Mozilla Launches VPN as Part of Resurrected Firefox Test Pilot Program

Mozilla is resurrecting its recently expunged Test Pilot program with a renewed focus on privacy-focused tools and products. The Firefox developer today lifted the lid on the first product to emerge from the new Test Pilot, and it appears to be something akin to a virtual private network (VPN) in all but name. From a report: Firefox Private Network, as the new tool is called, is available in beta today for logged-in Firefox desktop users in the U.S. only, and is accessible through a browser extension. By way of a quick recap, Mozilla debuted Firefox Test Pilot a decade ago but then relaunched it back in 2016. Test Pilot went on to attain an average of 100,000 daily users, each looking to test Mozilla's latest developments -- including a price-tracking feature for online shoppers, content recommendations based on browsing activity, and more.

Some of these became full-fledged features within Firefox and others did not, but back in January Mozilla announced it was killing its Test Pilot program altogether. This came as something of a surprise given Mozilla's own statements about the success of the program. At the time, Mozilla said it was "evolving" its approach to experimentation and suggested it was looking to ideate more widely across the company. Fast-forward nine months, and Firefox Test Pilot is back for a third time.

VPN?

[chuckugly]

How is a thing that only encapsulates browser traffic a "VPN in all but name" is the question I immediately have.

Re:

[zifn4b]

You have heard of server pixie dust right? It solves everything.

Re:

[ftobin]

Machines don't only need one network interface. It's completely reasonable to think that each application can have its own network interface that is VPN'd separately from each other's. In fact, this is quite advantageous, since different types of applications have different networking needs on the dimensions of bandwidth, latency, data caps, frequency of use, and multi-hopping. Different VPNs can cater to different applications' needs.

Thinly veiled revenue stream

[Shark]

First they partner up with cloudflare to hand over all your DNS queries. Now all your traffic as well? It's a real shame that in the Google age, this can pass as 'privacy'.

Encryption does not equal privacy. In this case it just narrows down who's got your data.

Cloudzilla

[xack]

I don't like the fact Mozilla's independence is now dependent on Cloudflare who has been centralizing the web and locking out browsers it doesn't like with captchas.

typical firefox

[noobiedoobiedo]

these guys love to do ANYTHING BUT what they need to do. make the browser faster and more memory efficient? firefox team : no thanks, instead we'll make a virtual reality screen shot vpn tool.

"attain"

[fahrbot-bot]

Test Pilot went on to attain an average of 100,000 daily users, ...

Nice euphemism for "co-opt", "hijack", ...

(Though, to be fair, while the default was/is opt-in, it was easy to disable in "about:config", and especially once they eventually added a UI for it.)