Mozilla is working on more aggressive anti-tracking features for Firefox browser

Mozilla Firefox will soon be able to block Ad Trackers by default as the company is testing the feature for the browser. The new feature was rolled out for Firefox Nightly users recently and will soon be rolling out to the public.

The new feature will activate when it detects an Ad Tracker or if a tracker is slowing down a page and will block it. Mozilla will study how well this feature works, and if all goes according to the plan, the feature will make its way to the Firefox browser soon.

Tracking slows down the web. In a study by Ghostery, 55.4% of the total time required to load an average website was spent loading third party trackers. For users on slower networks the effect can be even worse…

We will be testing this feature using a shield study in September.  If we find that our approach performs well, we will start blocking slow-loading trackers by default in Firefox 63.

– Mozilla

Not only that, Firefox also plans to block Cryptocurrency miners and fingerprint trackers with the upcoming update. The Firefox version 63 update is scheduled to roll out to the public on October 23.

Deceptive practices that invisibly collect identifiable user information or degrade user experience are becoming more common. For example, some trackers fingerprint users — a technique that allows them to invisibly identify users by their device properties, and which users are unable to control. Other sites have deployed cryptomining scripts that silently mine cryptocurrencies on the user’s device. Practices like these make the web a more hostile place to be. Future versions of Firefox will block these practices by default.

– Mozilla

We do hope that Mozilla finalizes both the features by then. However, if you’re interested in trying the features out right now then you can head to Mozilla’s website and download the Nightly build. That said, Nightly builds are usually unstable and are not recommended for daily use.

Source: Mozilla, [2]; Via: Engadget