Firefox Promoting Private Browsing

Take a break from Big Data

[IanCP]

Email received from Mozilla today [I'm only the messenger with no opinion]:

Firefox + You - November 2015
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Browse privately, for real
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Eyeglasses wearer, tennis fan, new parent, loves to cook, watches reality TV and owns a motorcycle. A silver Honda NC700X, to be precise.

Creepy, right?

When you’re minding your own business, happily surfing the Web, you're often unknowingly sharing information about yourself. Just beneath the surface, third-party trackers gather, store and sell information they learn about you.

All hope is not lost! The new Private Browsing with Tracking Protection in Firefox gives you control over the data you share by stopping third-party trackers from following you online. Now you can keep your personal data to yourself. Browse privately, for real, only in Firefox.

TRY THE NEW PRIVATE BROWSING >>

[mozilla.org ]

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How does tracking work, anyway?
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Imagine leaving a trail of breadcrumbs that can be picked up and used by Big Corporations to reconstruct your whereabouts, preferences and identity, even before you finish reading the headlines over your morning coffee.

Sometimes, tracking can be useful, but other times it puts your personal privacy at risk. Understanding how tracking works is the biggest step toward taking better control of your personal data. Mozilla is here to help you get started.

GET SMART ON TRACKING >>

[mozilla.org ]

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Featured Add-Ons
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User-Agent Switcher

Easily switch between 25 popular user-agent strings.

Add it to Firefox >>
[addons.mozilla.org ]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Do we have to select Private Browsing or can this be made to default?

[bhukkel]

In preferences -> privacy -> select always use Private Browsing.

note i do not use the english version so exact translation can be different

[IanCP]

In my [English] FF 42.0 it is:

Tools > Options > Privacy

For some obscure reason my FF version seems to differ from others. Anyhoo, I noticed this on another page:

Coming in version 43

Starting with Firefox version 43, you will be able to change the block list used to block third-party trackers. By default, Private Browsing with Tracking Protection uses the Disconnect.me basic protection list. You will be able to change this to use the Disconnect.me strict protection list instead.

The basic protection list blocks commonly known analytics trackers, social sharing trackers, and advertising trackers. However, the basic protection list allows some known content trackers to reduce website breakage...[more]

[support.mozilla.org ]

[tangor]

If none have noticed, this new feature should be called "ad block lite". :)

Reality, it blocks third party access to the browser which MIGHT block ads, but will block all tracking, which is more important.

It is a sad state of affairs that FF, IE, Edge and even Apple as a company saying ad blockers are okay, and others in the mainstream are becoming more cognizant that the user's privacy against indiscriminate tracking (third parties) is reaching a point of user rebellion. The rise of script and ad blocking add-ons/extensions is clearly leading the way. The "sad" part is that advertisers and distribution networks have abused their position and monetized user details/habits to third parties and the kiddies aren't going to take it anymore.

Recent visit to a news site I view daily had no less than 99 tracker/invaders of privacy, all of which were nullified, and the JS, too. And if the site does not display, I click "No Style" in view and read the sucker anyway (unless it is all JS and dynamic in which case I never come back).

Some say this trend will break the web.

I don't think it will. The web works just fine and will continue to do so. But the leeches (sic, I meant that word) on user habit and identity sneaking in "under the radar" are being exposed minute by minute, day by day. Those folks are not needed to make the web work... though, done right, can make the web profitable.

It is the "done right" part which is under fire at the moment.

Private Browsing in FF42x gets that job done. A simple check box in options... as opposed to installing Noscript and Ad Blocker Plus. (Which I, for my personal browsing, have installed... YEARS AGO)