Last updated Jan 5, 2021 at 3am ET
Number one shows why he’s number one. ExpressVPN, our favorite VPN provider, has made headlines with a possible industry deal of the year by teaming up with the Open Web advocate Mozilla of Firefox fame. Its Firefox Lite browser, which is aimed at Asian markets, will now be packed with a 7-day ExpressVPN free trial. The offer has been made available in India, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines – that’s a user base of over 700 million.
Formerly known as Firefox Rocket, Lite is built with the goal of reducing mobile data usage and loading times on slow connections. When searching for the fastest speeds, users in the aforementioned countries frequently connect to public Wi-Fi hotspots, making themselves susceptible to so-called man-in-the-middle attacks, where a hacker listens to the user’s traffic and intercepts it, or responder attacks. Even the HTTPS green padlock sign in the address bar is not a sign of complete safety. That’s why using a VPN that creates an encrypted tunnel from the user’s device to the server is highly recommended. And while no VPN is a 100% safeguard from hackers, ExpressVPN comes very close indeed.
Firefox Lite is branded as a lightweight but feature-packed Android browser, designed with Asian markets in mind. Requiring less than 3.5 MB of storage space, Firefox Lite is easily the smallest major browser. Nevertheless, its features allow using the smallest amount of data and thus reducing the need to connect to unsafe Wi-Fi networks.
The partnership is named as a strategic one by both parties, with the long-term goal of advancing online security and privacy in mind. Mozilla says it has carefully chosen ExpressVPN due to its high security and privacy standards, industry-leading leak protection, speed and reliability, and strong track record of digital rights advocacy (among other things).
“Through our partnership, we’ll be able to help Firefox Lite users secure their connections and ensure their data is not exposed to prying eyes or malicious actors,” said Harold Li, vice president of ExpressVPN.
While both partners aspire to higher goals, it remains to be seen whether users in developing Asian markets will spend money on a rather expensive VPN service.
About the partners
Mozilla has been a pioneer and advocate of the Open Web for more than 15 years. It creates and promotes open standards that enable innovation and advancement of the Web as a platform for all. Today, hundreds of millions of people worldwide use the open source Mozilla Firefox browser to experience the Web.
ExpressVPN is one of the world’s largest providers of VPN services. Based in the British Virgin Islands, the company helps protect user privacy and security online. The company’s award-winning apps are available on many platforms – Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, Linux, routers, and more. They secure identities and communications with best-in-class encryption and leak-proofing. ExpressVPN is offering its users access to one of the most far-flung networks on the market. The server list has 2,000+ entries, scattered over 94 countries and as many as 148 different locations.
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Senior Writer
Karol is an experienced freelance writer, translator, and editor. His creative output covers a wide range of technology topics such as fintech, privacy, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and more. He does not limit himself to just plain articles and writes guides, editorials, think pieces, and reviews.
