Slashdot Mirror
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.
How do I disable this popup?
But they can keep their overpriced VPN ads to themselves.
Also, ProtonVPN charges their customers $8/month, so the summary is wrong.
That supposedly kept no logs? https://www.zdnet.com/article/hacker-uses-protonmail-vpn-hacker-ddoses-protonmail-hacker-gets-arrested/
finding new ways to make the community dislike them more..
Well, in fact, it's just no trust for Mozilla.
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 ?
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.
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
I don't care if Mozilla, the company, offered a VPN service.
I don't want shopping code in the browser.
And Mozilla, every time I open Firefox please popup a big annoying message to buy your VPN and subscribe to your fucking newsletter.
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.
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
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.
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
You trust a Chinese-owned browser to provide you with a free "VPN"? Are you serious?
#DeleteFacebook
Isn't this a little bit similar to the case about Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows?
#DeleteFacebook
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.
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.
It's the latest buzzword to fool the rubes.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
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.
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
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!
I'd rather the Chinese collect my browsing habits than Uncle Sam.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Uninstalled.
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.
You can get a perfectly serviceable VPN attached to the Opera browser for free. Why would I pay Mozilla for this one?
So is Mozilla now an adware driven business? What has the world come to.
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.
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.
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?
I'd rather the Chinese collect my browsing habits than Uncle Sam.
Said no one from Falun Gong ever.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
I'm just trying not to be a moran. Please forgive me.
I also thought there would be more debate about this topic.
#DeleteFacebook
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.
Exactly. And the Falun Gong trust the Uncle Sam more than the Chinese government.
Click the gear in the upper right corner of that page. Unselect anything you don't want to appear. Viola! Disabled.
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.
Eh, that's pretty far-fetched. I'm not buying it.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
And governments and companies spying on regular people and logging everything we do was pretty far-fetched hollywood fantasy only two decades ago.
#DeleteFacebook