Tldr:
Plus, Sanitizer API and split tabs (split window but for tabs) but that was already known.
Other than the VPN, which I have doubts about the usefulness of, these are pretty solid improvements. Better security is always welcome.
I hope it leads them to improve their own network API, which rn doesn’t have a VPN implementation per se. Could be wrong but it is just setting IP address, ports, etc. Highly privileged.
Would like a simple API where the VPN just provides a wireguard config file, and Firefox handles the connection (and website split tunneling) itself.
Also, I forgot to mention Settings search which will definitely be useful.
Are we 100% sure that is what they meant in the announcement?
It’s not the IP locations of the VPN?
If Firefox’s VPN is a browser extension like Windscribe, I think 50 GB per month is quite generous. That being said, if Firefox eventually reduces that limit, there will be no other way to interpret it other than enshittifiction. And it would make it so much worse if it’s planned. I’d rather they say right now the limit is 10GB/month than screw with me.
The fact that their “AI Window” is rebranded as “smart window”, feels like a sneaky way to make current and potential AI skeptics embrace it.
Seems pretty clear to me:
Users will have 50 gigabytes of data monthly in the U.S., France, Germany and U.K. to start. Available in Firefox 149 starting March 24.
What ? You can’t just assume they will do something and say as a negative. They just gave 50GB for free, it’s the contrary of enshitiification. In fact, even if they reduced it, it would still be better than current.
14 posts were split to a new topic: If a service reduced their free offerings later, how would you interpret it?
50gb is usually the usage mark beyond which public VPNs don’t issue refunds. The rates Moz might be paying (Mullvad?) for this much bandwidth may be around ¢10 or less, per user.
I don’t understand your point. There is nothing stopping Mozilla from offering 10GB a month, if 50GB is too expensive for them. I would totally be fine with that. What I am not fine with is FF potentially renegging on their 50GB offer. And as I said, there would be nothing wrong with FF saying this offer is only for the first month or year. That would be ethical. But they’re not doing at that either.
The tier may not be as “expensive” (in terms of user retention/acquisition), was the point.
For Moz, this freemium tier may be a bulkhead against competition like Opera. Unlikely it goes away, but likely they switch to “fair use” rather than “50gb”.
Hmmm. VPN from firefox? Interesting. Maybe useful for newbies. But i am ok with Proton
Ethically, it’s better if they make it clear it’s temporary from the beginning. There is no harm in doing that if that is the case. Even though I have a paid VPN, I occasionally use certain free VPNs like Windscribe for very specific purposes. I never go through my monthly limit.
Even when I used TunnelBear, whose limit was like 2GB, I never went through my monthly limit, because I only used the VPN to log into specific accounts. That being said, if you watch YouTube videos you will burn through 50GB very fast.
Recently, TunnelBear became enshittified when they announced new limitations on the free tier. I just don’t want the same to happen with FF.
Thank you for correcting me on how the expression is used.
The being said, my reservations remain. As I said, this announcement is very good news, but because enshittification is common, and is even practiced by some privacy companies, I don’t think my concerns are unwarranted. For now, they are simply concerns, and I don’t think there is anything wrong with sharing them. I still use FF every day. It’s my default browser on both desktop and mobile.
Enshittification is mainly the result of a company having multiple different types of customers with opposing needs. Like Amazon has customers that buy things and businesses that sell things. YouTube has users who watch videos and advertisers that want to show as many ads as possible. Mozilla’s services are just sold to regular users so the risk of enshittification is minimal.
There’s stiff competition in the vpn market as well so they are incentivized to make the product good.
If that’s the thinking. Let me fix that for you as I see it:
Enshittification is mainly the result of company choosing to prioritize any and all different types of customers and their opposing needs resulting in nothing good for any party long term.
In the end, it’s still a business decision a company makes. Blame the decision making, not the principle in question.
There really isn’t if evaluation of a VPN is done well. The ones worth using are just a handful at best. That’s not many options or as much as people really think there are.
Yes, I was about to say to @fria that once your screw all of your customers, it’s not really about the customers anymore. Ultimately, it is always about he shareholders. I believe that’s Business 101.
The risk may be minimal, but I don’t think enshittification is merely about risk. When business dogma dictates that if you don’t grow every year you are losing, even if you make a ton of profit all the while making slightly less than the previous year, then the incentive to enshittify will always be there.
I don’t think any business can be completely shielded from the incentives of enshittification. In fact. At least not by themselves. I think it’s impossible to protect yourself completely, because there will always be some temptation. The best we can hope for is for trustworthy businesses to remove as many incentives as they can, and not give in to the ones that remain. And of course, we must collectively fight against enshittification by voicing our discontent loudly, and passing policies that protect consumers in the short and long term.
From a purely business POV, the competition is stiff to the degree that there are many VPN providers, even if most of them are owned by a handful of companies. From a privacy motivated perspective, the competition is less stiff as there aren’t a ton of VPN providers trusted by the privacy community.
But the average user is not primarily motivated by privacy when looking for a VPN, so Firefox is not just competing with Proton, Windscribe and Mullvad (trusted companies), but also NordVPN, Surfshark and many others that have not earned the trust of the privacy community.
Multiply ¢10 for 20 million and you will find out how much is going to cost to offer 50GB for free. Add to that maintenance and having to deal with abuse, no registration VPNs are the favourites ones to use for abuse.
¢10 is my O(n) guess. It is likely lower and/or Moz might not be even paying per user, but by bandwidth, which may be as low as $1/TB/mo.
I’m confident folks at Moz know their math…
I already pay for a VPN and wouldn’t trust Firefox on my phone so I have no use for it personally, but I think it’s a great addition for casual laptop users who use public WiFi for some added security.
The more disappointing part is the AI trash, they’re entering the AI scene just as normal people are getting more and more pissed off at AI, it’s incredibly misguided imo.
Personally I’m just patiently waiting to see what becomes of Ladybird and Servo to see if we can get any better browsers that market themselves on privacy and security.
FF is still the best product to make it so easy ti disable it all. Compared to it, Brave is trash with all the other crypto BS and whatnot.
I think you need to reassess what and how these browsers are going about it and then evaluate more holistically and objectively.
Many more things wrong with Mozilla but settings within FF are still much better than other browsers if you ask me.
Yeah I’m still happily using Firefox on desktop, but that still doesn’t excuse the fact that its Android version is too behind on necessary security features that Chromium has had for years.
The decisions in Mozilla to prioritise AI features that get backlash from its user base while mothballing great projects like Servo makes it clear that Mozilla doesn’t have Firefox’s best interests at heart.
Again, Firefox is a perfectly good desktop browser when paired with Arkenfox, but I really hope that we start to see an alternative without Mozilla’s baggage in the future.
This uses fastly instead