Mozilla stops Firefox fullscreen VPN adverts after person outrage
Firefox customers have been complaining about very intrusive full-screen commercials selling Mozilla VPN displayed within the internet browser when navigating an unrelated web page.
The adverts popping in Firefox disable the net browser’s performance, denying customers entry to the interface and graying out all the things within the background till they shut them.
Some customers reported on Reddit that the annoying full-screen adverts even trigger Firefox to turn out to be unresponsive for as much as 30 seconds, forcing them to terminate the browser’s course of.
Apart from the disruptive nature of the commercial, Firefox customers confirmed their irritation on the aggressive selling methodology from an organization that theoretically has nice respect for person alternative and claims to worth a people-first expertise.
The commercial boosts Mozilla VPN, a paid open-source VPN service that constitutes an important income supply for the not-for-profit firm.
Mozilla VPN will not be obtainable worldwide, solely in the US, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Eire, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK; so it’s protected to imagine that solely customers from these areas noticed the overlay adverts in Firefox.
Mozilla switches off the adverts
The Firefox person neighborhood instantly expressed indignation in the direction of Mozilla’s blatant product promotional follow by submitting a number of studies on Bugzilla.
The latest related report on Mozilla’s bug monitoring platform obtained the “RESOLVED WORKSFORME” tag, which implies that adverts work as meant and there’s nothing to repair.
BleepingComputer has contacted Mozilla concerning the matter and obtained the next assertion following the barrage of complaints from Firefox customers:
“We’re repeatedly working to know one of the best methods to speak with individuals who use Firefox. In the end, we achieved the precise reverse of what we meant on this experiment and rapidly rolled the expertise again. We apologize for any confusion or concern” – Mozilla
A fast resolution for individuals who discover Mozilla VPN adverts unacceptable is to open Firefox, enter “about:config” within the URL bar, after which set browser.vpn_promo.enabled to false by clicking to toggle button on the proper.
Alternatively, customers could set up an advert blocker like AdGuard, which some individuals reported that it was efficient in blocking the pop-up.