Mozilla’s VPN is free, limited, and not really a VPN
Mozilla Firefox is rolling out a “free VPN” that promises to hide your IP and add a layer of privacy with zero effort.
In reality, it’s closer to a lightweight browser proxy than a true VPN. This is more like a simplified, corporate-friendly version of Tor Browser, but without Tor’s multi-hop anonymity, and with a data cap and geographic limits bolted on.
“It routes your browser traffic through a proxy to hide your IP address and location while you browse, giving you stronger privacy and protection online with no extra downloads,” Mozilla said in a blog post detailing new features that are coming to Firefox 149.
The built-in VPN has a few shortcomings, though. For starters, users will only have 50GB of data every month. For the average user, this will be more than enough. “Power” users, on the other hand, who like to download a lot of online content, may feel restricted by the monthly 50GB limit.
Secondly, the free VPN will only be available in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States “to start.” This probably means Mozilla will launch the new feature in other countries as well, but there’s no news on what countries or when.
Mozilla has a long history of launching and abandoning products and calling things “privacy” that aren’t quite that. If Tor is a maze intended to hide you, this is more like blackout curtains that let light in.