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by auslegung 1752 days ago
If I understand the OP well, the question is, how can Mozilla justify charging twice what Mullvad charges, and lock you into a 12-month contract, for what is largely a repackaging of Mullvad.
2 comments

So just use Mullvad instead. For those who want to support Mozilla's efforts, this is a good way of doing it. Think of your extra $5 as a sort of donation to them for building such a wonderful browser and browser ecosystem (Lockwise, extensions, Pocket etc)
A $5 donation is at least tax deductible and comes with less overhead for the foundation to process.
But firefox is developed by mozilla corporation, and donations to mozilla foundation doesn't fund firefox development. It goes to various advocacy/activism causes.
Does mozilla corporation income necessarily go to firefox development though?

(I worry that foundation income goes to activism and corporation income goes to the CEO’s pockets...)

While executives earn money like at any company, most of their budget is spent on Firefox. 2% of the Mozilla Corporation revenue goes back to the Mozilla Foundation.
That downplays the remuneration of the principle Moz exec considerably AIUI. Mitchell Baker's remuneration from Moz was >$2M last I heard (a few years back [see eg https://calpaterson.com/mozilla.html]), I can only assume it's more now.

There was also a report Baker had a >$1M "stipend" (uncharitably a bung) from Google, though I've been unable to refute/corroborate it.

For clarification, I believe he is saying you pay the same price as a mullvad subscription if you lock into a 12 month subscription, not that you pay double the price and are locked into that.