Firefox users have been expressing their frustration with intrusive full-screen advertisements promoting Mozilla VPN that appear while they are browsing unrelated pages. These ads disable the browser’s functionality, preventing users from accessing the interface and graying out the background until they close the ads.
Some users on Reddit even reported that the ads caused Firefox to become unresponsive for up to 30 seconds, forcing them to terminate the browser’s process. Users expressed their irritation at the aggressive advertising approach from a company that claims to prioritize user choice and a people-first experience.
The advertisement in question promotes Mozilla VPN, a paid open-source VPN service that serves as a crucial revenue source for the not-for-profit organization. However, the ads were only displayed to users in specific regions where Mozilla VPN is available, including the United States, various European countries, and others.
Mozilla received significant backlash from the Firefox user community, who filed multiple reports on Bugzilla, Mozilla’s bug tracking platform, expressing their discontent with the promotional practice.
Following the barrage of complaints, Mozilla responded by turning off the ads and issuing an apology. They stated that they are continuously working to understand the best ways to communicate with Firefox users and acknowledged that the advertisement experiment achieved the opposite of what was intended.
Mozilla recommended a quick solution for users who find the VPN ads unacceptable, suggesting to access Firefox’s advanced settings by typing “about:config” in the URL bar and disabling the “browser.vpn_promo.enabled” option.
Alternatively, users can install ad blockers like AdGuard, which has been reported to effectively block the intrusive pop-up ads.
