From the recommendation appeared in Firefox and according to a website that spotted the news, Mozilla seems to have partnered with ProtonVPN for VPN Service. The company will test VPN service for a subset of Firefox 62 users in the US on October 22, 2018.
Firefox could trigger ProtonVPN recommendation to a user when he uses an unsecured network or connects to an unencrypted public wi-fi, or when he browses privacy related sites like disconnect me, strongVPN and visiting Netflix or Hulu could also cause Firefox to show VPN service notification.
The recommendation could be like this: ” Firefox recommends ProtonVPN, it appears you are browsing on an unsecured wireless network. Firefox has teamed up with ProtonVPN to provide you with a private and secure internet connection. no matter where you are.”. [via soeren]
To use Firefox VPN service powered by ProtonVPN, the user has to pay $10 USD/mo, if the user subscribes to the plan, Mozilla gets some money from VPN provider, that could be the deal.
Update: Mozilla officially announced about the VPN experiement and why they’ve partnered with ProtonVPN for that.
Personal opinion:
This is nothing but taking Firefox user to ProtonVPN website for a signup.
It surprised us that Mozilla has made this move, i.e. partnering with ProtonVPN and promoting the VPN by showing ads to Firefox users is not good and may not be taken fairly by users considering what happened with by installing looking glass add-on without user consent, of course, that may have fallen under shield study.
Take these good recommendations that don’t involve money:
Currently, Firefox Nightly is showing extension recommendations, for which Mozilla editorial team picks extensions, neither Mozilla nor extension developers pay money in the recommendation program, the program designed purely to benefit users. Now a recommendation appeared, which asks to signup for a VPN, that benefits Mozilla here, that’s what we feel. Lack of official information on this made us say like that.
There is no official announcement on this from Mozilla till now, we’ve already seen the recommendation and the price it charges for VPN service in screenshots, now what do you say? Is better to use VPN directly or will you assist Mozilla financially by using the VPN service they recommend, let us know in the comments below.
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