Mozilla relaunches the Firefox Test Pilot program to test privacy-focused products

[harlan4096]

Mozilla relaunched the Firefox Test Pilot program on September 10, 2019 to test privacy-focused products.

The organization shut down the program twice already, the last time in January 2019. The second "Test Pilot" program was launched by Mozilla in 2016 as a way to test new features, get feedback from Firefox users, and gather data to determine if experiments would make good additions to Firefox, be better off as extensions, or standalone services.

Some features, Tracking Protection or Activity Stream were integrated into Firefox. Others, Containers being one, were released as extensions on Mozilla AMO, the official add-on repository.

Today's relaunch of the Test Pilot program moves the program into a different direction. Mozilla notes that it is designed to give "loyal and faithful users" an option to "test-drive new, privacy-centric products as part of the relaunched Test Pilot program". One of the core differences to the previous program is that these products may be outside of the Firefox web browser and that they will be "just one step shy of general public release".

Firefox Private Network

The first product of the new Test Pilot program is called Firefox Private Network. The program is open to users from the United States only at the time and a Firefox account is required as well.

Mozilla's description is vague when it comes to the underlying functionality. It appears to be a browser proxy of sorts designed to protect Internet traffic better similarly to other third-party proxy/VPN extensions for Firefox. The service is free for a limited time only according to Mozilla.
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