Accessing Cloud-Supported Features in Firefox

Beyond the core experience, Firefox has various optional cloud-supported features like backup and sync that you can choose to enable.

In general, these features require a Mozilla account, both to support the functionality and to help Mozilla protect its cloud infrastructure from abuse. For example, Mozilla needs to ensure that the servers supporting Firefox’s free VPN aren’t repurposed to route non-Firefox traffic or launch denial-of-service attacks. Mozilla Accounts are the main way we ensure that these services are used by genuine Firefox users.

Certain cloud-supported features, such as VPN and Shake-To-Summarize, may support limited usage for users who haven’t yet created or choose not to create an account. This affordance is available on a best-effort basis and uses platform-specific functionality like the Google Play Integrity API as a signal of non-data-center usage. These mechanisms are not needed or used for users who are signed in to their account.

The primary mechanism for accessing these features remains Mozilla Accounts, which does not depend on any platform-specific functionality and are available on any platform where Firefox is supported.