The news that Mozilla could release a suite of privacy-focused tools and services to complement its popular Firefox browser has been some bullshit in the area of security and privacy. Many believe this could be a blessing in disguise, as it will help popularize tools like VPN and Password Manager, giving users more privacy and security. However, the surprise announcement throws up more questions than it answers, so what can the news really mean for your internet browsing?
Why is Mozilla doing this?
Becoming a privacy Office 365 could help Firefox stay relevant in an increasingly polarized world where smartphones have been taking over desktop computers. According to the latest Netmarketshare report, Chrome has two-thirds of the desktop browser market. Microsoft Internet Explorer/Edge is a far distant number two at less than 14%. Firefox is the third with less than 10%. Things are even darker on mobile, where Firefox's market share is just over 1% – in other words, almost non-existent. So why the urgency? Well, aside from the fact that the number of desktops, where Firefox is most prevalent, is slowly shrinking, contracts with search engine providers for royalties will be expiring in November 2020. ; In 17 months. The most important of these is Google, and web browsers' biggest rival Firefox is likely to be its main benefactor as well. But for how long? Mozilla is fully aware of this "risk concentration", as reported in its latest semi-annual audit report, with approximately 93% and 94% of the organization's royalty revenue derived from these contracts for 2017 and 2016 respectively, with accounts receivable representing approximately 75% and 79% of outstanding accounts receivable. Mozilla appears to be aiming to spread risk by not focusing on a single source of revenue, with the understanding that research money may one day disappear.
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How does Mozilla plan to do it?
Like Microsoft and Office 365, Mozilla has built its privacy suite around one key product. Firefox is in this case the equivalent of Microsoft Word for Mozilla, a flagship product that will freeze the package. Firefox Monitor monitors account breaches, Lockwise will act as a password manager, Pocket filters out fake news, Firefox Send lets you securely share large files (but not store them). The caveat is that you must have a Firefox account to use all of the above and it can be argued that additional features such as Office365 will make Firefox stickier. Beyond the current features, we know that Firefox is interested in ultra-private browsing (an integration of Tor) and sees virtual private storage (VPN) and cloud storage as possible extensions of its mandate. It has already struck a deal with ProtonVPN, and industry sources have told us that Firefox had the idea to shut down some of the biggest VPN providers on the market. We think you can buy ProtonVPN completely; the latter is a branch of ProtonMail and is based in Switzerland; ProtonMail, as a secure messaging service, would be ideal for Mozilla's email client, Thunderbird, and ProtonVPN is a well-respected virtual private network provider. Then comes the Svalbard project, whose goal is to secure the future of HaveIbeenPwned, the popular data breach treasure trove that Troy Hunt, its owner, has put up for sale. Hunt and Mozilla were very close partners, and Troy Hunt revealed that there were discussions without saying more. However, there could be something even bigger in the pipeline. Nearly a decade ago, Opera introduced a bold and forward-thinking feature called Unite. Jon von Tetzchner, then CEO of Opera, said it was Web 5.0, a reinvention of the Web. In more prosaic terms, it was a (file) server in a browser, but perhaps too ahead of its time. Could Firefox revive this idea and add server functionality to all the versatile and P2P-based web browsers? Others have already tried it with, for example, mixed results. But Firefox is a much bigger entity with a much bigger user base and a huge war chest. As a non-profit organization, its total assets stood at €607 million as of December 31, 2017, an increase of 22% compared to 2016. If this growth rate continues, the company will have an asset of more than one billion. dollars by the end of 2019.
Will Mozilla and Firefox be successful?
Microsoft and Google have a lot to lose as privacy advocates. This is where Mozilla wants to position itself, while reducing its reliance on needing to take money from its main competitor. Until then, all is well, but then there's Apple and Safari. Like Mozilla, Apple quietly positions itself as a privacy-first company with its Safari browser offering features that will appeal to those concerned about tracking and the lack of anonymity of other browsers. . During WWDC 2019, Apple also revealed the "Apple Connection" feature, capable of generating random email addresses to better protect your privacy. There's also the fact that Apple now has 1,5 billion active users and nearly 250 billion Apple devices. By comparison, Firefox has more than 20 million active users per month, a number that has dropped by nearly XNUMX% in two years and is largely focused on desktop computers.
What does the competition say?
Harold Li, Vice President of ExpressVPN, welcomed this news, saying that ExpressVPN "is delighted to call Mozilla a partner offering VPN services in many markets through Firefox Lite, and is delighted to see that they share our opinion. that VPNs are an essential element of online privacy. Security tool. " "Since the cyber security market is very competitive, we will be very interested to see what they offer. However, it is a good sign. This means that cybersecurity and privacy are important to people, and that consumers will have more tools to choose from. it will push us even further to keep our products competitive," said Daniel Markuson of NordVPN.
People use VPNs for a variety of reasons, from entertainment to security. Surveys conducted with our customers show that approximately 80% of our users have chosen NordVPN for the security it provides. Depending on the products offered by Mozilla and the promises they make to their users, our products may serve different groups of users. "Mozilla has a lot of marketing opportunities and sales incentives because it has a significant user base," said Kaz Par, CEO of VPN provider Surfshark. "However, VPN users are very demanding. As we see from our users, there are a wide variety of VPN use cases and we don't yet know if Mozilla is up to the challenge. We have seen in the past examples of large companies developing their VPN solutions (Facebook VPN Onavo, VPN Opera, etc.)," he continued, "but with little success."
Private Internet Access Publishers, a spokesperson for LTM, praised the competition, adding that "a lot of companies and projects seem to build privacy features into their offerings, and I think that's great." As history continues to be controlled by a small number of insiders, and the rest of us are simply watched to make sure we don't fall for their story, all of these mutual efforts in all areas will keep history alive. ecosystem in balance, and ultimately tip the scales in favor of people. On Sunday Yokibaitis from Golden Frog, the company behind VyprVPN went further. "The VPN industry is growing rapidly and we welcome competition. I have a lot of respect for Mozilla and use a combination of Firefox and DuckDuckGo for personal browsing. I've always said that we needed an army of privacy protection companies, not some battleships, to help combat the growing threats that threaten the privacy of users and the privacy of their lives. 39, open the internet, "he said.
"As one of the world's leading VPN providers, we have always been focused on our core mission: giving people greater privacy, greater security and freedom on the Internet. Over the past 10 years, many VPN services have come together as we remain focused on growing our business, improving our technology, and providing a more secure service for our customers. users. " "At this time, it is not clear if Mozilla will offer a real VPN (an encrypted tunnel) or if it will offer a proxy service, but it will call it a VPN like Opera. Mozilla will have the same challenges in terms of transparency, security, performance, and customer support that every VPN provider faces when entering the VPN marketplace. I think transparency will be Mozilla's main challenge when it launches its VPN service. I have seen reports online that ProtonVPN would be the wholesale VPN service for Mozilla. However, there were also online discussions about the fact that (name removed) was the true owner of ProtonVPN, which had raised concerns about data mining and customer information data. Other transparency issues. Ultimately, Mozilla will have to decide how to deal with the transparency issues inherent in using a third party to provide its VPN service. " "I have great respect for Mozilla and hope it meets our transparency standards. "Transparency is sorely lacking in the VPN industry today, and I hope Mozilla will continue to help us lobby for more transparency in the VPN industry." "There has been a long tale of two networks to the extent that there is an open internet and a restricted internet, but more and more countries like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia are getting more aggressive with their censorship and Big tech companies like Facebook and YouTube are making progress. steps towards censoring its users, there seems to be more polarization than in the past. " "We have always played an active role in the fight against Internet censorship, whether it is lobbying political leaders to protect Internet neutrality or joining Organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) to defend privacy. And the expression freedom. Fight against censorship around the world.
I believe that Mozilla's decision to launch a VPN is an attempt to protect the free and open Internet, not to divide the Internet into two separate Internet services. We appreciate your help in fighting governments and entities that continue to restrict and pervert the original intent of the Internet, which is simply to allow people to talk to other people.