mozilla isn't "shady". they have ventured into providing some optional 'paid' services so they can generate some revenue outside of their long-standing google deal to be the default search.. because if that deal disappears, so does the vast majority of their funding.
you'd have the same 'concerns' with any vpn provider.
afaik, mozilla just resells a branded mullvad service.
do you trust them? do you trust them more than google? apple? your telco or cable company or satellite provider? more than motorola, samsung, or other mass-market handset makers? you should. mozilla is on your side--the others? nope. not a one.
i do that too. if it's from a number i'm gonna answer (but don't recognize), i do. and then watch the call timer on the phone and don't say anything until after three seconds. legit callers are always still there, the computers--never are.
if a call rings through that the phone company has tagged in caller id as probably bogus. i just answer and hang-up right away. they don't call back.
since STIR/SHAKEN rolled out, the scam and robocalls here have really dropped off. only a few per week now.. even to the phone numbers that are published (intentionally) online.
of the ones that get through, nearly all of them are coming through new voip points-of-presence popping-up in small towns all over our very rural part of the country.
once upon a time that's how headlines and news were written--so you could get the gist of the news by skimming headlines (of your printed newspaper) and perhaps the first short paragraph of an article.
i don't do anything on my phone. it's a flip phone with data and wifi disabled on the device, and sms disabled at the carrier. it's quite literally just a 'telephone'.
if i go somewhere where i might expect a long wait alone (like to a doctor's appointment), i'll take a paperback with me.
the alternative is manually (and somewhat regularly during your hardware's support period) searching a manufacturer's web site for a bios update, hoping that your bios has a built-in flasher or there being at least a boot disk or 'dos' flasher you can slap on a usb to do it... lvfs is a good thing.
the qr itself is just a link to a recaptcha web page with a unique identifier in the url.
the magic is all hidden in the required app that's linked to your google account and device, and the interactions that take place between it and google's servers once it sees that code or link.
i have a few oem pulls, all a380--cut down by the oem (such as hp) to a measly ~40 watts max to fit within the limits of the little 12vo psu found in their cheapest desktops.
runs on linux beautifully (and easily). runs what games i do play quite well. qsv works great, although it is still a removed to get working in obs or handbrake with native packages (it's a breeze with their respective flatpaks, though). it is also working pretty well in 'incompatible' (no rebar support) systems. on some configurations, efi screens default to a giant low-res output, but that's about the only real 'issue'.
yea, ubuntu 'failing' is news to me, too. their infrastructure has been hammered by bad actors, and pre-release daily spins were at-times a bit rocky, but the release itself (barring a few potential issues on the desktop with all the changes) seems to be solid.
as large hardware vendors, i'm pretty sure they were to getting to the point where they would lose features or even access to the service if they didn't start paying-in.
mozilla isn't "shady". they have ventured into providing some optional 'paid' services so they can generate some revenue outside of their long-standing google deal to be the default search.. because if that deal disappears, so does the vast majority of their funding.
you'd have the same 'concerns' with any vpn provider.
afaik, mozilla just resells a branded mullvad service.
do you trust them? do you trust them more than google? apple? your telco or cable company or satellite provider? more than motorola, samsung, or other mass-market handset makers? you should. mozilla is on your side--the others? nope. not a one.