You’ve had the ability since October, and in June they made it official, but it’s only today that Mozilla’s Firefox web browser will protect your privacy by blocking third-party tracking software for all its users by default — theoretically keeping companies from keeping tabs on your online activity and potentially selling it to others.
Firefox’s latest version blocks third-party trackers by default for everyone
Before, only 20 percent of users had it turned on
Before, only 20 percent of users had it turned on
Image: Mozilla
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That’s because with Firefox version 69, Mozilla just flipped the switch to turn on its Enhanced Tracking Protection for all users, instead of just new users (as it did in June) or making you opt-in if you want to try it (as it did last October).
“Currently over 20% of Firefox users have Enhanced Tracking Protection on. With today’s release, we expect to provide protection for 100% of ours users by default,” reads the company’s Tuesday blog post.
As we’ve discussed previously, Mozilla’s protection doesn’t go quite as far as Apple’s Safari web browser in that Firefox merely blocks a long list of supposed bad actors, rather than all third-party tracking software. But it may allow some sites to operate that rely on cookies to help serve up legitimate content, too.
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