Firefox partners with ProtonVPN • Hacker News Board

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#61

Post by yarrel » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 5:43 PM UTC

mtgx wrote: post #24

gpm wrote: post #16

I only use firefox. But I don't feel like I can strongly recommend it because of the long list of bad decisions. - Google analytics baked into about:addons - Sending data to Cliqz - Pocket, as a service being added to the topbar - Pocket, as a service being added to the default home/newtab page - Firefox hello - Completely banning unsigned addons - Mr. Robot advert - And now probably this I want a browser that is rel…

> Pocket, as a service being added to the topbar > Pocket, as a service being added to the default home/newtab page Is that really worse than Mozilla allowing all of your Google searches (from the new tabs) to go through Google? At least it owns Pocket. Mozilla needs to make money somehow. Promoting its own services doesn't seem nearly as bad as the partnership with Google, in my opinion.

Pocket wasn't Mozilla's own service when they added it.

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#62

Post by spac » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

itsreallyme wrote: post #33

detaro wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apparently not, since the opening comment complains about an optional VPN offering and a service integration you can turn off.

You can already opt into Proton VPN. See, it's right here: https://protonvpn.com/ So that's the point; don't bake features into my browser that point me to one company when the whole purpose of a browser in the first place is to be able to visit web pages... like https://protonvpn.com/ . This is about only one thing: money (affiliate sales).

It's also about evangelization, I think. I bet that there is a substantial amount of users of Firefox that do not know what a VPN is, nor how to choose among the very many providers. Without entering in the merit of the choice of provider, I feel it is a good idea, that aligns with the mission of Mozilla and the need of generating income. If I remember correctly, the Mozilla foundation was mainly supported by Google money: having forms of independent income generation is both necessary for any sustainable non-profit, and desirable to maintain, indeed, independence.

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#63

Post by yarrel » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 5:46 PM UTC

If you want to see this page from outside the US, you'll need a VPN. :-)

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#64

Post by krn » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 5:55 PM UTC

protonmail wrote: post #59

krn wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone in Vilnius, Lithuania knows, that both, NordVPN and ProtonVPN, are being developed here by the people related to Tesonet, which has been recently sued in Texas Eastern District Court for the patent infringement in "Large-scale web data extraction products and services with residential proxy network ( https://oxylabs.io/ )"[1] by Luminati Networks, an Israeli data mining company behind HolaVPN[2]. The section…

You can find Proton's response to these false allegations here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn...

> false allegations

These are nothing but facts backed by sources anyone can verify by himself.

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#65

Post by brokensegue » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:04 PM UTC

woodrowbarlow wrote: post #38

when considering different VPN services based on privacy criteria, this site is helpful: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/ for example, i can see the ProtonVPN is hosted in Switzerland, and that Switzerland cooperates with Five-Eyes countries (according to Privacy International) by sharing intelligence information regarding citizens of Five-Eyes countries (including the US). this is a relatively mi…

the proton team has an office in SF negating the advantages of being overseas

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#66

Post by krisnelson » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:08 PM UTC

0-_-0 wrote: post #55

velcrovan wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First question: yes, they provide a virtual private network between you and the service endpoint. Second question: no, it's not a general-purpose VPN. It's purely for cloaking traffic to and from anywhere on the internet.

Is there a service that can do the second?

ZeroTier (https://www.zerotier.com/ ) does this. I use it successfully on Windows, Linux, Mac. I've heard positive things about Tinc as well (https://tinc-vpn.org/).

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#67

Post by kibwen » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:12 PM UTC

craftyguy wrote: post #53

nmy wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. These are minor things compared to having no other good choice but the Google browser.

I've never found the "choose this, because the other option(s) suck more" to be a particularly flattering argument for web browsers, programming languages, cars, or politicians.

The modern aversion to "lesser of two evils" is a thinly-disguised post-hoc rationalization for apathy (or worse, nihilism). It's not even false equivalence, because that would suggest trying to paint both "evils" as equal; no, this is simply saying that, when presented with two choices where one is better than the other, we might as well make the worse choice, because who cares?

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#68

Post by boomboomsubban » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:12 PM UTC

gpm wrote: post #16

I only use firefox. But I don't feel like I can strongly recommend it because of the long list of bad decisions. - Google analytics baked into about:addons - Sending data to Cliqz - Pocket, as a service being added to the topbar - Pocket, as a service being added to the default home/newtab page - Firefox hello - Completely banning unsigned addons - Mr. Robot advert - And now probably this I want a browser that is rel…

GNU IceCat, or presumably most of these things are compile options.

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#69

Post by kibwen » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:15 PM UTC

gpm wrote: post #45

zaarn wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, unsigned addons are banned in the branded release browser. If you use the developer edition, nightly or compile Firefox yourself then you can install unsigned addons into Firefox. The last option also enables you to turn of Pocket and a variety of other services.

I use to use nightly, then I found out they spy on you a lot more if you use nightly. I suspect the same applies to developer edition. [0] https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/web/FirefoxNoNightl... [1] https://lobste.rs/s/ri4kny/you_probably_don_t_want_run_firef...

When you first open a new Nightly install there's literally a banner across the entire browser telling you that it's collecting metrics, along with a button that displays more information and allows you to customize what data gets sent. The whole point of offering a Nightly build is so that they can have feedback on performance regressions and crashes. Characterizing it as "spying" is simply FUD.

Re: Firefox partners with ProtonVPN

#70

Post by progval » Wed, Dec 05, 2018, 6:22 PM UTC

JackC wrote: post #28

I'm really excited about this idea, but I also think it isn't fully baked yet. I'm excited because VPNs are all about shifting trust: I'm no longer trusting Comcast not to sell my data, I'm now trusting SketchyVPN. If SketchyVPN turns out not to be trustworthy, then I'm paying for something that is worth less than $0 to me, and there's no way to detect that as a user. It's like paying more for organic food in a town…

> I'm excited because VPNs are all about shifting trust: I'm no longer trusting Comcast not to sell my data, I'm now trusting SketchyVPN.

If you use a laptop, it would rather be: "I'm no longer trusting [home ISP] + [workplace's IT staff] + [workplace ISP] + [family I'm visiting's ISP] + [cellular service provider] + [train station hotspot] not to sell my data, I'm now trusting SketchyVPN".