from the Firefox-Private-Network-Virtual-Private-Network-Service dept.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/10/mozilla-launches-a-vpn-brings-back-the-firefox-test-pilot-program/
Mozilla today announced that it is bringing back the Firefox Test Pilot program to allow users to try out new features before they are ready for mainstream usage. While the name is familiar, though, the overall goals of the new program are a bit different from the last iteration and the focus is less on crazy experiments and more on beta testing products that are almost ready for public consumption.
The first new project in the Test Pilot program is the beta of the Firefox Private Network VPN service, which is now available for Firefox desktop users in the U.S.
Sign up now for a Firefox account today so you can use this totally private free VPN.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday September 12 2019, @10:58PM (15 children)
Which is another way of saying "please allow us to MITM you". Fuck off, Mozilla. You haven't been trustworthy since you decided politics was more important than the code.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:32PM (3 children)
Pretty much ditto. I still use Firefox, because it's not as bad as Chrome. Both have to be cleaned up by people who care before they can be trusted.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday September 13 2019, @01:40AM (2 children)
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @05:35AM (1 child)
You forgot the /sarcasm tag. Because, surely you're not saying that information's value is constant over time, and that there's nothing like oh say credit card transaction nonces, which would be useless to replayers or later decoders.
Oh... oh wait. You think https is a false sense of security for these things, and you seem sincere in that. I'm sorry. Is a nation state trying to mitm my paypal/ebay transaction? Because my rez's router is probably cracked by the compsci guys on my floor, but I don't think they have the capabilities to do a cert exchange on the fly... but they sure as fuck could read my credit card out of plaintext.
Go to the green site, where you can get social credit for spewing effluent. This post, like others from you, demonstrates that you don't have some combination of the technical chops, the intelligence, or the willingness to engage honestly, which is needed for useful conversation about ideas.
Shoo.
Go get your social points. They're waiting for you, over there.
Over here, you're just spewing ignorance, and it's gross, and we don't like it.
(Score: 3, Touché) by barbara hudson on Friday September 13 2019, @02:26PM
My bank is close enough that I can hit up the cash machine any time I want.
The only secrets in my life are my passwords. Everything else is an open book, no thanks to certain people posting all sorts of shit about me online, so I don't get upset over not having secrets. On the other hand, I like that links lets me browse the web without image trackers or javascript trackers. Everyone should do the same.
As for Amazon, paypall, ebay, etc., I have never used them. I have no wish to be part of the problem of our current datamining overlords.
I pay for things with cheques, and with cash. What are you going to do when there's a power failure or the internet is down? I guess you'll have to abandon your purchases at the checkout counter, and hope you have enough gas in your tank to get home because you don't have enough cash to buy enough gas to get you there.
No Alexa, no Google Home, no Nest doorbell or camera, I can get up to turn the lights on and off. When I get too old to be able to do that, I'll be blind anyway, so why will I need to turn lights on?
Using links is like running privoxy without the hassles of setting it up. No web bugs, no image trackers, no social media icons, and no JavaScript to follow me around from site to site reporting back to 100 data collection servers. I tell you, the internet is FAST.
Dumping everything Google was an easy decision after finding out that they had given $150,000 in free advertising to anti-abortion groups who ran ads designed to trick people into thinking they were abortion clinics. No youtube, on gmail, no google maps, or anything else. It's not that hard.
Amazon, I never used, so screw them. Everything I want I can get locally, one of the advantages of being on an island with more than a million other people. If I ever need it, it will be pretty much a one-time thing, but so far, so good ...
Facebook? Twitter? Give me a break. Both have been linked to a rise in mental illness as well as general unhappiness in their users.
You don't need the internet to pay by credit or debit card from home. Any phone will do, and if it then gets leaked, it's easy to trace back because it was leaked by the person who answered the phone call and took the details.
Most of the internet is shit web sites designed to get eyeballs to sell ads. Why would I want to participate in that game when I can avoid the whole thing (and not be just another product) by avoiding those sites that don't allow a text-only browser?
Wednesday I was discussing online tracking with someone who didn't know that just the act of loading all those social media icons let her be tracked all over the place. If they're making money off my data, and I don't use any of their services, where's my cut?
SoylentNews is social media. Says so right in the slogan. Soylentnews is people, not tech.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Friday September 13 2019, @04:06AM (9 children)
My thought is that this 'free' VPN is probably fine for when you just don't want your ISP following you around, like for torrents. But for anything where privacy is life or death? I don't think so...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Chocolate on Friday September 13 2019, @04:41AM (6 children)
I started paying for email when Google started screwing with the interface. Its easily worth the small amount per year.
A VPN can be $3 per month, Nord I am looking at you, with a decent service
Are people such tight arses? Its one coffee per month.
Bit-choco-coin anyone?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @04:48AM (2 children)
Pick the wrong, compromised VPN and you could draw more attention to yourself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @09:11AM (1 child)
How does one find out in a manner that does not involve jackboots or blood loss or court appearances?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @01:17PM
You don't! It's a wonderful system of trust.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday September 13 2019, @05:29AM
This link should switch you back to the old GMail interface (yes, the new one sucks):
https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=html [google.com]
Me, I have umpteen mailboxes with my hosting, so all I use GMail for is Google crap, like Youtube notifications. Figure I might as well keep all the snooping confined to one place.
Not so much cheap as not convinced I have that much use for a VPN, being neither an oppressed nor a subversive.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @01:37PM
I got a one time payment of $20 (or was it $40) for a lifetime with SVPN.
Though it is a bit unsettling when it displays how much time I have left (Subscription: Lifetime (7543 days), I guess I only have 20 years left on this blue marble.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @02:14PM
ProtonMail [protonmail.com] is free. And you control all the encryption keys.
Just sayin'
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @09:17AM (1 child)
If you want your ISP not to snoop around just vote with your wallet and find an ISP which doesn't. Simple. That's this "free market", isn't it? :)
(Score: 3, Informative) by Reziac on Saturday September 14 2019, @12:40AM
Wouldn't that be great? I have a practical choice of one. Well, there's fixed wireless (cuts out when it rains) and satellite (me and which bank?) but they're not among the practical choices...
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Saturday September 14 2019, @07:16AM
like i said in a google thread
'we will help you be secure from everyone!' -----it's a trap
(.....whispers 'but us.") ---slimy lateral power grab
'....oh and we forgot to renew our certificate so all tracking protection is turned off by surprise this saturday morning and you can fix it by turning our tracking features on, dont be a whiney b* about it.' - Mozilla 3 months ago ---slimy lateral power grab
free vpn == bad idea ------tip
(Score: 2, Funny) by fustakrakich on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:02PM (4 children)
*sigh* Everybody's a comedian...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:10PM (2 children)
Unfortunately, the part about needing a Firefox account is not a joke.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by NateMich on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:30PM (1 child)
Maybe that's the same as a Firefox sync account?
Also,
"Available free for a limited time"
It's eventually going to cost money. The whole point of this is to make them money.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by black6host on Friday September 13 2019, @01:10AM
I bet you've heard this before: If the product is free then you are the product. I believe that more today than I ever have in my life.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday September 13 2019, @03:55PM
Noooooooooooooooo!
Say it isn't true!
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 12 2019, @11:31PM (5 children)
fight the power, man!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @12:16AM (3 children)
Can we gay-marry him? We should trust those who fire those who would try to impose their archaic and batshit crazy religious values on the rest of us.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 13 2019, @02:28AM (2 children)
I know, right? How dare he have beliefs different than yours! Fuck off, fascist.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @05:16AM (1 child)
That's it! I am starting a program to make Buzzard marriage illegal! Because of God and libertarianism and AR15a! Hope you're happy now! (Includes marriage to catfish.)
(Score: 3, Touché) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 13 2019, @02:19PM
Where can I donate or how can I contribute to this program?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @09:22AM
The thing with Mozilla CEO is simple: I don't give a f..k what he's doing after work if he's doing his work great. He may hang fascist factory supervisors, or he may burn communists in his ashtray, that's rather law enforcement's job than mine.
If someone mixes work and after-work, it is just saying that we're slaves and we're only to work, the non-work being an illusion. So, what's so good in this capitalism then, how about going to the freedom of primitive-communism for example?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @01:27AM (4 children)
But will Mozilla only allow it for certain sites though. Can't let users be too free, what if they commit wrong think or aid terrorists?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @01:31AM (3 children)
Are commercial VPNs (PIA, Nord, etc.) in the business of blocking certain sites? I haven't used any.
Mozilla's VPN will block homophobic sites.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @05:17AM (1 child)
SoylentNews blocks some VPNs, as some Soylentils know from experience. Does that answer your question?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 13 2019, @02:21PM
Not unless they've been used to spam us we don't. Now shitty karma for the VPN's ipid may cause you to be unable to post but that's down to other users thinking you suck, not staff.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @06:36PM
well, that's fucking gay.
(Score: 2) by goodie on Friday September 13 2019, @01:38AM (1 child)
Whatever the purpose, the convenience of bundling services is far outweighed by the implications of facilitating the collection and use of my personal info. That's true for internet/tv etc., vpn, web browsers as well. I don't mind paying a bit more for each service, it's ok, I think my data is worth a bit more than the $1 providers lure you with... They can't possibly pretend that you get a free VPN with no way of generating value on the other side, no business would ever sign up for this.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @05:37AM
I mean, this is the beta. A free beta is common in video games and other industries too; it's how you say "look we know this isn't perfect but hey play with it and we'll use your feedback and your bugreps and your crash logs." They'll charge for it once it's out of beta, and while it's in beta there's a clear sign to not use it for sensitive business - the 'beta'.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:05PM
Blowhard lazy unskilled big talker (but no action in provable work done by "it") barbara hudson fails on C and C++ inferiority to P a s c a l on string processing security + speed advantage https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=33430&page=1&cid=889635#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] also caught in lies while quoted stalking others by unidentifiable anonymous posts at the end of that post.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @03:36PM
*sigh* sumethings already wrong (with the internet) if the VPN server is not running at your home but rather a meta gateway to access the internet.
tbh, i would rather have a free email with limited space, which my ownz email server can poll every 30min or so, fetch the data to local storage and delete (free up) the remote limited space ...
sheesh, whats next? a vpn to access a vpn safely?
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 13 2019, @04:16PM
Blowhard lazy unskilled big talker (but no action in provable work done by "it") barbara hudson fails on C and C++ inferiority to P a s c a l on string processing security + speed advantage https://soylentnews.org/comments.pl?noupdate=1&sid=33430&page=1&cid=889635#commentwrap [soylentnews.org] also caught in lies while quoted stalking others by unidentifiable anonymous posts at the end of that post.