Firefox 91 introduces cookie removal, clutter-free printing, Microsoft single sign-on … so where are all the users? • The register

Mozilla released Firefox 91, with single sign-on for Microsoft 365, improved cookie clearing, automatic switch to HTTPS in private windows, and more, but the browser’s market share remains low despite a redesign.

Microsoft single sign-on means that on Windows, if a PC is either joined to Azure AD (the directory used by Office 365), linked to a Microsoft account (as almost all consumer PCs are), or linked to an account Azure AD, Firefox will retrieve this account and automatically connect to sites like Office 365, OneDrive, and Outlook.com.

The feature is not enabled by default, but can be enabled in Firefox settings, reducing friction when signing in and eliminating the need to save credentials in Firefox itself. Microsoft Edge also has this integration, but Google Chrome does not.

Enhanced Cookie Clearance removes cross-site content when users clear cookies from a website. This is a confusing topic, due to the third-party content embedded in the websites. Previously, the Mozilla privacy team said, “if you were to clear the storage for comfypants.com, Firefox would remove the storage for comfypants.com and leave behind the storage for all built-in sites (facebook.com).”

This has now changed so that cookies and other website data are partitioned into ‘one cookie jar per website’, rather than per domain, so that all data relating to that website is deleted if the user clears cookies. This feature would only apply if Strict Tracking Protection is enabled and only kicks in when users sign in to the Manage Data option in privacy settings. So it’s fair to say that most users won’t notice any changes. A more convenient option for those concerned about privacy, perhaps, is to configure Firefox to delete all cookies and site data when the browser closes, and to add exceptions for trusted sites.

Next, Mozilla added automatic switch to HTTPS in private windows. Hasn’t Firefox already done this? Not enough. Starting with Firefox 83, users could set the browser to HTTPS-only mode, which blocks access to sites that do not encrypt traffic with secure sockets layer (SSL). It is possible to add exceptions, but exceptions cannot be added for private windows. This is still the case, but now Firefox will attempt to connect over HTTPS if users are browsing an HTTP site privately, as explained here.

Again, the topic can be confusing, especially since many sites themselves automatically return a connection from HTTP to HTTPS. Mozilla also said that “we expect HTTPS by default to expand beyond Private Windows in the coming months,” so consider that a small step closer to an SSL-only web.

There are other changes in Firefox 91. The Visual Viewport API, which allows scripts to detect the size, scale, and offset of screen elements that are actually visible, is now enabled by default. The simplified format for printing feature, removed in Firefox 81 in September 2020, is back. This feature removes buttons, ads, and background images, designed to improve readability and reduce expensive ink usage. That said, we noticed that the option doesn’t always appear, maybe depending on whether the algorithm thinks it can successfully simplify the page. The register, apparently, is beyond simplification.

Firefox 91 is an Extended Support (ESR) release so business users can expect to receive this release on time.

Firefox is an important web browser because it is one of the few implementations of the specifications that define how the web works. The predominantly Google sponsored Chromium web engine used in Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Brave, Opera and many others is dominant, with Apple’s Safari (based on WebKit, from which Chromium was derived) the other.

There is concern that Google dictates the standards of the web to some extent, as Michael Kleber, technical manager of Privacy Sandbox, testifies: “W3C cannot be nobody’s boss, decisions will be made at individual browsers. . “The latest Firefox scored 513 out of 555 in an HTML 5.0 test site, compared to 528 for Edge and Chrome (scores obtained today on Windows 10, with each latest version).

Mozilla may fear that despite a redesign, its market share will continue to decline. Mozilla’s own figures show 196 million monthly active users at the start of August. While that sounds like a lot, it’s down from 209 million a year ago and 222 million in 2019.

Statcounter figures for July suggest a 3.45% global market share for Firefox, just ahead of Edge at 3.41%. Chrome was at 65.13% and Safari at 18.64%. ®