Firefox Total Cookie Protection Blocks Creepy Ad Trackers

Mozilla announced that it is rolling out Total Cookie Protection to the Firefox browser, its most powerful cookie blocking technology ever.

The new technology blocks third-party cookie trackers, stopping advertisers from tracking users from site to site.

Total Cookie Protection

The new Firefox cookie blocker confines all cookies to a “cookie jar” that is specific to the website that set the cookie. Any cookie set by one website will essentially be deactivated when a user leaves that site and visits another website.

This approach preserves website functionality and allows websites to collect analytics data that can help those sites provide better experiences to site visitors.

According to the Mozilla Firefox announcement:

“Total Cookie Protection works by creating a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit. Instead of allowing trackers to link up your behavior on multiple sites, they just get to see behavior on individual sites. Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser, that cookie is confined to the cookie jar assigned to only that website.

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.”

Improves On Previous Technology

The new cookie blocking closes a loophole in Mozilla’s previous privacy technology, Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP), which allowed marketers to create a workaround to defeat Firefox’s cookie blocking.

Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) relied on a list of cookie trackers that are used to track users across the Internet. All trackers on the list were blocked.

But trackers not on the list were still able to track users. Marketing companies on the block list were able to get around the blocking by creating new tracking domains.

Mozilla’s Total Cookie Protection defeats those workarounds by confining all set cookies to a “cookie jar” that’s restricted to the site that set the cookie.

Firefox Tracking Protection

Total Cookie Protection is now available on Firefox for Desktop and is rolling out as a default feature. This means that users do not have to dig around the browser settings in order to turn it on, it comes switched on automatically.

The feature is also enabled via the Firefox Private browsing experience and in Mozilla’s dedicated privacy browser called Focus, for mobile devices. The Focus browser is available for both Android and Apple devices.

Citation

Read the Official Mozilla Announcement

Firefox rolls out Total Cookie Protection by default to all users worldwide

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