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Latest Mozilla VPN features

blog.mozilla.org

161–170 of 184 posts

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#161
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they're targeting different demographics This is the question though: who are these demographics? I know Mozilla likely have a lot more data on this than I, but who is using Firefox / interested enough in Mozilla to read their marketing & research their VPN offerings, but is simultaneously not someone who would research VPN providers in general / use Mullvad? What is this techie/non-techie interested/not-interested…

that demographic is huge. most people under 40 today have grown up watching the surveillance industry establish itself, and those with any consciousness of their own vulnerability want to take action to minimize their surface area. until recently that's been extremely difficult and technical, but now firefox with container extensions, adblockers, and a VPN are all easily approachable for the average person, and they'…

I think most under 40 don't know that Google Chrome and Google Search are two separate things let alone VPNs and containers.

When these people say "surveillance" they mean they think that Facebook magically hears it when they say something out loud and they start seeing ads for it. We engineers overestimate the awareness average user has about technology.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#162
post #161
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that demographic is huge. most people under 40 today have grown up watching the surveillance industry establish itself, and those with any consciousness of their own vulnerability want to take action to minimize their surface area. until recently that's been extremely difficult and technical, but now firefox with container extensions, adblockers, and a VPN are all easily approachable for the average person, and they'…

I think most under 40 don't know that Google Chrome and Google Search are two separate things let alone VPNs and containers. When these people say "surveillance" they mean they think that Facebook magically hears it when they say something out loud and they start seeing ads for it. We engineers overestimate the awareness average user has about technology.

> When these people say "surveillance" they mean they think that Facebook magically hears it when they say something out loud and they start seeing ads for it. We engineers overestimate the awareness average user has about technology.

Not "magically" - they don't trust their device. And can you blame them? Their device likely isn't trustworthy in so many different ways.

Hell, when accelerometers can be repurposed as rudimentary microphones, and when just about every modern device/app defaults to maximum "yes please track me," I tend to be paranoid myself!

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#163
All I'd want from Firefox would be a browser based VPN. As in per tab or container. That I would appreciate. Mostly for GeoIP restrictions for some sites.

A VPN for the whole system I can use other providers who's main business is VPN.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#164
post #163

All I'd want from Firefox would be a browser based VPN. As in per tab or container. That I would appreciate. Mostly for GeoIP restrictions for some sites. A VPN for the whole system I can use other providers who's main business is VPN.

When in Beta, firefox VPN is indeed a browser addon, I used it for months, really good, but they now removed the addon, and only support desktop version, I don't know why, is this a stupid idea? Why not support browser plugin?

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was also a mullvad customer and wanted to switch to Mozilla VPN specifically because it seems to be one of the only ways to support the browser. At the time they didn't support linux at all, but someone wrote a tool[0] to squirt out the necessary configs to use with wg-quick. When I saw that, I pulled the trigger and haven't looked back. [0] https://github.com/NilsIrl/MozWire

> it seems to be one of the only ways to support the browser Is this the case? Is income from Mozilla VPN put toward Firefox development? If it is, that info should be front-and-centre; they'd have a lot more customers I think.

It supports Mozilla. Browser is pretty important, but they do other things like Rust.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Projects/Complete

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#166
post #74

I genuinely don't understand what is the incentive for using Mozilla VPN? I'm a Mozilla and Firefox fanboy, but this new product had me sceptical since the beginning. They literally bring nothing to the table except their brand name. They don't even do the server side, but just resell Mullvad's infrastructure with their brand. I'm already a Mullvad customer, and if I were to switch to Mozilla VPN: * It would not be a…

If you don't know anything about VPN's and are unlikely to (have time, motivation to) do a lot of research then you might trust Moziala/Firefox more then some unknown company-named Mullvad.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#167
post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most under 40 don't know that Google Chrome and Google Search are two separate things let alone VPNs and containers. When these people say "surveillance" they mean they think that Facebook magically hears it when they say something out loud and they start seeing ads for it. We engineers overestimate the awareness average user has about technology.

> When these people say "surveillance" they mean they think that Facebook magically hears it when they say something out loud and they start seeing ads for it. We engineers overestimate the awareness average user has about technology. Not "magically" - they don't trust their device. And can you blame them? Their device likely isn't trustworthy in so many different ways. Hell, when accelerometers can be repurposed as…

This is kind of exactly what I mean too. In your case, you have a clear idea of what might be going on. But a vast majority just don't. They trust the wrong parties and place blame in the wrong places. At least this is the case with the people I know.

To give an example, after the recent WhatsApp PR crisis because of the change of toc, I see a whole bunch of my contacts changed to Telegram. They could have chosen Signal but no. They switched from an end-to-end encrypted app to an unencrypted app! That's what paranoia gets you unless you know what you're doing. I've pretty given up on the average user on these matters.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would love to use Mullvad, but I need split tunneling on a per-process basis (Windows), since there is the occasional website that hates VPN-based servers. I have a special browser installation I use for such occasions, but few VPN providers offer per-process VPN exceptions. Any chance Mullvad is considering this feature?

Have you considered running a SOCKS proxy outside of Mullvad (ie on a Raspberry Pi or in the cloud?) You could then use Firefox Multi-Account Containers to bind a container to the SOCKS proxy, and whenever you need to access a site that doesn’t support a VPN you can just open it with in said container.

Interesting! Gave me something to look into, thanks.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How has the industry given up on encryption? In recent years, HTTPS became the new standard and most apps are forced to use encrypted connections as well. Just because VPN ads are calling local networks "unsecure" doesn't mean that they are a true risk.

Not encryption in general, but end to end encryption.

In that case a commercial VPNs won't help much anyway.

Re: Latest Mozilla VPN features

#170
post #74

I genuinely don't understand what is the incentive for using Mozilla VPN? I'm a Mozilla and Firefox fanboy, but this new product had me sceptical since the beginning. They literally bring nothing to the table except their brand name. They don't even do the server side, but just resell Mullvad's infrastructure with their brand. I'm already a Mullvad customer, and if I were to switch to Mozilla VPN: * It would not be a…

>* I would have to pay with my credit card, instead of cash-by-mail. (Great privacy improvement! /s) Do you download your configurations from the Mullvad website over Tor via their onion service 100% of the time? Do you connect to Tor before connecting to Mullvad in your VPN client?

"IP" is a much more private datapoint than "Credit card number" and "First name, Last Name".

I'm not afraid of governments knowing who/what I do. I'm afraid of private companies holding private data about me.

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