Firefox blocks third-party tracking cookies and cryptominers

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This is super interesting stuff from Mozilla: the most recent update of Firefox will now block cryptominers and third-party tracking scripts by default. In the press release they write:

For today’s release, Enhanced Tracking Protection will automatically be turned on by default for all users worldwide as part of the ‘Standard’ setting in the Firefox browser and will block known “third-party tracking cookies” according to the Disconnect list. We first enabled this default feature for new users in June 2019. As part of this journey we rigorously tested, refined, and ultimately landed on a new approach to anti-tracking that is core to delivering on our promise of privacy and security as central aspects of your Firefox experience.

Compare this to A Vox interview with Mat Marquis discussing Google’s efforts to make Chrome more private:

“Google is an advertising company, not a group of concerned altruists; there aren’t any charts at stakeholder meetings showing what amount they ‘saved the web’ this past quarter. They’re notorious for overstepping and outright abusing users’ personal data in pursuit of, well, making money as an advertising company,” Mat Marquis, a web developer, told Recode. “Their business model — the thing that keeps all these genuinely brilliant, genuinely well-meaning designers and developers employed — depends on convincing a company that they can make their users look at your ads.”

This is yet another reason why Firefox is my browser of choice and why, as concerned web designers and developers, I suggest others consider joining me in making the switch.

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