Firefox extends anti-tracking features with browser fingerprint blocking



[ad_1]

Firefox is testing a new anti-tracking feature that will prevent sites from being able to fingerprint your browser and follow you even after you've deleted your cookies. In addition, the browser will now explicitly block cryptocurrency extraction scripts that attempt to divert resources from your computer to exploit the digital currency. Both features will initially be available in the browser's Night and Beta versions for testing purposes.

Fingerprints describe how online sites and advertisers can track you by grouping together many tiny details about your system configuration, ranging from your operating system to your system fonts and even the size of your system. your screen. Even if tracking is disabled, services can use these tiny clues to create a single fingerprint and use it to track you across multiple sites.

Firefox is not the only browser to attempt to block this type of tracking. During WWDC 2018, Apple announced its intention to integrate anti-fingerprint tracking into its Safari browser.

In addition to blocking fingerprint tracking, Firefox will also explicitly prevent cryptography scripts from using your computer's resources. However, according to Bleeping Computer, the browser has technically been able to block many of these scripts since the end of 2017 as part of its existing blocks on abusive ad followers. The change here is that the browser is now explicit about blocking these scripts, and you can disable blocking for only cryptomers if you wish.

The new features are part of a broader Mozilla initiative to increase user privacy. Last year, Firefox 63 introduced improved tracking protection, a feature that blocks third-party tracking (though disabled by default).

The new browser anti-tracking technology is optimized by Disconnect, which provides a list of the domains that handle these abusive scripts. Disconnect also offers a Chrome extension offering similar anti-tracking services on Google's browser. By default, Google's browser only offers the ability to send Do not Track requests. This option is disabled by default and many sites will ignore it anyway.

The new Firefox features will be available in the Nightly versions of the browser, version 68, and Beta, version 67. The two new options are currently disabled, but Mozilla plans to disable them in the Nightly versions in the coming weeks. For now, to activate them, go to the "Privacy & Security" tab of the Preferences menu, select the "Custom" section in "Blocking Content", and check the boxes next to "Cryptomers" and "Imprints". digital ".

[ad_2]

Source link