder for personal political activities which some disagree with, is looking to instill people with privacy. I guess they know better than most that you can't trust people to behave responsibly when others do things they disagree with.

  40. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    Probably not even going to happen, but if so I will also be tweaking about:config to turn it off , even though it would only appear if I browsed an unsecured wireless network, which I never do. Firefox is still the best browser overall and they have to try and earn some money somehow. Pale Moon? Really?

    What's wrong with Pale Moon?

  41. Re: My about:config edit list is about to grow aga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The dev is a bit of a douche. It's why it isn't part of OpenBSD.

  42. DO NOT USE FREE VPNs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You __must__ be able to trust your VPN provider. They are like your ISP, but are not governed by the laws that keep ISPs from doing shady things. It can be very bad, as well. HolaVPN, for example, was caught re-selling subscriber bandwidth.

    A good list of trustworthy VPNs is available here:

    https://restoreprivacy.com/best-vpn/

  43. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah mine too. I already have a bunch of shit turned off, and a patch I use to stop videos from autoplaying just because they don't have sound.
    I'll find a way to compile this out too if I can't just disable it.

  44. Extensions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dammit Mozilla, use them and stop building shit I don't care about into the fucking browser.

  45. Re:Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Isn't this a little bit similar to the case about Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows?

    No, not even close and you have to be completely retarded to even try and compare the two situations.

  46. It all depends on what the defintion of "sell" is. by ponraul · · Score: 1

    I could see it actually be a net benefit if the Ad was a simple button in the configuration settings or privacy settings called "Get Private VPN" that loaded their partner page. That would be useful: A lot of people may have heard about what a VPN is but don't know exactly how to get it or set it up and if they have that menu opened up they can probably follow instructions to use it.

    However, with Mozilla's track record, it will be some popup on the address bar that will show up every time you visit an unencrypted http site or one with a weak cypher or cert problem or financial site.

    In summary, use Palemoon.

  47. Sure, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been shopping for a decent -honest- VPN. I've found a couple that I like, and they're cheaper than $10/month. I'd also consider Mozilla's VPN, but NOT for ten bucks. I might pay 5, 4v4n 6, but no more. If they're partnering with Proton, thus giving Proton a lot of potential new users, Proton needs to relax their price. I'm not inclined to pay $10 for the same service I can get from other reliable, honest VPN services for half that.
          Sorry, Moe Zilla, I support you, been a user since the first Netscrape. But.

  48. Let the scams begin !!! by ripvlan · · Score: 1

    While I'm all for Mozilla trying to make money to stay afloat, I think this feature will lead to scam opportunities.

    I can see it now - other "looks like" VPN services will offer fake popups tricking people to switch. "Firefox recommends VPN for Ru" with a Scooby snack on it.

    It'll probably be a notification subscription scam.

  49. Re:Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    I'm just trying not to be a moran. Please forgive me.

    I also thought there would be more debate about this topic.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  50. VPN? by seven+of+five · · Score: 1

    The whole VPN thing has grown out of a mistrust in gov't and ISPs. But are the VPNs trustworthy? That's the big assumption.

  51. No need for this! use a TOR browser by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is the public really that foolish ? use a TOR browser. No need to pay for a subscription.

  52. Re:Are Mozilla setting themselves up for a lawsuit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    There is no try...

  53. Fork you, Mozilla. by Hallux-F-Sinister · · Score: 1

    Time to start shopping around for either a fork of Firefox... "FireFORK?" or some other alternative browser.

    Any thoughts, slashdot, on the best version of Firefox that works well, is properly maintained, and isn't out to screw the user out of their money with a supposedly FL/OSS web browser product?

    --
    Our reign has gone on long enough. Indeed. Summon the meteors.
  54. Re:My about:config edit list is about to grow agai by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    buggy, insecure, unstable, sounds like chrome.

  55. Re: My about:config edit list is about to grow aga by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux is a douche, is that why he's not part of Linux now?