Mozilla backs off its security, privacy services to focus on Firefox

Mozilla is greatest identified for its Firefox browser, however in comparison with rivals, it’s not almost as common. As a part of the corporate’s efforts to show its consideration again to Firefox, a number of of its standalone merchandise are taking successful—together with a few stellar ones that offered additional anonymity on-line.

As reported by TechCrunch on Tuesday, Mozilla is “scaling again” its consideration to Mozilla VPN, Relay, and On-line Footprint Scrubber, following the layoff of roughly 60 staff. It additionally will pull again on its mozilla.social Mastodon occasion, which can be run by a smaller workforce, and shut down Hubs, its 3D digital world. These adjustments come shortly after the appointment of a brand new interim CEO.

In an inside memo, Mozilla outlined its new effort to give attention to Firefox as soon as extra—particularly to additional infuse AI into the browser, saying its Pocket, Content material, and affiliated AI/ML groups can be engaged on “discovering nice content material.” At present, Firefox recommends articles from Pocket in new tabs when left on default settings, lots of that are long-form options masking common pursuits like cooking, well being, historic figures, and science.

At present, no adjustments are being introduced for Mozilla VPN and Relay, in line with a consultant from Mozilla. Mozilla Monitor Plus, which scrubs your data from information dealer websites, is a separate providing from On-line Footprint Scrubber and in addition not affected by the layoffs.

For those who’re a Mozilla VPN, Relay, or Monitor Plus subscriber and are nervous in regards to the information, there’s a potential silver lining. Each the VPN and Monitor Plus are powered by accomplice corporations (Mullvad for the VPN, and OneRep for Monitor Plus), so the companies gained’t go utterly beneath if Mozilla shutters its branded variations of them. In the meantime, Relay customers can flip to DuckDuckGo’s limitless e-mail masks to cover their e-mail handle whereas on-line. It really works just like Relay, together with integration with password managers like Bitwarden—besides it’s totally free.