Ask HN: Why can't Mozilla offer a paid privacy tier?

22 points by funerr 6 months ago | 18 comments
I love firefox and want to support it, I hate seeing the direction the company goes to with privacy.
  • franga2000 6 months ago
    What are you referring to exactly? If Mozilla told you "sure, we'll take your money and give you a more privacy-preserving browser", what would you want to be different about it?
    • acd 6 months ago
      Mozilla need to remove Javascript finger printing identity from the browser

      Try it from a VPN https://amiunique.org/

      • morjom 6 months ago
        and get Fission to the point where it can be on by default.
      • xyzal 6 months ago
        I would love to see a 'Donate to Firefox' button in Firefox. I would even donate on a monthly basis.
        • throwaway74354 6 months ago
          Mozilla Corporation is a for-profit organization, they can't handle donations. Mozilla Foundation don't need your money and won't use it to fund Firefox.
          • nottorp 6 months ago
            As long as the money goes to the browser, not the latest blockchain/“ai” initiative.
            • DeepSeaTortoise 6 months ago
              Then who else will be "Co-Creating a Feminist AI Alliance for Climate Justice", "Exploring sustainable intersections between climate change, environmental data and digital inclusion" and fight "the spread of harmful content like hate speech, misinformation, and synthetic media"?

              People making fun of such events held at African luxory resorts do not understand that after the event ended, Zambia's tech literacy increased measureably.

            • rererereferred 6 months ago
              You are better off donating to Ladybird.
            • not_your_vase 6 months ago
              What do you mean specifically by paid privacy tier? Mozilla offers some privacy oriented paid services... one comment here mentions VPN, then there is Monitor Plus for online data scrubbing, Firefox Relay for message masking, just from the top of my head
              • Vinnl 6 months ago
                To add to that, privacy features that can be offered for free, like tracking protection in Firefox, often are, and thus are available to everyone. Services like Relay, VPN and Monitor Plus, which require upkeep of infrastructure, are paid or have paid tiers.

                (Disclosure: I worked on both Relay and Monitor, but this is my own interpretation; I don't set pricing strategy.)

              • BrianHenryIE 6 months ago
                • magic_smoke_ee 6 months ago
                  Then you're using Brave or Opera.
                  • surrTurr 6 months ago
                    Because it's not a billion dollar super scale business (that's apparently the only thing worth pursuing)
                    • vouaobrasil 6 months ago
                      If you care about privacy, use the internet less. There is no world in which free things like the internet will also be privacy-respecting once it starts to generate economic output.
                      • dehugger 6 months ago
                        Sure there is, it's just not a capitalist world.
                      • immibis 6 months ago
                        You mean like Mozilla VPN?
                        • fufufafa 6 months ago
                          becuase google is frienemy
                          • devops99 6 months ago
                            Something you can do for free is block all outbound traffic and configure Firefox to use an outbound HTTPS proxy where you can dynamically enforce a blocklist or default deny and an allowlist.

                            Isolate Firefox traffic and observe it some time.