Marketing our privacy products while preserving privacy

When we launched Mozilla VPN, a fast and easy-to-use VPN, it was in a market crowded by companies making promises about privacy and security and we believed our reputation for building products that help you keep your information safe would make our product stand-out. To date, tens of thousands of people have signed up to subscribe to our Mozilla VPN, which provides encryption, device-level protection of your connection and information whenever you are on the web.

As we continue to look for new ways to grow our audience, we saw that many of our competitors used affiliate marketing as a way to get people to buy their service. The challenge is that affiliate marketing is a space rife with tons of data collection practices. At Mozilla, online privacy has always been one of our top priorities. We knew that in order for us to pursue affiliate marketing we would have to do it in a transparent way with as little data as possible to provide people with the best privacy possible.

Prioritizing privacy right from the start with affiliate marketing

You're in the market for a new phone and start by doing research on reviews sites, then pick one of the site's top choices and click on the link to buy? This is an example of affiliate marketing. Essentially, a trusted media site is giving their thumbs up so that once you click on the link to buy they get paid for that referral. Companies use affiliate marketing as a method to leverage well-known publishers to bring awareness of their products and drive people to buy.

Data collection happens when people's information is shared once they click on a link either through a publisher's site or using an influencer's code. There is an attribution tagged to that link or code so that the publisher or influencer gets credit for sending that user to the company's site. During that transaction, information like an IP address or any other additional data about the person is passed through a third party, an affiliate network partner.

At Mozilla where we prioritize people's privacy, choosing the right affiliate network partner was our first step. We selected Commission Junction because they have experience in the VPN category and were willing to collaborate with us to build a privacy-forward solution for attribution.

Together with our engineering team we integrated affiliate marketing in a way that was designed to limit data transfer and collection. We only collect and pass the data necessary to credit an affiliate network partner with the subscription they helped us get. We use a server-to-server integration to prevent leaking user IP addresses. Our code is open source to ensure transparency around this data.

We inform people about this upon accessing our website and people who do not wish to see this data collected can opt out.

Upon accessing our website, you can opt out if you do not want this data collected

This approach is in line and a reflection with our lean data practices and our privacy promise.

Since the launch of our affiliate marketing program in April, we continue to evaluate companies who are aligned with the same values that we embody and represent the best of the web.

Now available with a seven-day risk-free trial

Summer is just around the corner and as you begin planning your vacation, whether you're staying in a hotel or renting a home, or traveling between airports or coffee shops, you can have peace of mind using Mozilla VPN wherever you are. Mozilla VPN encrypts your connection protecting your privacy and concealing your location. You can feel safe knowing that Mozilla VPN does not log or sell your data. Starting this month we're offering a seven day-free trial for mobile devices (Android and iOS) so you can get protection on-the-go" wherever you browse the web.

Building privacy products at Mozilla

We know that it's more important than ever for you to be safe, and for you to know that what you do online is your own business. Developed by Mozilla, a mission-driven company with a 20-year track record of fighting for online privacy and a healthier internet, we are committed to innovate and bring new features to the Mozilla VPN. By subscribing to Mozilla VPN, users support both Mozilla's product development and our mission to build a better web for all.

Check out the Mozilla VPN and subscribe today from our website.

Device-level encryption from a name you can trust Try Mozilla VPN

For more on Mozilla's privacy products:

• Latest Firefox Relay includes bigger attachment size and filters for promotional emails
• Keep your multiple online lives private with Multi-Account Containers Add-on on Mozilla VPN

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