Mozilla Plans to Offer Premium Version of Firefox With VPN

[engine]

Mozilla's CEO, Chris Beard, has said the browser maker is planning a premium version of Firefox which will include a VPN and secure storage, and will probably test it from October 2019.

He also confirmed that no free features will be moved to the subscription version.

[t3n.de...]

[Dimitri]

For some reasons, I thought this was already available, but may be I get confused with all kind of add -ons more or less doing this.

I like this option in Opera , which is included free of charge. My only concern being that Opera is now operated by Chinese company :)

no free features will be moved to the subscription version.

Which is the purpose of free features :)

[graeme_p]

I think this means FF will include their VPN and online storage and integration with it will be built in. The charge is really for the online services and the integration.

Add-ons will do this for free, of course, but then you have to pay for the VPN and storage.

[engine]

I like the idea and look forward to testing it.

A paid version gives me some confidence, but that's yet to be proven.

Sometimes, free isn't always free, as we know.

[sun818]

There are many free or inexpensive options if you are tech savvy. For VPN, I installed my own OpenVPN server on a 512MB VPS and that only cost me $12/yr. For the non-techy crowd, Firefox Premium will be a great service. Lots of people that want online privacy. They also want to share large media files for work (graphic designers, video editors, photographers, etc). Firefox already offers Send (https://send.firefox.com/) for files up to 1GB to 2.5GB (must register), so what would the premium version offer instead?

[tangor]

Yaayyyy! More Toys (And More Bucks!).

That said, will investigate a bit further!

[graeme_p]

@sun818 The premium version will offer permanent storage which Send does not.

Not everyone can run their own VPN server. I am not entirely sure running your own is necessarily effective once its IP is discovered.

[sun818]

> permanent storage

So, this would be like a subscription service like Dropbox or Google Drive and they store the encrypted files for you? Hmm.

> Not everyone can run their own VPN server.

There are some free VPN services too. They are a bit hard to distinguish or spammy on Chrome extensions. I found BitTube Chrome Extension which pays you their cryptocurrency for surfing... but they also have a VPN service that you can use as a web VPN. Instead of getting paid to surf, you get to use free VPN.

[engine]

Sun818, How do they run it for free?

[tangor]

Nothing is free ... somebody benefits somewhere, or has a plan to benefit at a later time (loss leader to build a clientele then change the game and start charging once saturation has occurred).

[Panthro]

We're going to start paying for browsers now, eh? Interesting

[engine]

We're going to start paying for browsers now, eh? Interesting

Not correct, it's for the subscription features.

[sun818]

> Sun818, How do they run it for free?

Good question. I think they want you to participate in their cryptosphere and perhaps track the sites you visit. I am not sure what their big game plan is. For a non-techyy person, I found VPN usage easy like the other extensions but they don't charge a fee. Let's be clear -- you have to give your information to some company. Whether it is Mozilla, a server provider, your ISP, etc someone has your data. If I were concerned with privacy, I'd personally trust Mozilla before Google with my data. Google makes money off ads and that means they have to prioritize profits over privacy.

[tangor]

Not correct, it's for the subscription features.

@engine ... that's correct ... this is just the next step towards moving from "free: to benefit with dollars ... a bit at a time, whittle here, whittle there, until is MS 365 or whatever adobe calls photoshop these days. :)

Should be no surprises, kiddies ... after all, these things aren't created by unicorns in rainbow factories ... somebody has to cover salaries, etc...

[engine]

Thanks sun818, I was just wondering.

I don't have a problem with Mozilla trying to find alternative streams of income, which will help it remain independent.

I'm going to take a positive view, and will test this as soon as I can.