14 DAY TRIAL // Mozilla is working on a new feature called Tracking Protection that is helping users identify and block websites that collect personal data despite the fact that the browser has the "Do Not Track" policy enabled.
Browsers come with an incognito feature for a few years now, and you would think that it would be sufficient, but it's not. Some websites still gather information, and that happens even if the user enables the "Do Not Track" options that are present in most browsers today. In a world very much concerned with privacy, having websites get data from your computer without your consent is a problem, even if it's only cookies or other metadata.
Developers can't stop websites from collecting data, but that doesn't mean that they can't do something proactively that can help the user filter out the bad "apples." Mozilla is now working on a feature called Tracking Protection that uses a third-party service, Disconnect's blocklist. This is a list of websites presenting this kind of behavior, and users are now informed when that happens so they can block it or stay away from the website.
Nothing is really secure
It's quite possible that a website has some embedded malware installed on your system when you access it. Tracking Protection does not offer protection against that kind of aggression; it's only an informative tool. You still need other apps to protect your system, but hopefully the websites that misbehave might not want to get on a list that filters out users.
"Tracking is the collection of a person’s browsing data across multiple sites, usually via included content. Tracking domains attempt to uniquely identify a person through the use of cookies or other technologies such as fingerprinting. While Firefox has a Do Not Track feature that tells websites not to monitor your behavior, companies are not required to honor it. Firefox's Tracking Protection feature puts the control back in your hands by actively blocking domains and sites that are known to track users," reads the official website.
How to activate Tracking Protection in Firefox
Tracking Protection is a very new feature, and it's only available in the Nightly builds of the browser, which means that it will take a few months until it reaches the stable branch. In any case, if you are using this built, you can follow a few easy steps:
- Open a new tab and type about:config and press Enter - Agree not to ruin anything by pressing the "I'll be careful, I promise!" button - Search for privacy.trackingprotection.enabled and change its value to "true" with a simple double-click.
It's as simple as that and disabling the feature is just as easy, just switch the latest setting to "false."