[conspire] VPN

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Paul Zander (paulz at ieee.org):

> As a long time user of Firefox, I get occasional emails about the
> Mozilla VPN.   Is that something I should consider?

The relevant prefatory question (and I apologise if this sounds snarky)
is:  What problem are you trying to solve?

I'm obliged to look the doohicky up.  Wikipedia says:

  Mozilla VPN is an open-source virtual private network web browser
  extension, desktop application, and mobile application developed by
  Mozilla.  It launched in beta as Firefox Private Network on September
  10, 2019, and officially launched on July 15, 2020 as Mozilla VPN.

The free version routes encrypted traffic out through Cloudfare.  The
paid version uses the Swedish Mullvad VPN service, which uses the
WireGuard VPN standard.  The former is Web-browser-only, relying on an
MPL 2.0-licensed open source extension for Firefox, and works in a
limited number of countries including the USA.  There's also something
about it comprising "12 one-hour VPN passes when using the Firefox browser
and a Firefox account", which sounds to me like an intro/upsell taste.  
The paid version is _not_ just limited to browser traffic and is sold on
a monthly basis with plans from US $5/month on up, depending on details,
and it looks like that -too- is intro pricing that goes away after a
while, so long term you end up at $10/month or such.  (I could be wrong
about the latter point concerning intro pricing.)

If you want a presumably competent review, you'll find one here:
https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/mozilla-vpn-review


Getting back to "What problem are you trying to solve?", there are
sundry reasons some people pay for commercian VPN services.  Sometimes,
it's "I intend to do things that will annoy the copyright barons,
without them being able to determine my IP address."  Sometimes, it's 
"I want to watch sportsball/Auntie Beeb/European YouTube/Amazon
Prime/Disney+/Netflix, and stop being denied by geoIP checking because
they don't like where I live."  And there are other reasons, involving
in some cases more formidable obstacles to evade, up to and including
major state spook agencies.

The above-cited review details some of how well Mozilla's new competive
commercial offering stacks up against the usually-cited industry leaders
such as NordVPN.

Personally, I've grown pretty picky about whom I do business with, and
tend to ask "Well, why _you_, for _that_?"




> On a slightly different topic, I recently read something from Google
> saying they help security by deleting emails after 90 days.  No thank
> you.  It is not uncommon to want to get in touch with someone after
> many months.   For example, old college friends who I message only on
> special occasions. 
> 
> Not sure how deleting old messages helps security, but it does save G
> storage space.  Comments?

Perhaps someone else will be able to help you, on that.  I don't 
rely on outsourced data at Google.