Hold up, ace. Before you strap into Firefox's latest Test Pilot, ask yourself...

You just can't keep a good idea down. At least that's what Mozilla will be hoping as it resurrects its Firefox Test Pilot programme once again. If you're keeping score at home, this marks the third time Test Pilot has been launched. First it was an add-on for the Firefox browser, then it became the name of a larger testing …

[Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse]

Re : How much do I trust Mozilla with my data?

In a world where I don't trust anyone with my data and metadata, the answer to the question above is that I trust them a lot more than I do Microsoft, Google, Opera and Facebook etc. They are all in the same overarching category of data slurpers, but MZ have a history of trying to do the right thing, and the Firefox browser itself is the only established one where I have access an established catalogue of tools and add-ons that I can install and configure to help me prevent my data being raped by everyone else.

[Pascal Monett]

Although I generally agree with your post, one thing caught my eye :

"[Mozilla] will not sell, license, sublicense, or grant any rights to your [data]... without Mozilla's explicit written permission"

They're not saying they won't sell my data without my written permission, they're saying they won't sell my data without their written permission.

That may be a misinterpretation on my part, but that's how I read it.

[Anonymous Coward]

In the modern world the only trust you can get is to find yourself the deepest and darkest cave on Earth, line it with a foot of lead and stay there.

Eyes and ears everywhere these days.

[STOP_FORTH]

Neutrinos laugh at your foot of lead.

[Anonymous Coward]

>Neutrinos laugh at your foot of lead.

I can rest easy, good luck trying to get them to interact and detect that interaction.

[Paul Kinsler]

I can rest easy, good luck trying to get [neutrinos] to interact and

One can detect neutrinos with just a simple ice cube [1] ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory

.

[1] But I didn't claim it was a *small* ice cube :-)

[Michael Maxwell]

Neutrinos would laugh at you, too. Except they can't see you.

[ratfox]

"Do I feel lucky"

Well, do you, punk?

[0laf]

I think the question is really "Are you safer with this than without it?".

But even more specifically "Are you sometimes safer to use this?"

It might be that in some circumstances "new coffee shop with unknown wifi" you will be much safer with this even if Cloudflare is mining you for 24hr.

But then you'd be safer overall if you didn't use unknown wifi and wait till you get home to do anything that involves shopping or banking.

[Anonymous Coward]

As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

Until we have self-sustained communities of code monks, developers and all the functions around them need to be paid. And if users don't pay, someone else evidently does it. And very rarely just out of good will....

[MacroRodent]

Re: As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

Code monks... I like that idea. Good development practices would be articles of faith, and bugs are punished by flagellation of the errant brother in the courtyard of the monastery. Days start at 5AM with a code review, and meals are taken in silence, except for the brother in the pulpit reciting the Linux source code (current kernel.org HEAD revision).

(OK, looks like it is soon time go home for the weekend.)

[gv]

Re: As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

I'm not sure I'd trust a coder who was up at 5 AM...

[FrogsAndChips]

Re: As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

Well, obviously he would be in bed at 6PM.

Trappist beer, because Friday ->

[storner]

Re: As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

Why not? He only woke up at 11PM

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: As usual, with open source applications, you should ask yourself "where do the money come from?"

"I'm not sure I'd trust a coder who was up at 5 AM..."

I wouldn't trust one that wasn't. Oh the sunrises I've seen.

[mark l 2]

It been well established that even those paid VPN providers that promise no logging, do still keep some records such as what IP address you connect to the VPN from, and will give up that info should law enforcement agencies have a warrant.

[Ben Tasker]

As well as that, occasionally, they're outright lying and log a shitload. It being rather hard to verify for certain that your provider isn't logging.

So, someone who's upfront about the logging they do might be a safer bet - you do have to trust they're being honest about it, but at some point you've got to trust someone

[Rustbucket]

Apparently some of the VPNs can be trusted to hold no logs such as Private Internet Access:

https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-providers-no-logging-claims-tested-in-fbi-case-160312/

and some such as PureVPN cannot:

https://thehackernews.com/2017/10/no-logs-vpn-service-security_8.html

[Anonymous Coward]

products and services outside

searching for guinea pigs to test how to make money off them. Given the current climate, when people who want to go on holiday, set up a fundraising scheme and get funded... yeah, it's going to work, plenty of idiots around.

[stvjns]

Has there been a behind-the-scenes takeover?

"It seems like Mozilla's intentions are good". Really? I dont know. When I see Mozilla publishing article after article on their blogs about how great 5G will be without any mention of the controversy about the enormous surveillance and health effects, I really have to wonder. As the other post-er said, "you got to wonder who finances them". Some good guys are transformed into bad guys behind the curtain, and we, the users, are none the wiser. Everybody knows that Mozilla is the good guys. Thats the perfect target for a behind-the-scenes takeover.

[Carpet Deal 'em]

Re: Has there been a behind-the-scenes takeover?

When I see Mozilla publishing article after article on their blogs about how great 5G will be without any mention of the controversy about the enormous surveillance and health effects, I really have to wonder.

It could just as easily be blind technophilia. Such people are well known to pshaw just about every concern about whatever they're currently obsessed with as the fantastic complaints of luddites right up until(or even well after) it bites them in the ass. Sure, there's every possibility they're right, but the straight-up refusal to do even a basic health study(such as locking Ajit Pai up for a couple of weeks with a few full-powered microcells) is rather... interesting.

[hoola]

VPN?

Maybe I have missed something really basic here. My understanding of a VPN is that it provides a secured connection between two known points. Depending on the configuration various levels of access and functionality are available but the key thing is that the client and server represent the start and finish of the encrypted connection. Once at the destination you are effectively on that network.

Skip forwards to all these Internet VPN offerings that are alleged to secure your browsing, protecting your passwords and bank details. The remote end (the organisation offering the VPN) has servers on the Internet and these are where you data is now spewed out. From that point onward to the website you are visiting there is no advantage. All the VPN does is change your point of presence in the Internet and give the users a misconceived warm fuzzy feeling that they are safe.

The use of a VPN to avoid content filtering, proxies or censorship when accessing the Internet it a different thing entirely