Firefox 69 Now Blocks 3rd-Party Tracking Cookies and Cryptominers By Default

The company enabled the “Enhanced Tracking
Protection^[1]” setting by default for
its browser in June this year, but only for new users who
downloaded and installed a fresh copy of Firefox.

Remaining users were left with options to either enable the
feature manually or wait for the company to activate it for all
users. Now, the wait is over.

With Firefox 69, Enhanced Tracking Protection will automatically be
turned on by default for all users as part of the “Standard”
setting in the Firefox browser, blocking known “third-party
tracking cookies” and web-based cryptocurrency mining scripts.

Firefox 69 By Default Blocks Known Third-Party Tracking
Cookies

Cookies are created by a web browser when a user loads a specific
website, which helps the site to remember information about your
visit, like your login information, preferred language, items in
the shopping cart and other settings.

A third-party cookie is set by a website other than the one
you’re currently on, allowing them to offer features like blogs
having comment system that works with Facebook account.

Besides this, third-party cookies also allow advertisers and
websites to track and monitor users online behavior and interests,
commonly known as ‘tracking cookies’ using which they display
relevant advertisements, content, and promotions on the websites a
user visits.

To determine which third-party cookies are being used for
tracking, the Firefox web browser relies on an open-source
anti-tracking tool called Disconnect that lists known third-party
trackers.

Firefox 69 will now by default
block^[2] all known third-party
tracking cookies that collect and retain data regarding users’
activity across multiple sites or applications—which are even sold
and used by the companies for their personal gain, often without
your knowledge or consent.

Firefox Blocks Web-Based Cryptocurrency Miners

Third-party cookies are not the only one that one should worry
about.

In the past years, web-based cryptocurrency
miners^[3] have increasingly been
abused by not just
hackers^[4] but also websites and
mobile apps to monetize by levying the CPU power of your PCs to
secretly mine cryptocurrencies—often without your knowledge or
consent.

In the wake of cryptocurrency mining scripts, both Apple and
Google banned
applications from listing in their app stores that mine
cryptocurrencies on users’ devices in the background.
^[5][6]

Now, Firefox 69 also blocks web-based
cryptocurrency miners by default, preventing draining your CPU
usage and battery power on your computers.

Though this feature has existed in previous beta versions of
Firefox, it is now available as standard to all, as Mozilla said,
“We introduced the option to block
cryptominers^[8] in previous versions of
Firefox Nightly and Beta and are including it in the ‘Standard Mode
‘of your Content Blocking preferences as of today.”

Another type of script that tracks you everywhere on the
Internet and you may not want to run in your web browser are
Fingerprinting scripts—websites that host scripts harvesting a
snapshot of your computer’s configuration that can then be used to
track you across the web.

However, the option to block fingerprinting scripts will not be
offered by default in the Standard mode, though Mozilla said the
company has plans to turn fingerprinting protections on by default
in future releases.

For now, users can block fingerprinting scripts by enabling the
“Strict” Content Blocking mode through Firefox’s Preferences menu,
under “Privacy & Security.”

Adobe Flash Disabled by Default

Besides blocking third-party tracking cookies and cryptocurrency
miners by default, Firefox 69 will disable Adobe Flash
Player by default in the web browser and will now ask for your
permission before turning on Flash on websites.
Mozilla has completely removed the “Always Activate” option for
Adobe Flash plugin content from its browser, which suggests there
is no longer a need to identify users on 32-bit Firefox version on
64-bit operating system version, reducing user agent fingerprinting
and providing a greater level of privacy.

In addition, Firefox 69 also offers users the ability to block
autoplay videos that automatically start playing without sound,
numerous performance and UI improvements on Windows 10, and better
battery life and download UI on macOS.

If you haven’t yet, download Firefox
69^[10] for your desktop now
from the official Firefox.com website. All existing Firefox users
should be able to upgrade to the new version automatically.

^[7][9]