Firefox 69 lands with third-party tracking cookies and cryptomining blocked by default

[Shawn Knight]

Forward-looking: Mozilla is also working to enable fingerprinting protections by default in a future release. Fingerprinting is a tracking technique that involves capturing a snapshot of your computer's configuration and following it around the web. For now, you’ll have to turn on “Strict Mode” to enable it.

The latest version of Mozilla’s Firefox browser, out now for Windows, macOS, Linux and Android, now blocks third-party tracking cookies and cryptominers by default.

First enabled for new users in June, Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks known third-party tracking cookies based on tracking prevention lists maintained by Disconnect. On sites where it is activated, you’ll see a shield icon in the address bar.

You can even click the shield icon to view which companies Mozilla is blocking. Simply navigate to the Content Blocking section, then Cookies and click the arrow beside Blocking Tracking Cookies to see a list of companies being blocked.

At present, Mozilla said over 20 percent of Firefox users have the feature enabled but that figure should climb sharply with Firefox 69.

The new Firefox also blocks cryptominers by default. These malicious programs essentially steal your hardware’s processing power to generate cryptocurrency for someone else. This results in sluggish performance, unnecessary wear and tear on your hardware and increased electric bills.

This really only scratches the surface as Firefox 69 also introduces the Block Autoplay feature to block any video that starts autoplaying, not just those with sound. There’s also a “New Tab” page experience, support for the Web Authentication HmacSecret extension via Windows Hello and for macOS users, improved battery life and download UI.

Masthead credit: Firefox browser by Sharaf Maksumov

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/81721-firefox-69-lands-third-party-tracking-cookies-cryptomining.html

 

[Evernessince]

Blocking 3rd party cookies alone is pretty huge. Google and Facebook will be disappointed when they can no longer tracker you when you leave their site.

 

[wiyosaya]

IMO, FF should be blocking all third-party cookies by default - not just some on a cherry-picked list.

 

[ShagnWagn]

"unnecessary wear and tear on your hardware"

LOL, what does this even mean? I overclock my hardware to the max stable frequency, then run it that way for years without any problems. I have one that has been running this way for 10 years and is still kicking.

 

[scavengerspc]

"unnecessary wear and tear on your hardware"

LOL, what does this even mean? I overclock my hardware to the max stable frequency, then run it that way for years without any problems. I have one that has been running this way for 10 years and is still kicking.

Increased demand on resources = increase heat, which is never good for hardware.
Im surprised as a PC enthusiast you dont seem familiar with the concept.

 

[Dimitrios]

So I didn't update my Firefox for the last 2-3 weeks. Now I can't watch movies on Amazon Prime and Hulu. I can watch the trailer but it denies me until I update Firefox!

WTF??????? That's shady! Well anyway I will be updating my browser.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Increased demand on resources = increase heat, which is never good for hardware.
Im surprised as a PC enthusiast you dont seem familiar with the concept.

An enthusiast for 25+ years. I am surprised as a PC enthusiast you don't seem familiar with the concept of running your electronics within their heat tolerance point. I keep mine cool, and thus they last for years and years without any problems. Take care of your equipment and it will last. Same as a vehicle. You wonder how people trash their vehicles in just a year or two. You would think they would take care of them being they take a big part of their income.

 

[JasonT1]

Nice.

 

[Scavengers]

Increased demand on resources = increase heat, which is never good for hardware.
Im surprised as a PC enthusiast you dont seem familiar with the concept.

An enthusiast for 25+ years. I am surprised as a PC enthusiast you don't seem familiar with the concept of running your electronics within their heat tolerance point. I keep mine cool, and thus they last for years and years without any problems. Take care of your equipment and it will last. Same as a vehicle. You wonder how people trash their vehicles in just a year or two. You would think they would take care of them being they take a big part of their income.

Thing is I agree with you. But what Im saying is that some of the cryptominers use AVX\AVX2 instructions for example that load a system severely and no amount of cooling is going to stop a huge increase in heat.

 

[ShagnWagn]

Thing is I agree with you. But what Im saying is that some of the cryptominers use AVX\AVX2 instructions for example that load a system severely and no amount of cooling is going to stop a huge increase in heat.

They load a system more than Prime95 would? I use prime95 to test heat output for stability. Do you have a link that shows cryptominers can generate more heat than prime95 could?

 

[Scavengers]

They load a system more than Prime95 would? I use prime95 to test heat output for stability. Do you have a link that shows cryptominers can generate more heat than prime95 could?

They do not. I didnt say they do. What I said was........
Oh crap.......
What I said was they do load a system down which will increase the heat, a lot of heat, and no heat is good heat.

 

[Danny101]

They load a system more than Prime95 would? I use prime95 to test heat output for stability. Do you have a link that shows cryptominers can generate more heat than prime95 could?

They do not. I didnt say they do. What I said was........
Oh crap.......
What I said was they do load a system down which will increase the heat, a lot of heat, and no heat is good heat.

Whether or not your system can handle it would seem to me besides the point. It's the permission of someone utilizing your resources for their gain that is the main issue. Whether enthusiast, professional, or mainstream, I would think everyone would agree that this is a problem.

 

[scavengerspc]

Whether or not your system can handle it would seem to me besides the point. It's the permission of someone utilizing your resources for their gain that is the main issue. Whether enthusiast, professional, or mainstream, I would think everyone would agree that this is a problem.

Absolutely

 

[captaincranky]

Whether or not your system can handle it would seem to me besides the point. It's the permission of someone utilizing your resources for their gain that is the main issue. Whether enthusiast, professional, or mainstream, I would think everyone would agree that this is a problem.

Well duh.....

At this point in the discussion, I have to wonder if you should just let the malware load, then read the system temps off that, and skip Prime '95 altogether. That does sort of sound like where this thread was headed

 

[DelJo63]

So I didn't update my Firefox for the last 2-3 weeks. Now I can't watch movies on Amazon Prime and Hulu. I can watch the trailer but it denies me until I update Firefox!

WTF??????? That's shady! Well anyway I will be updating my browser.

just FYI: I'm now on FF 69.0 and have no issues accessing Netflix

 

[Dimitrios]

just FYI: I'm now on FF 69.0 and have no issues accessing Netflix

I forgot what old version I was on but I was busy working a lot the last 2 months and didn't care to update it and keep putting it off (my fault but didn't expect this). I had a family member with the same issue. This DRM or Codec issues really piss me off. For Netflix wasn't it true that you needed a newer CPU with a fairly new instruction set?

 

[DelJo63]

For Netflix wasn't it true that you needed a newer CPU with a fairly new instruction set?

Absolutely not ! I'm on a Dell Laptop, Win/7 Pro Sp 1

 

[DelJo63]

Specifically model N5040, i3 cpu, @2.53Ghz

 

[Dimitrios]

Absolutely not ! I'm on a Dell Laptop, Win/7 Pro Sp 1

Oops I meant to say watching 4K on Netflix. There was an article like a year ago here about Netflix on PC needing a newer CPU.

 

[DelJo63]

Oops I meant to say watching 4K on Netflix. There was an article like a year ago here about Netflix on PC needing a newer CPU.

let me help:
Watching a Netflix presentation on a 4K device

Than would be unknown to me as we're not interested in 4 or 8k -- too much$$$ for too little results

 

[Dimitrios]

let me help:
Watching a Netflix presentation on a 4K device

Than would be unknown to me as we're not interested in 4 or 8k -- too much$$$ for too little results

For Windows users you need a newer CPU with a instruction set something about DRM to play 4K on your PC or laptop. I do have the new Firestick but don't care it can play 4K I always lower it to 1080P.

 

[Danny101]

Well duh.....

At this point in the discussion, I have to wonder if you should just let the malware load, then read the system temps off that, and skip Prime '95 altogether. That does sort of sound like where this thread was headed

Exactly what prompted my reaction.