Firefox 70 adds privacy reports, letting you track the trackers

[onetheycallEric]

In context: Firefox continues to use privacy as the defining feature that distinguishes it from browser market incumbent Chrome. While Google struggles to strike a balance between privacy and protecting its massive revenue stream from online advertising with Chrome, Mozilla continues to prioritize a privacy-first approach in its latest Firefox release.

Over the summer, Firefox rolled out enhanced privacy protections aimed at blocking tracking requests, a feature that became standard with September's Firefox 69 release. While these protections mostly took place behind the scenes, with its latest release, Firefox is ready to shine a light on third-party trackers with a new privacy protections dashboard that includes privacy reports.

By default, the level of protection is set to "standard." You can opt for more serious settings, albeit at the cost of some sites not working properly. To access the privacy protections dashboard, users will need to click the shield icon in the left corner of the address bar.

The privacy report will give users an overview of the most recent week of activity, showing the number of third-party trackers blocked according to type. As of today with Firefox 70, Firefox will also block cross-site trackers from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which should cull the amount of creepy, overly-personalized ads.

From within the new privacy protections dashboard, users can also access Firefox Lockwise and Monitor. For this release, Lockwise is getting an update to include a password generator, as well as tighter integration with Monitor to alert users if their information has surfaced in a data breach. You can grab Firefox 70 here.

Mozilla isn't the only one cracking down on cross-site tracking; Apple has taken a hardened stance on cross-site tracking with Safari, too, citing inspiration from Mozilla's privacy policies.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/82448-firefox-70-adds-privacy-reports-letting-you-track.html

 

[wiyosaya]

As of today with Firefox 70, Firefox will also block cross-site trackers from the likes of Facebook and Twitter, which should cull the amount of creepy, overly-personalized ads.

I really do not get how this is anything new at all. Blocking third-party cookies has effectively done this in FF for years.

While I get that they have tuned FF to make this easier to do, there have been cookie controller add-ons that have done this.

This seems like marketing spin albeit, IMO, this is far better than the faux privacy offered by chrome.

 

[Evernessince]

I really do not get how this is anything new at all. Blocking third-party cookies has effectively done this in FF for years.

While I get that they have tuned FF to make this easier to do, there have been cookie controller add-ons that have done this.

This seems like marketing spin albeit, IMO, this is far better than the faux privacy offered by chrome.

Compared to the prior version of Firefox they now give you the option to block cross-site cookies and social media cookies.

Previously your options were to block cookies from unvisited websites, block all 3rd party cookies, or block all cookies. Essentially you can now block the more troublesome cookies without having to give up functionality. Sure there are 3rd party add-ons that can do this as well but I believe it should be a standard feature of the browser.

I should mention that so far it has been blocking trackers that disconnect and uBlock were missing. If you click on the shield next to the website name, under blocked you can see categories of what's being blocked. If you click on a category it will list everything it's blocking.

 

[Plutoisaplanet]

Firefox now also allows Windows 10 PCs with Intel integrated graphics and resolutions of 1920x1200 or less to enable WebRender via about:config > gfx.webrender.all. I tried it out and there were at least no slowdowns I could notice. I think I’d need to access more animated/graphics-intensive sites to see if there’s a difference (maybe Google Gravity).

 

[hahahanoobs]

I switched to Firefox on PC and mobile a few months ago, because of Google starting to block adblockers and ads... while keeping their ads. I have less than 10 tabs open at a time so memory usage wasn't a reason. Part of it was curiosity. I used it years ago when it was a beta I believe.

I find Firefox more useful and thoughtful such as the screen fading when going in and out of full screen on YouTube. On chrome it's choppy and the video stops in comparison. I can still sync bookmarks and logins, and send tabs back and forth. Homepage customizations are better too imo.

Give it a shot.

 

[Eldritch]

On PC Firefox is no brainer but on Android the Chrome is still the choice of most people due to simple reason that it is already there and always running in background in non-rooted phones. Same goes for gmail, calendar, gboard etc.
Firefox also needs to work on Android version and extensions. The extensions/addon page is full of entries which are not supported on Android. Why show them at all? Why not show only supported addons?

 

[Cubi Dorf]

Blocking cookie means the script runs, but can’t save data on your machine. blocking tracker means script can’t even run. tracking company can still collect much data about you without saving on your machine, but can’t know anything if script can’t even running. bonus to privacy, internet is also much faster when scripts not running. an average web site has over 20 of tracker. some has hundreds.

I really do not get how this is anything new at all. Blocking third-party cookies has effectively done this in FF for years.

While I get that they have tuned FF to make this easier to do, there have been cookie controller add-ons that have done this.

This seems like marketing spin albeit, IMO, this is far better than the faux privacy offered by chrome.