Mozilla Rolls Out Subscription Based VPN Service on Firefox

Mozilla to test paid VPN service on Firefox to offer more privacy options to users.

Firefox Browser. 

(Photo: Mozilla)

In a move to make privacy more personal, online web browser Mozilla Firefox is rolling out a subscription based VPN (Virtual Private Network) service that will cost users $10 (Rs 750 approx) per month, the company announced in a news blog post on Monday.

The company is willing to bet on this feature, considering it believes that people today are willing to spend a little in order to reinforce their privacy online.

It is clear that the service will not be widely available to all the users. Instead, the company will begin by offering this service to a select group of users in the US starting on 31 October.

It will ask the users if they are interested in the programme and will accordingly enrol them for the initial phase of the test.

Mozilla has partnered with a Switzerland-based organisation called ProtonVPN who is providing the software to the company. It evaluated a long list of VPN providers before zeroing in on ProtonVPN, which was created by the creators of secure email service provider ProtonMail. ProtonVPN works on platforms such as Windows, MacOS, Linux, iOS and Android.

Mozilla's web-browser Firefox competes directly with Google Chrome. However, the additional VPN service might provide financial independence from direct competitor Google, since Mozilla is currently dependent on Google for search-ad deals on its browser.