Firefox, already known for its privacy protection, will soon be even more private with a new feature that restricts access to cookies.
The feature, called Total Cookie Protection, aims to increase protection against online tracking by limiting websites’ ability to read third-party cookies. According to a Mozilla blog post, access to any cookie will be restricted by the website that placed it in the user’s browser, so a cookie created by one website or service will not be readable by other websites. visited by the user.
A Mozilla blog post explains: “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. No other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you … 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).”
Cookie protection is part of Mozilla’s current privacy strategy, according to which Firefox keeps the most sophisticated form of ad blocking, unlike Google Chrome.
Describing the need to strengthen the protection from cookies, Mozilla cited various examples of tracking abuse, including digital tracking of Facebook applicants for student loans and the sale of data on visitors to Planned Parenthood. Mozilla Security Director Marshall Erwin told The Verge that the organization wants to give users control over their own data and offer more reliable protection against misuse.
“Internet users today are stuck in a vicious cycle in which their data is collected without their knowledge, sold, and used to manipulate them,” Erwin said via email. “Total Cookie Protection breaks that cycle, putting people first, protecting their privacy, giving them a choice and cutting off Big Tech from the data it vacuums up every day. The feature offers Firefox’s strongest privacy protection to date and is the culmination of years of work to clamp down on online tracking.”
It may take more than the cookie protection to curb the fierce absorption of data by large technology companies, but blocking third-party tracking will certainly bring obvious privacy benefits.
A new cookie protection feature is already available in the latest version of Firefox. According to Erwin, Mozilla adheres to a different timeline for mobile rollout, although the technology is already available in the Android version of Firefox. According to Erwin, the technology cannot be released on iOS due to the rules of the App Store.
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