At Mozilla VPN stands for Vague Product News: Foundation reveals security product will launch eventually, with temporary pricing, in unspecified places

The Mozilla Foundation has announced it will soon launch its VPN. The organisation’s announcement is rather vague, as it says the product will debut “in the next few weeks” and protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month. But that price will be offered “for a limited time” without word of when it will change or what it will …

[Jad]

This all comes down to trust ...

If you want a VPN, you need to trust someone, or you need to have your own VPN that you control ...

If you're willing to trust Mozilla, then this is probably as good as any, but it all comes down to how much you trust them now, and also how much you will trust them in the possible future ...

For me, if I'm on a private network that I control I will not use their VPN, if I'm on any other network I'll VPN to my private network ...

[Circadian]

Re: This all comes down to trust ...

@jad

Guess that means you trust your ISP as all your traffic would be seen by them. There are tales of less scrupulous providers (I recall from the USA where they were selling advertising options based on customer traffic at one point) where use of a VPN is to try to protect yourself from your own ISP.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: This all comes down to trust ...

As far as trust, I have been satisfied with Firefox so far and all their private and security efforts have increased my trust. The VPN itself is run by Swedish provider Mullvad which commits to not keeping logs or sniffing data and allows you to choose a server from a list of different server locations.

As far as the future, who knows? But I see no signs of lock in from Firefox, Mozilla, or Mullvad.

[IGotOut]

In the meantime...

You can always sign up to ProtonVPN.

Probably more secure than the Mozilla one.

Still good to see them enter the field.

[Rustbucket]

Re: In the meantime...

Mullvad has an excellent reputation but is relatively expensive compared to some other good VPNs. It'll be interesting to see how much the price rises after the introductory period is finished.

[Dan 55]

I would have thought they'd have stuck with Firefox

Firefox is back to the place where its name needs publicity again and I guess more people vaguely recognise Firefox than Mozilla.

[Robert Grant]

Increasingly, Mozilla feels like two organisations

A highly competent engineering organisation and a much more woolly brand management consultancy. And increasingly, we're only hearing from the latter.

[Anonymous Coward]

protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month

why would I spend 5 usd per month to a service provider I don't trust? Sure, they're not on level with old hats / usual suspects in privacy violators, i.e. google, fb, ms, amazon, etc.., not YET, but they're salivating to join the club. Only that now, everybody knows to sprinkle their medicine with the usual bullshit like that they consider the privacy of their customers their top priority, and value their privacy above anything else, that the privacy of their customers is the cornerstone of their service. And, that they will never, ever, never-ever, EVER breach their customers' trust. They all say that before they break these empty promises, and repeat them after. Why pay for bullshit? At least, with "free" vpn-like (ok proxy) from the Chinese behind the opera browser, I know (or think I do) what I get for "free" i..e. where this data goes. Or, at least, I can be reasonably sure it will not go west, which is probably good enough. Until they get exposed to sell, on the side, your "private" data to US government. Stranger things have happened, I'm sure ;)

btw, for a fiver a month there's at least one vpn service I can trust, to much higher degree. And no, it's not the privacy-joke of nordvpn (which, on top of their "alternative approach to due diligence", have also been exposed, by their own sloppiness over publicly shared information, to be a product, possibly a by-product of a Lithuanian mothership (forgot the name of that businss). Which, actually, might also be a decoy for a different entity (conspiracy theorists and practicians ahoy!)

...

all that said - it doesn't matter. There WILL be plenty of idiots, possibly millions, who

a) have heard there's something going on with "privacy" and in the same breath, a mysterious, silver bullet word "vpn" appears, and

b) there's this Mozilla, cuddly, furry, definitely friendly muppet-like pal of yours, and they offer "reliable & trustworthy" vpn service and

c) click HERE to enter your card details and HERE to activate perpetual service / license.

DONE!

done, indeed.

[IGotOut]

Re: protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month

What?

[ThatOne]

Re: protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month

> I can be reasonably sure it will not go west

Nonsense. Collecting data isn't just for bragging purposes, and obviously they will sell it to those who are interested in your data - actors in your country (including government agencies, the champions of the "the end justifies the means" logic).

Or did you think they were too dumb or too foreign to be able to sell their loot internationally?...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month

if they're Chinese, and (if) related to their government, perhaps they'll be quite selective about whom, in the west, they sell this data.

[ThatOne]

Re: protect up to five devices for $4.99 a month

> perhaps they'll be quite selective about whom, in the west, they sell this data

Chinese are big free market supporters, they sell whatever is salable to anybody who is willing to pay for it. While they won't shoot themselves in the foot (selling their own secrets), there is no possible reason why they shouldn't sell your information to anybody who is willing to pay for it.

In short, on the contrary, the fact you're a far-away foreigner removes any potential qualms about selling your information to world & dog.

[big_D]

WireGuard

Well, at least it is an up-to-date, standards based offering.

[Gene Cash]

So does this mean there are Firefox Un-Protected Areas? (FUPAs)

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they're know as Firefox Un-Known Un-Protected Sites.