Firefox boosts privacy by giving ‘total cookie protection’ to all users by default

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

A new feature in the browser will make it even more private.

The goal of the design change is to give enhanced protection against online tracking by limiting the ability of websites to read cookies created by third-party services. Cookie access will be restricted to the website that deposited the cookie in the user's browser, so a cookie created by one website won't be readable by other websites that a user visits.

The new feature is called a cookie jar and it prevents trackers from linking up user behavior across multiple websites. The post gives an explanation.

Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser, that cookie is confined to the cookie jar assigned to only that website. No other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you ... This approach strikes the balance between eliminating the worst privacy properties of third-party cookies – in particular the ability to track you – and allowing those cookies to fulfill their less invasive use cases (e.g. to provide accurate analytics).

The cookie protection feature is part of an ongoing privacy focused development strategy from Mozilla that has also seenFirefox continue to support the most sophisticated forms of ad blocking. After announcing in 2020 that it would phase out third-party cookies within two years, the target date was later changed to 2023.

The misuse of tracking has been cited by Mozilla as one of the reasons for enhanced cookie protection. John Oliver took aim at data brokers on Last Week Tonight.

Marshall said that the organization wanted to give users control over their own data and offer more defense against misuse.

Internet users are stuck in a vicious cycle in which their data is collected without their knowledge and used to manipulate them. Total Cookie Protection puts people first, protecting their privacy, giving them a choice and cutting off Big Tech from the data it collects. The feature is the culmination of years of work and is the strongest privacy protection to date.

Privacy gains will be brought about by blocking third-party tracking, even if it takes more than cookie protection.

There is a new feature in the newest version of the browser. The technology is already available in the privacy-focused "Focus" version of the Firefox browser onANDROID App Store rules preferred Apple's browser engine over alternatives for the technology to be released on the platform.

Despite objections from developers and accusations of anti-competitive practice, Apple still requires all browsers to be built on the WebKit browser engine. Privacy advocates praise Apple for blocking tracking across applications.