Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cyberinsider.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–178 of 178 posts

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

#171

Post by notepad0x90 »

peterrojas wrote: post #156
notepad0x90 wrote: post #4

I usually defend Mozilla with these things, but I'm a bit bearish on this. It's not like they're not relying on big partnerships already for their survival. I don't have a problem with free to long as there is a paid plan, which I don't see on their announcement page. I don't care who is running a free-only VPN is a huge red flag, and I am one of those people that recommends using VPN services instead of running your…

FWIW, we'll have a secure, enterprise version of Firefox available later this year.

that would be amazing, without GPO or Intune manageability it's very hard to use in those environments.

Are you aware of Chrome Enterprise, it offers nice things like logging safe browsing hits, or TLS error page events (and when users navigate through one). it helps both IT and IT security manage their environment.

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

#172

Post by encrypted_bird »

JasonADrury wrote: post #167
encrypted_bird wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. That's an opinion piece, not a piece of investigative journalism. 2. That's from 5 years ago; who knows if this is even still the case, even assuming it's as widespread as the opinion piece claims. 3. See my second point.

For what it's worth, both the pieces are part of a smear campaign by an American far right Christian group called Exodus Cry. Among other things, Benjamin Nolot who runs Exodus Cry is a holocaust denier

I didn't know that, but it doesn't surprise me. The hyperconservative scumbags (alas I repeat myself) will stoop to anything to shove their beliefs on everyone else.

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

#173

Post by lxgr »

userbinator wrote: post #3

As a Firefox user: if I want a VPN I'll use an actual VPN. Focus on making a great browser, and not all this distraction. Also, "free": "If you're not paying for it, you're the product being sold"

As another Firefox user, I much prefer modern browser-centric solutions like iCloud Relay over VPNs, which seems like the wrong layer for what I'm using them for both in terms of implementation complexity and achievable privacy.

Happy to see that this solution is apparently using MASQUE, which is what iCloud Private Relay is also based on!

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

#174

Post by lxgr »

usr1106 wrote: post #34
piperswe wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mozilla only makes the integration between the browser and the VPN, not the VPN network itself - Mozilla VPN is white label Mullvad.

According to https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/03/firefox-adding-a-free-vp... Mullvad might not be used for the free service. Whether that's correct or incorrect extrapolation we will see...

I just tried it. It seems to be based on MASQUE and provided by (at least) Fastly.

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

#175

Post by lxgr »

kotaKat wrote: post #83
userbinator wrote: post #3

As a Firefox user: if I want a VPN I'll use an actual VPN. Focus on making a great browser, and not all this distraction. Also, "free": "If you're not paying for it, you're the product being sold"

Can we go back to making all this garbage, I don’t know, a browser extension or something? All of this crap that everyone keeps pulling into their browsers needs to be ripped back out and made a plugin or an extension. Stop shoving it in the core damn browser. I didn’t need the waste of space and I’m never going to touch it.

The core new functionality here seems to be MASQUE proxy support, which is genuinely useful and probably not possible to provide in a plugin.

Of course the UI itself could be extracted into a plugin, but I'm not really a fan of the pattern of shipping a large feature and extract only the thin UI layer into a plugin. It felt very weird when Mozilla tried it with "multi-user containers".

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

#176

Post by aragilar »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #66
aragilar wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is an SSH jump server a VPN (or forwarding a port from another machine at VPN)? I'd suggest neither are because it's connection-based rather than setting up a network (with routing etc). Absent a network, it's a proxy (which can be used like some deployments of a VPN).

I see your point, but I think that might label many uses of wireguard in tailscale "not a VPN" because they use imaginary network devices that only exist inside the tailscale process. Saying that would feel very wrong. On the other hand if process internals can be the deciding factor, then optimizing the code one way or the other could change whether a system is "VPN" or "not a VPN" even though it looks exactly the s…

I'm not up-to-date with the internals of tailscale, but my impression was they run additional services on top of the actual VPN (that is their "value-add" to wireguard), some of which are actual proxies, which hence blur that line in the minds of users (along with some so-called "VPN" providers who are just providing proxies).

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

#177

Post by Dylan16807 »

aragilar wrote: post #176
Dylan16807 wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see your point, but I think that might label many uses of wireguard in tailscale "not a VPN" because they use imaginary network devices that only exist inside the tailscale process. Saying that would feel very wrong. On the other hand if process internals can be the deciding factor, then optimizing the code one way or the other could change whether a system is "VPN" or "not a VPN" even though it looks exactly the s…

I'm not up-to-date with the internals of tailscale, but my impression was they run additional services on top of the actual VPN (that is their "value-add" to wireguard), some of which are actual proxies, which hence blur that line in the minds of users (along with some so-called "VPN" providers who are just providing proxies).

In the modes I'm talking about, there's a real wireguard VPN that your local tailscale process is participating in. But instead of attaching it to a TAP device, there's a whole virtual networking stack inside the tailscale process.

You could treat it like running a normal VPN app inside a virtual machine. Surely that's still be a VPN, or the distinction gets weird. But if we do agree it's a VPN, a couple examples based on this one will force the distinction to get weird anyway. The line of VPN or not is surprisingly blurry.

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

#178

Post by bilkow »

nuker wrote: post #166
Angostura wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not correct. ‘You are the product’ implies some aspect of you -your activity or data is being sold. In this case, you stent being sold. They are providing a limited free version and hoping you upgrade.

Just facts: - June 2024. Mozilla acquires Anonym, an ad metrics firm. - July 2024. Mozilla adds Privacy-Preserving Attribution (PPA), feature is enabled by default. Developed in cooperation with Meta (Facebook). - Feb 2025. Mozilla updates its Privacy FAQ and TOS. "does not sell data about you." becomes "... in the way that most people think about it". - Oct 2025. Sponsored “Privacy-Focused Direct Results” added to a…

I'm curious on the source for these "facts".

- You state that PPA is enabled by default, but it was an experimental feature that was never activated and later removed: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/privacy-preserving-attr...

- You state that Sponsored “Privacy-Focused Direct Results” were added to address bar, but 1. it's direct results in general, with some being sponsored and 2. it hasn't been released: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/better-search-suggestion.... The pref defaults to false in current stable.

- Yes, Anonym is an ad metrics firm, but you missed that it's focused on privacy. I am unsure whether they are actually able to achieve privacy or if it's just privacy-washing, but that's their stated goal. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/anonym/

- Privacy FAQ and TOS changes are true, but they rolled them back after backlash: (updated) https://www.thebridgechronicle.com/tech/mozilla-revises-fire... , (original) https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/02/firefox-deletes-...

- Privacy Notice update is true: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/update/dec2025...

Post reply on HN