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Mozilla to launch free built-in VPN in upcoming Firefox 149
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- asadm 7mo agoWill our data be routed to Israel like every other vpn is required to do?
- pogue 7mo agoI often use Opera browser's free proxy they offer for basic browsing or blocked sites. They advertise it as a free VPN but it's merely a proxy. As far as I know, it's unlimited traffic and you can choose the region it connects to. Edge also has some Microsoft VPN with a very small amount of bandwidth for the free tier. I'm fine with this kind of stuff as long as people are aware it doesn't offer the same connectivity as a full paid VPN.
- Dylan16807 7mo ago> They advertise it as a free VPN but it's merely a proxy. What's the difference when you're accessing it through a browser? > I'm fine with this kind of stuff as long as people are aware it doesn't offer the same connectivity as a full paid VPN. Are you talking about it not reaching out and affecting other programs, or is there a restriction within the browser?
- dyauspitr 7mo agoIt comes down to encryption. Proxies aren’t usually encrypted, I don’t know what it does in opera or Firefox’s case.
- corranh 7mo agoIn the Firefox case, no difference. It doesn’t encrypt traffic from your device outside of Firefox but for whatever you do inside of Firefox it’s == VPN.
- pogue 7mo agoIn Opera, with their "VPN" it only affects traffic within the browser and it sounds like that's the same thing Firefox will offer. A proxy isn't as secure as a full VPN. I had previously read a really good article on it but I hunted and hunted but couldn't find it. This explains it well enough though: https://www.quora.com/Is-Opera-browser-with-built-in-VPN-a-genuine-VPN https://www.quora.com/Is-Opera-browser-with-built-in-VPN-a-g... However, reading the write up from Opera it's actually pretty decent tech that they've had audited by a third party and the whole nine: Why browsing with Opera’s VPN is safer https://blogs.opera.com/security/2025/07/opera-vpn-is-safe/ https://blogs.opera.com/security/2025/07/opera-vpn-is-safe/ Hopefully no one will start with the whole "they're Chinese owned" argument. If anybody is still on that whole trip, see this (and go watch SomeOrdinaryGamer's video on the subject) but in short it's really nothing to worry about. Debunking misinformation about Opera’s browsers https://blogs.opera.com/security/2023/07/debunking-spyware-misinformation/ https://blogs.opera.com/security/2023/07/debunking-spyware-m...
- Dylan16807 7mo ago> it only affects traffic within the browser Yes because it's VPN for the browser. I can do the same kind of targeting with most VPN software. Applying it to specific programs doesn't make it stop being a VPN. > This explains it well enough though: Which answer? The dumb bot that contradicts itself? The first human answer says it is a VPN. Though that "cyber security expert" is also not someone I would trust since they seem to think AES 128 versus 256 is actually an important difference. The first human "no" says it's not encrypted and I don't believe that for a second. To say more about the bot answer, it basically repeats three times that only Opera traffic goes through the VPN as its main reason. And then it says it "doesn't offer split tunneling". Come on... The rest of the answer isn't much more grounded in reality.
- aragilar 7mo agoIs 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).
- userbinator 7mo agoAs 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"
- piperswe 7mo agoMozilla only makes the integration between the browser and the VPN, not the VPN network itself - Mozilla VPN is white label Mullvad.
- Dylan16807 7mo agoThat's an existing product that may or may not be related. Unless you know something the article doesn't?
- usr1106 7mo agoAccording to https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/03/firefox-adding-a-free-vpn 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...
- lxgr 7mo agoI just tried it. It seems to be based on MASQUE and provided by (at least) Fastly.
- crummy 7mo ago> "If you're not paying for it, you're the product being sold" This must apply to Firefox itself, right?
- chii 7mo agoof course it does. Why do you think google buys the rights to firefox's search bar (as a default setting)?
- notepad0x90 7mo agoI 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 thing on a VPS or something. What worries me is this will get adoption and they're start talking about profiting from it via "differential privacy" Or, even worse for the web is a more realistic problem: Firefox is notoriously hard to manage in an enterprise fleet. Their biggest hurdle to marketshare is just that, chrome works well with windows, linux and mac a like and lends itself to management. I'm frequently fighting to be allowed to use Firefox already personally. This poses a direct threat to enterprise security policies. Anyone who bans random free vpns in their networks, now has to include Firefox to that list. And I don't need to mention how bad that is for the web given Google will effectively be the gatekeeper of the entire internet, even the tiny marketshare Mozilla has will be crushed. I wonder if in retrospect, this seemingly mundane feature would be the death-blow to the only alternative browser ecosystem.
- pavon 7mo agoMozilla has offered paid VPN plans for over 5 years now. This is just adding a free tier to that. https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/products/vpn/
- notepad0x90 7mo agoThat's much better, but it is still a free VPN that bypasses network security measures. I can even imagine a threat actor deploying firefox for their command and control infra.
- peterrojas 7mo agoFWIW, we'll have a secure, enterprise version of Firefox available later this year.
- 7mo ago
- bobsmooth 7mo agoWhere's the money for this VPN going to come from? The ads they insert into my home page or the CEO's inflated compensation?
- ars 7mo agoFree VPN's are usually funded by agreeing to route some VPN traffic for other people though your own network. They basically work as mixers, randomizing traffic throughout the VPN population. This can expose users to legal risks, but but can also add plausible deniability at the same time "it wasn't me, it was someone on VPN".
- dawnerd 7mo agoI’ve suspected that’s where these “ethical” (as they like to call it) residential proxy services get their access from. They’re really dodgy about it other than saying the people agree to it, which ya ok.
- ChrisArchitect 7mo agoSource: https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-148-149-new-features/ https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/firefox-148-149-new-feat... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47415420 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47415420)
- Animats 7mo agoNow, from the people who brought you Pocket. Could they please stop integrating services into Firefox? Thank you.
- trhway 7mo agoVPN is like SSL some time ago (and there were times when a browser would come without SSL, and you'd have to explicitly download it yourself) - it quickly becomes a basic necessity even in civilized societies, let alone say Russia, Iran and the likes.
- DaSHacka 7mo agoTunneling all my traffic through someone else's machine is not the same as encrypting the communication between me and the destination website.
- spikewall 7mo agoSo you mean I can trust an American corporation that ships its software with telemetry on by default and has a history of data-mining its users more than my standard ISP? Ladybird(alpha) cannot come soon enough.
- looopTools 7mo agoAs 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.
- 7bit 7mo agoBecause people understand VPN but not necessarily proxy. It's targeted to non-tech people.
- dyauspitr 7mo agoIs the proxy encrypted? If so then you might as well call it a VPN.
- m132 7mo agoWhat makes a proxy a "VPN" again? Most popular "VPN" companies only offer a proxy that merely runs over a VPN protocol.
- nl 7mo ago> 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.
- tobz1000 7mo agoAll of them offer only proxied access to the internet. They do not expose access to any "private network".
- DaSHacka 7mo agoDepends on the VPN, I remember Nord had a private p2p network that allowed users of their VPN service to communicate directly with each other without exposing their p2p services to the greater internet. Granted, its been a lomg time since I used Nord, not sure if they still offer that service.
- Panzerschrek 7mo ago> Mozilla said the free tier will initially provide 50GB of monthly data to users in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Sadly no countries are mentioned where such VPN is really needed (due to strict internet censorship).
- russelg 7mo agoWith Ofcom I'd say the UK falls into that group nicely.
- glitchcrab 7mo agoAt least now I'll be able to view all those broken Imgur links here in the UK.
- prophesi 7mo agoDo they name the service provider of this VPN or how it works? The official announcement is just as sparse on the details.
- isodev 7mo agoYou know what would be actually cool and a transformative improvement? Mozilla to make an iOS port of Firefox and publish it in regions where Apple has been forced to allow it.
- Fizz43 7mo agoWouldnt be suprised if they were working on it already
- gzread 7mo agoApple doesn't allow alternative browsers in those regions, it just does enough to convince the regulatory body that it allows them and the other browsers just don't want to for some reason.
- isodev 7mo agoApple created a lot of bureaucracy around the development process [1] but it's possible. If Mozilla is truly fighting for "a better internet" [1] https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-browser-engines/ https://developer.apple.com/support/alternative-browser-engi...
- thenthenthen 7mo agoThere used to be (is?) a Mozilla Web XR viewer app, which is a web browser with some experimental features enabled (tailored towards XR/VR as the name implies). Wonder if this is still Safari under the hood?
- klntsky 7mo agoWhy are they trying to sell a VPN in the countries where users barely need it?
- ShowalkKama 7mo agohttps://www.pornhub.com/blog/age-verification-in-the-news https://www.pornhub.com/blog/age-verification-in-the-news Over the past year, Pornhub had to make the difficult decision to block access to users in the following American states due to Age Verification laws: Alabama Arizona Arkansas Florida Georgia Idaho Indiana Kansas Kentucky Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska North Carolina North Dakota Oklahoma South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Virginia Wyoming
- yichk 7mo ago[flagged]
- JasonADrury 7mo agoCan gay men still watch porn, or should they feel bad too?
- yichk 7mo ago[flagged]
- dawnerd 7mo agoI hate about full access to Reddit? Discord? Have you tried accessing the internet from a location with these laws in place?
- encrypted_bird 7mo agoOh shove off with this Puritan attitude. First off, you're implying most of PornHub is rape. That'a ridiculous; no one is uploading videos of actual rape to PornHub. Secondly, porn ≠ abuse. It's an actual industry and so obviously the treatment of women varies by company. Simply put, if you don't like porn, DON'T WATCH IT. Don't try to shove your personal beliefs on everyoje else.
- HalawehMohann49 7mo ago[dead]
- Razengan 7mo agoThese "official" privacy features tend to end up being hollow masquerades when the providers inevitably capitulate to other corporations and authoritarian countries. Like Apple's iCloud Private Relay not working in China, UAE/Dubai etc. or letting Facebook and TikTok secretly track you across devices and reinstalls with their iCloud Keychain API They WILL leak our shit to the highest bidder or the biggest stick
- TRYEXCEPT 7mo agoFireFox need to improve their integrations and offerings to be on par with Chrome at this stage. It, at times can be such a bainful browser to use and honestly I don't think a VPN is the next step. Improved account handling & switching would be huge.
- bartvk 7mo agoI'm not sure what you mean by account handling, but you can long-press the new tab, and you can choose a different profile (for example "work") which has a differently-colored tab. It's pretty great.
- ceving 7mo agoThe ability to nest proxy servers using TLS would be sufficient for me.
- Good53139428015 7mo ago[dead]
- MikeDods 7mo agoAnother Mozilla project to be discontinued in 18 months ...
- dobladov 7mo agoThis is how I feel about it, like Firefox Send, it ended up being abused, and a free VPN will go thought the same path, as much as I want Firefox to succeed is like they never learn a lesson. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-happened-firefox-send https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/what-happened-firefox-s...
- pidgeon_lover 7mo agoI love the smell of bloatware in the morning
- shevy-java 7mo agoThat's useful, or? Does that work in all countries?
- stephenr 7mo agoThere's an oft repeated claim about "Modern Browsers are some of the most complex projects" Yeah no shit, when you have browser vendors shipping features that have no place in browser, it's hardly surprising. Why does a browser need screen sharing built in? Why does it need a vpn client? You know there's a fucking operating system running under the browser that can run those things without worrying about how they impact on a fucking browser, right?
- petcat 7mo ago> 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?
- stephenr 7mo agoProxies 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.
- 6031769 7mo agoIt'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.
- Mashimo 7mo ago> Why does a browser need screen sharing built in? Is that maybe used for video calls?
- stephenr 7mo agoIm 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?
- cabalamat 7mo agoI'm sure the UK government (which is against VPNs because they help people circumvent their Online Safety Act) will love them.
- xtiansimon 7mo agoWait. A VPN in the browser? Isn’t the cat already out of the bag at that point?
- Gormo 7mo agoThis looks like it's just a traffic proxy, and isn't actually a full VPN.
- zeeshdev2887 7mo ago[dead]
- xnx 7mo agoWho will be the first to write an extension (or utility) that allows this to be used as a general system proxy not limited to Firefox?
- deleted 7mo ago[deleted]
- AliEveryHour16 7mo ago[dead]
- bivlked 7mo agoI self-host wireguard on a VPS for this exact reason. $5/mo and i know exactly what's running. the setup takes some effort but after that it's basically zero maintenance. The bigger issue with browser VPNs for me is that they don't help against DPI at all. I'm in a country where the ISP fingerprints wireguard traffic and drops it - a browser VPN connecting to a known mullvad endpoint gets blocked just as fast. You need protocol-level obfuscation for that, which is a completely different problem.
- srdrm17 7mo ago[dead]
- mdavid626 7mo agoFirefox doing everything, but being a good browser.
- lofaszvanitt 7mo agoWe desperately need some AGI level AI to replace decision makers @ Firefox. Since the spanner that is between the cogs hinders progress big time, pig time.
- dxxvi 7mo ago> the free tier will initially provide 50GB of monthly data Is it per machine or profile or ip address or something else? I switch from Firefox to Brave a few months ago because the markdown in aistudio.google.com is not displayed correctly in Firefox. I wonder if anybody has the same issue or that issue can be fixed.