Much like FPN, proxy servers would receive requests from clients and then make the request to the site on their behalf, but only if someone else hadn’t visited the site recently. Internet connections were expensive and slow compared to today’s standards, so making this more efficient was an important goal. The idea was that hundreds of people in a company could all be asking for similar pages. The technology originally was designed to make browsing faster, not more secure. What is a Proxy?Īlmost since its inception, Internet technologies have supported the idea of a proxy. FPN acts as your proxy, which is not a new term. This provides a layer of insulation between you, your ISP, and the sites you visit. Besides FPN itself, your ISP only sees you going to FPN, and the sites only see requests coming from FPN. In turn, FPN makes the request to the site on your behalf. When you browse with FPN turned on, every request you make is sent to FPN. These are the warnings that are prominently displayed when you start a new Private Window, and they are correct. Although that provides a clean experience, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) such as Verizon, Cox, or Comcast can still tell where you are going, and the sites you are visiting can still tell where you came from. The browser itself modifies its behavior, discarding cookies, form data you type in, and other data stored in the browser. With those venerable features, the browser on your computer connects to the Internet to interact with websites, just as when those features are not being used. The level of privacy this feature brings is much different than browsing in a Private Window, Incognito, or InPrivate, as the feature is known in Google’s Chrome browser and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer/Edge browser, respectively. But this month, the Mozilla Foundation announced a tool that can provide Firefox browser users with more firepower to fight this fight: the Firefox Private Network (FPN). Sometimes, the tools just don’t measure up to the threat. Trying to protect your security and privacy online often feels like standing in the middle of a field with an umbrella trying to protect yourself from a tornado.
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