Mozilla Firefox users can now rest assured that their browsers are blocking cross-site cookie tracking everywhere. The new feature, which was first announced in May, is available as of Firefox 57. The new feature is enabled by default and will block all cookies from third-party sites unless the user has opted in to allow them. Cookies are a common way for websites to track users across different pages on the site. This can be used to track what pages a user visits, what ads they see, and even which parts of the site they interact with most. Blocking cookies is one way to protect users’ privacy, but it’s not the only option. Users can also choose to disable cookies completely or only allow certain types of cookies from specific sites. Firefox also offers a variety of privacy settings that let users control how their data is used by websites. ..
Firefox is one of two major browsers left with a non-Chromium engine (the other being Apple’s Safari), which means it can experiment with lower-level changes that Google isn’t interested in. Now one of those changes is rolling out to everyone: Total Cookie Protection.
Total Cookie Protection, also known by its technical name ‘State Partitioning,’ is a feature in Firefox that isolates data from each website so cross-site tracking is more difficult (if not impossible). Even though the name might imply it’s only for cookies, the feature also isolates Local Storage, Service Workers, and other common ways for sites to store data.
Total Cookie Protection might sound familiar, because it has been slowly rolling out over the course of the past year. It was first enabled in Firefox’s ‘Strict Mode’ privacy option, starting in Firefox 86 last year. Mozilla later enabled it for all private browsing tabs with the release of Firefox 89, and now it’s enabled by default in normal browsing tabs too. Total Cookie Protection also rolled out to the Firefox Focus browser on Android earlier this year.
Mozilla said in a blog post today, “This approach strikes the balance between eliminating the worst privacy properties of third-party cookies — in particular the ability to track you — and allowing those cookies to fulfill their less invasive use cases (e.g. to provide accurate analytics). With Total Cookie Protection in Firefox, people can enjoy better privacy and have the great browsing experience they’ve come to expect.”
Total Cookie Protection is rolling out to all Firefox installations worldwide, on Windows and Mac. Linux support is presumably also included, but Mozilla didn’t mention that specifically. The mobile Firefox browsers aren’t included for now, and due to Apple’s restrictions on third-party browsers, the feature likely won’t ever be available on Firefox for iPhone and iPad.
Source: Mozilla Blog
