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Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

cyberinsider.com

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Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#141

Post by ranger_danger »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #128
Xunjin wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well pointed. Sometimes being the "product" is not a bad thing.

It's all about: do you derive an appropriate value for yourself from being the product? For example, when you use the Google search engine, you are the product (Google's customers are advertisers). I hope you derive sufficient (average) value from each Google search so that you consider this to be worth it.

For a lot of people I think it's increasingly not worth it. Not only do we never click on ads, but results are getting worse, and often a (local) LLM can answer a large percentage of our questions faster and more privately.

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#142

Post by megous »

stephenr wrote: post #97
Mashimo wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why does a browser need screen sharing built in? Is that maybe used for video calls?

Im not talking about an api. Im talking about an end user feature. Or are you telling me that chrome has a fucking video call client built in as well?

Almost, it's about 50 lines of JS to setup a video call.

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#143

Post by ranger_danger »

kotaKat wrote: post #122
philipallstar wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it should. You think it should be a browser extension. I don't think it should either be integrated or a browser extension.

Quite frankly I don't think it should be either. I'm sick of browsers trying to sidestep my operating system's networking stack (be it forcing their own DNS implementations for 'security' or now this BS).

There are other usecases that don't affect you which are very handy for others, such as testing site access from different countries with per-tab geo settings from a VPN extension.

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#144

Post by ranger_danger »

m132 wrote: post #23
looopTools wrote: post #16

As I understand it, it is just like in Opera. So a proxy not a VPN. I honestly find it distasteful that they may call it a VPN without it actually being one.

What makes a proxy a "VPN" again? Most popular "VPN" companies only offer a proxy that merely runs over a VPN protocol.

IMO if it requires a new network interface to be created on the machine, then it's a VPN. But an application-level tunnel (such as SOCKS) would just be a proxy.

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#145

Post by mmooss »

klntsky wrote: post #28

Why are they trying to sell a VPN in the countries where users barely need it?

> countries where users barely need it?

Why don't they need it? There is widespread corporate and government surveillance in those countries. Privacy is a major issue. What is your standard?

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#146

Post by everdrive »

some_random wrote: post #134
everdrive wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is such a un-nuanced take. I agree in principle, but we interact with hundreds of companies per day. Which ones are honest and which ones are taking advantage of us? I really don't have the cycles to run it all down, and keep up with it over time. Perhaps Firefox VPN will be totally private initially and then violate privacy 2 years in? Would I ever know? Maybe? I need to err on the side of caution for a lot of…

True but you chose to post in the comment section of a news story, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for more nuance than for something you see randomly in the wild.

And your point, HN would probably actually notify me if Mozilla became (more) evil. I'm just making a general point. Is my hardware store selling my information every time I enter it now that they have camera everywhere? I don't have a good way to audit it. Even if I did, I'd be failing to audit what some other evil company is doing.

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#148

Post by snowwalker222 »

Gormo wrote: post #116
nl wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Most popular "VPN" companies only offer a proxy that merely runs over a VPN protocol. Well that doesn't seem true? Mullvad, Proton, Private Internet Access, NordVPN, ExpressVPN etc are all VPNs. You can use them for whatever protocol you want.

Well, only some of them actually offer full VPN service. Most of them are still just traffic-forwarding proxies, just not limited to HTTP. NordVPN used to offer full VPN service under the name "Meshnet", but actually discontinued it last year.

[dead]

Re: Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149

#149

Post by 6031769 »

stephenr wrote: post #94
petcat wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why does it need a vpn client? Do think your web browser also should not have SOCKS and HTTP Proxy support? What about DNS-over-HTTPS?

Proxies are protocol specific. A vpn is a network layer tunnel. Does your browser also include its own built in ip stack? Maybe it should have its own window system. DNS arguably would also be best left to the OS, yes.

It's not even "arguably" for me. Of course DNS should be left to the O/S otherwise I'm going to spend half my time diagnosing why the browser is going to the wrong destination.
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