Firefox New User Download With Enhanced Tracking Protection Turned On By Default

[engine]

Mozilla has announced that Firefox downloaded by new users will have Enhanced Tracking Protection turned on by default as part of its standard setting.
This will slowly be rolled out to existing users over the coming months, but it can be turned on by going to Content Blocking, selecting privacy preferences, and going to the custom gear. Select the Cookies checkbox and ensure "Third-party trackers" is selected.

Remember, as soon as you turn that on some sites may appear to break.

In addition, Mozilla is releasing an update to Facebook Container, which as you may already know, prevents Facebook from tracking you on other sites with the embedded Facebook capabilities, such as "Like" and "Share." Facebook Container blocks the buttons, and importantly, all connections to Facebook’s servers.



Firefox is rebranding its password mananger Lockbox to Lockwise
[youtube.com...]

the desktop extension will give you more control over your stored passwords with shared access from every device.

[blog.mozilla.org...]

[aristotle]

Well just today I got a notification from Firefox for a new update to Version 67.0.1. , and the options appear to be already the same as what will "slowly be rolled out to existing users in coming months." Trackers was already selected by default. I unchecked it, and got a message that I need to reload all tabs.
At this point I'm a little confused.

[aristotle]

I just unchecked "Custom" and went back to what I had previously:
"Standard" -- "Only blocks known trackers in Private Windows." Got the same "reload all tabs" message, but I had already closed all the other tabs manually anyway.

[creeking]

FYI, check your choice for "automatically install updates".

I never choose that, but after reading this thread, I looked and it was ON.

[Dimitri]

Soon all browsers will do the same (or similar), because of the EU ePrivacy directive.

[aristotle]

creeking -- I have Firefox set to notify me, and always update it manually.

One of the reasons I don't like Chrome is I couldn't find a way to prevent it from updating automatically. Maybe there is a way, but I never found it.

[engine]

Interesting, I just checked and my update has taken it by default. Perhaps the "slowly rolling out..." was now.

[aristotle]

engine -- I'm still not sure what it did. Anyway, as I said, I changed it back to "Standard" -- "Only blocks known trackers in Private Windows" because I do nearly all of my general searching in Private mode.

[mcneely]

You can select which sites to allow by clicking on the shield in the address bar in order to turn blocking off for a particular site. Works great for when you've got a client that insists on ruining his or her site with ads (that track). Now I can show them how ridiculous their build might look with all of the ads (3rd party stuff) turned off by default.

As with anything turned on by default, the average end user probably won't even notice that they aren't being tracked. Sort of a good thing really when you think about it, in that eventually, the average end user will actually be shopping for the things they "really" want, as opposed to being told what they "really" want by advertisers. It's pretty difficult to sell to people that can actually think for themselves and make their own "informed" decisions. Advertisers might have to start stepping up their game a bit by improving their targeting strategies -- and/or come to terms with the fact that nobody really wants their garbage after all.

[engine]

aristotle I've left it on to see what happens, and so far, it's been fine. I tend not to visit sites other than the mainstream.
Only one site broke, and that's because my a/v software decided it might have been a bank and wanted to open it in a secure window. It may have done that in any case.


mcneely, yes, advertisers will have to do some actual work to find their markets.

[tangor]

The tin foil hat privacy brigade (IR1) suggests Custom and check everything in sight, and change the option of what to block to ALL THIRD PARTY COOKIES, too. :)

Option one blocks trackers, period. Blocking third party cookies takes care of the rest ... for now.

MEANWHILE, install NoScript and use all its defaults, only changing to "trusted" when you really trust the site.

But more importantly, set FF to DELETE ALL COOKIES when you close the browser.

AND EVEN THEN (under strict tin foil hat rules) KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN as they are ALWAYS OUT TO TRACK YOU. :)

Bwahahahahaha!

On a more serious note, some of the above is satire (though the advice is valid for those seeking to control their own line presence while using FireFox), these things change all the time. If you are concerned, keep track of what is happening.

NOTE: some of these setting are extreme (for sites that don't play fair but you might want to visit) and might BREAK them. Personally, I don't play with those sites. YMMV

[Achernar]

aristotle:
One of the reasons I don't like Chrome is I couldn't find a way to prevent it from updating automatically. Maybe there is a way, but I never found it.

I have found a reliable way to prevent chrome from updating. Many pages offer solutions that don't work.

Disabling chrome update is as simple as renaming a directory: go to google's program directory (2 directory levels above chrome.exe folder), rename the "Update" directory to something else ("no Update").
I'm doing that since december. No hiccups, but after several weeks I had to add a command line option to chrome's shortcut

--check-for-update-interval=604800

to prevent chrome from displaying an error icon in its toolbar.

[aristotle]

Achernar -- Thanks for the information. But I'm afraid I would mess up something doing that kind of thing. I don't use Chrome much anyway so to me it's not worth the risk. I always try to stick to simple methods.

[mcneely]

I've had Firefox set to delete cache and cookies after every browser session for years. I've always never allowed 3rd party cookies either, since ... um ... forever.

Firefox has been the only browser available that I could do this with -- All of the other browsers, you have to go in and clean things up manually.

[tangor]

Roomate in the house, who is not as security conscious as I am, and I do not manage their machine, has noticed a difference. Me, I never saw it since my personal and work machines (except for one) are all locked down.

Time will tell if FF users will adopt these new defaults (I suspect they will as most are auditioning for a place in the "box of rocks" when it comes to security.

I do salute Mozilla for taking these steps. Additionally, even the MSM is reporting the current exposure of PII, data breaches, and "personalized tracking". In that much, the public is getting different information than the past 12 years.

[JS_Harris]

I don't believe for one second that there won't be trackability by mozilla itself built into this. Does Google still own 5% of Mozilla?