14 DAY TRIAL // The latest few updates for Firefox browsers brought improvements supposed to help protect users’ privacy when browsing the web, and Mozilla is now willing to continue these efforts with a new project.
The company is making the first steps towards enabling Enhanced Tracking Protection by default for Firefox users, and beginning this week, the feature becomes available for select devices running the stable version of the browser.
The purpose of Enhanced Tracking Protection is to block cookies and storage access from third-party trackers, meaning that your privacy is even further guarded when loading websites.
But at the same time, such an approach could break down some websites, so Mozilla wants to make sure that everything is working correctly by enabling the feature gradually for its users.
The company, however, gives users who haven’t been selected for the limited test the chance to try out Enhanced Tracking Protection in the stable version of Firefox using just a few steps, and it all starts with the update to the latest version of the browser.
Next, you need to open the application and navigate to the following location in the settings screen:
Firefox Menu > Options > Privacy & Security > Content Blocking > Custom
When this feature is enabled, the Enhanced Tracking Protection should automatically detect and block any trackers on the websites that you visit.
Whenever you load a new page and the shield icon animates in the address bar, it means Firefox blocked trackers on the page, as you can see in the screenshots in this article. Clicking the shield displays more information on your content blockers and also lets you see which trackers were blocked. A mouse hover on the icon also displays a message revealing that tracking attempts were blocked.
The content blockers UI provides you with a quick look at your protections, including the blocked cookies. Expanding this section allows users to view the cookies and the third-party cookies that were blocked on each website. Firefox also enables you to turn off blocking on the site, and clicking this option automatically refreshes the page without any blockers in place.
Mozilla says this experiment is specifically supposed to help detect webpages that do not work correctly when the blockers are running, so if you come across pages that aren’t rendered properly, you have to click the same shield icon and then report a problem using the dedicated option in this screen.
“Your feedback will help us make the Enhanced Tracking Protection experience better for everyone. We will monitor the results of this experiment so as to ensure that we are able to turn on these default protections for users with few disruptions,” Mozilla says.
Obviously, because this continues to be a work in progress, Mozilla can’t yet share an ETA when it plans to enable the Enhanced Tracking Protection for all users. However, given the experiment can be enabled on all devices, you can follow the steps above to do so even in the stable version of the browser.
The next major Firefox release is version 66 on March 19, but Mozilla can very well enable this new protection system at any moment.
