Firefox Announces Free VPN and 'Startpage' Search Engine Rolling Out to Android, iOS - Plus GeForce NOW Support (pcworld.com) 18
Firefox 154 "brings a number of usability improvements," writes PC World:
The free built-in VPN, introduced with Firefox 149, continues to offer a selection of virtual locations — temporarily extended to 28 countries until the end of August... The free VPN is currently available to Firefox users in the US, Canada, the UK, France, and Germany. In addition, the free VPN can now also be used in Firefox for Android (rolling out gradually) with iOS to follow soon.
Firefox 154 also begins adding the privacy-focused search engine Startpage to its address-bar search options for desktop users in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands (the home markets for the Netherlands-based search engine). And Startpage is also coming soon to Android and iOS. "When so much of the web experience is decided by a handful of very large companies, a search option that's private by design and European by origin isn't a small thing," explains a Mozilla blog post, with Ajit Varma, Head of Firefox, saying this now gives millions of people in Europe one-click access to "real results, zero profiling, AI-free." Queries aren't stored or linked to you, and there are no AI answers pushed above your search results. In fact, there's no AI at all. Based in the Netherlands, Startpage built its product around a simple idea: great search and personal privacy can go hand in hand... Firefox users were choosing Startpage long before today — to the tune of more than a billion searches a year, every one of them required some assembly: an extension, a manual setting, a workaround... Startpage ranks among the most-requested search engines in the Firefox community. When demand is this clear, our job is to remove the friction...
Most browsers have already decided how you're going to search. Firefox hasn't. Pick your search engine, control what happens to your queries, decide who sees data about you, even turn AI on or off. It should always be your call. Not everyone wants the same thing from search, and a browser shouldn't pretend they do.
"Firefox has always been the browser for people who want to make their own decisions about the web," said Startpage President Stewart Marlborough, "which makes it a natural home for private search."
Nvidia's GeForce NOW cloud-gaming platform is also now officially supported on Firefox, expanding access across even more devices," according to a Nvidia blog post: Members can outfox big downloads and jump into high-performance PC gaming directly from the browser — no waiting on lengthy game installs or updates. The experience delivers GeForce RTX-powered performance at up to 1440p and 120 frames per second for GeForce NOW Ultimate members. Simply download the latest version of Firefox, head to play.geforcenow.com and start playing. The cloud handles the heavy lifting, so games are ready to play without taking up valuable storage space on the device. Firefox joins Chrome, Edge and Opera in supporting GeForce NOW on Windows browsers.
Mozilla's own blog post even includes an animation of the Firefox mascot playing games: Gamers put real effort into making their rigs their own, and Firefox gets that. Users can choose themes, custom colors, and tab settings to customize their setup, instead of sitting there like just another window. We also know online gaming doesn't happen in just one window. It's social and sometimes spontaneous. With Firefox, you can have a Discord call running in Split View, a guide open in another tab, or Reddit pulled up between matches. Then go full screen when you're ready to play, no need to switch browsers to stream games.
"In the security report for Firefox 154, Mozilla lists 58 resolved security vulnerabilities, 54 of which were discovered and reported by external security researchers," notes PC World. ("Mozilla classifies 17 of these vulnerabilities as high risk.") With Firefox 155 (scheduled for September 1), Mozilla is switching to a fortnightly release cycle for major versions, like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Firefox 154 also begins adding the privacy-focused search engine Startpage to its address-bar search options for desktop users in Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland, and the Netherlands (the home markets for the Netherlands-based search engine). And Startpage is also coming soon to Android and iOS. "When so much of the web experience is decided by a handful of very large companies, a search option that's private by design and European by origin isn't a small thing," explains a Mozilla blog post, with Ajit Varma, Head of Firefox, saying this now gives millions of people in Europe one-click access to "real results, zero profiling, AI-free." Queries aren't stored or linked to you, and there are no AI answers pushed above your search results. In fact, there's no AI at all. Based in the Netherlands, Startpage built its product around a simple idea: great search and personal privacy can go hand in hand... Firefox users were choosing Startpage long before today — to the tune of more than a billion searches a year, every one of them required some assembly: an extension, a manual setting, a workaround... Startpage ranks among the most-requested search engines in the Firefox community. When demand is this clear, our job is to remove the friction...
Most browsers have already decided how you're going to search. Firefox hasn't. Pick your search engine, control what happens to your queries, decide who sees data about you, even turn AI on or off. It should always be your call. Not everyone wants the same thing from search, and a browser shouldn't pretend they do.
"Firefox has always been the browser for people who want to make their own decisions about the web," said Startpage President Stewart Marlborough, "which makes it a natural home for private search."
Nvidia's GeForce NOW cloud-gaming platform is also now officially supported on Firefox, expanding access across even more devices," according to a Nvidia blog post: Members can outfox big downloads and jump into high-performance PC gaming directly from the browser — no waiting on lengthy game installs or updates. The experience delivers GeForce RTX-powered performance at up to 1440p and 120 frames per second for GeForce NOW Ultimate members. Simply download the latest version of Firefox, head to play.geforcenow.com and start playing. The cloud handles the heavy lifting, so games are ready to play without taking up valuable storage space on the device. Firefox joins Chrome, Edge and Opera in supporting GeForce NOW on Windows browsers.
Mozilla's own blog post even includes an animation of the Firefox mascot playing games: Gamers put real effort into making their rigs their own, and Firefox gets that. Users can choose themes, custom colors, and tab settings to customize their setup, instead of sitting there like just another window. We also know online gaming doesn't happen in just one window. It's social and sometimes spontaneous. With Firefox, you can have a Discord call running in Split View, a guide open in another tab, or Reddit pulled up between matches. Then go full screen when you're ready to play, no need to switch browsers to stream games.
"In the security report for Firefox 154, Mozilla lists 58 resolved security vulnerabilities, 54 of which were discovered and reported by external security researchers," notes PC World. ("Mozilla classifies 17 of these vulnerabilities as high risk.") With Firefox 155 (scheduled for September 1), Mozilla is switching to a fortnightly release cycle for major versions, like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.
Reinstate Brendan Eich NOW!!! (Score:1)
Stop the wokeness to end the brokeness.
Would I pay for that? (Score:2, Troll)
To make AC go completely away? Maybe.
Just joking. I meant Firefox, as in "Would I donate money to Firefox for a browser-only VPN?"
The answer is quite clear on this one. No. There are plenty of VPNs in the market and I could buy one if I wanted it, and it would cover my browser, too. But even worse, I actually downloaded Opera to look at the included VPN and concluded it wasn't worth it. Haven't used Opera in a long time now. However as Firefox continues to add unwanted cruft they are increasing the pressure
You haven't started Firefox in awhile (Score:4, Insightful)
Here's an ambiguous prompt that will delete all your extensions, themes, and custom settings if you answer "yes". Just think of it as our little "fuck you" for using Chrome. Oh, by the way, welcome back.
Re: (Score:3)
>"Here's an ambiguous prompt that will delete all your extensions, themes, and custom settings if you answer "yes". "
Yeah, I really hate that thing. I really don't understand why they added that "feature." In any case, it can be disabled. Go to about:config , create a new boolean with the name âoebrowser.disableResetPromptâ and set it to âoetrueâ. Or manually add to your prefs.cfg:
lockPref("browser.disableResetPrompt", true);
Re: (Score:1)
Anyways, prefs.cfg must be a windows name. I added:
user_pref("browser.disableResetPrompt", true);
to the user.js where I put permanent preferences.
Re: (Score:2)
>"Anyways, prefs.cfg must be a windows name. I added:"
Sorry, I meant prefs.js
Hell no I am not using MS-Windows!
And yeah, user_pref inside it works fine.
Years and years (Score:3)
>"Firefox users were choosing Startpage long before today"
Yep. I have been using StartPage and DuckDuckGo as my sole search engines for many years. DDG has been included in Firefox for quite a while, but not StartPage. So I am glad to see it added, although adding it yourself is not difficult.
StartPage is essentially Google search without Google spying on you and without AI and other annoyances.
DuckDuckGo is essentially Bing without Microsoft spying on your and without some of the annoyances.
Re: (Score:2)
I have a mug from a conference Startpage sponsored about a decade ago.
It's been in my Firefox at least since then. Did I add it manually?
I am actually surprised this is new!
I guess Mozilla was being paid to not do this? Ages ago we had Altavista, Excite, Yahoo, and even Google as options. I really had no idea how deep the anticompetitive tying had become.
BTW, if you want to search for anything counterculture Yandex Search will have it on the first page while the Western engines will gaslight you into beli
While VPN solves only a fraction of the problem... (Score:2)
Living in a Islamo-Fascist semi dictatorship where deep-package-inspection is considered totally usual, I wonder why third World countries weren't included in such offers.
Startpage & System1: Privacy and “Europe (Score:3, Interesting)
[Credit: AI]
The Startpage integration is interesting, but it raises questions about how "European" and how "private" Startpage really is, given its ownership and history.
Ownership and corporate structure:
- Startpage was acquired in 2019 by System1, a US-based advertising and marketing company.
- System1's core business is user acquisition, ad monetisation, and data-driven analytics.
- Startpage may operate in the Netherlands, but its ultimate owner is an American ad-tech company.
"European by origin" vs. US ownership:
- Startpage was founded in Europe, but ownership determines jurisdiction.
- A US corporation is subject to US corporate governance and potentially US legal obligations.
- This complicates the idea that Startpage is a purely European privacy service.
Relevant examples:
- ASML is a Dutch company, but the US government has effectively dictated what it can export and to whom. Being "European" does not guarantee independence from US control.
- Skype started as a European peer-to-peer service, but after being acquired by Microsoft it was redesigned into a centralised architecture and eventually replaced entirely. Its privacy characteristics changed dramatically once US ownership took over.
System1's incentives:
- System1 is an advertising company, while Startpage claims to collect no data.
- So what is System1's strategic interest in owning a privacy-focused search engine?
- Reputation asset to offset their data-driven business?
- Traffic funnel into their wider ad ecosystem?
- Privacy-washing?
- The mismatch between Startpage's mission and System1's business model is worth examining.
Transparency concerns:
- The acquisition was not disclosed publicly at first and only became known after external pressure.
- Startpage says it maintains operational independence, but ownership still matters when the parent company's incentives differ from the product's stated values.
Closed-source code:
- Startpage's search engine is not open-source.
- Users cannot independently verify how queries are handled, what logs exist, or how data flows between Startpage and System1.
- Privacy claims therefore rely on trust rather than technical transparency.
Missing context in this Slashdot post:
- The Slashdot summary does not mention Startpage's relationship with System1 at all.
- Given the importance of ownership, jurisdiction, and incentives, this omission is significant.
Why this matters for Firefox:
If Firefox is promoting Startpage as a private, AI-free, European alternative, users deserve clarity on:
- Who ultimately controls the company
- What jurisdiction applies
- What incentives the parent company has
- How sustainable Startpage's strict privacy stance is under US ownership
Privacy depends on trust, and trust depends on transparency, not marketing language.
I remember when... (Score:3)
I remember when Firefox was a browser, with announcements of new browser features instead of hobbled VPNs and some novelty cloud gaming service horseshit.
Who asked for this?