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Are You Tired of Being Followed Online? Unleash Firefox’s Powerful New Defenses.
Websites can track you in ways you might not expect. They can build a “digital fingerprint” of you, which is like a unique ID created from your computer’s settings. This includes your operating system, web browser, time zone, and even the fonts you have installed. This fingerprinting can happen even if you block cookies or use private browsing, allowing trackers to follow you for months.
Firefox Fights Back for You
Firefox has new tools to protect your privacy. These tools make it harder for websites to create a unique fingerprint of you. Mozilla’s research shows that these new protections have cut the number of users with unique fingerprints in half.
Firefox already has strong privacy features, like Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) and Total Cookie Protection. These features block many trackers, including those from social media, as well as scripts that mine for cryptocurrency. The new protections add another layer of defense.
How Firefox Protects Your Fingerprint
The new privacy features in Firefox work by giving websites more general information about your device, making it harder to identify you uniquely. Here’s how it works:
Canvas Fingerprinting
Websites sometimes use a hidden element called a “canvas” to draw a unique image based on your browser and hardware. When a website tries to read this image, Firefox now adds a little bit of random noise to it, making the fingerprint less accurate.
Font Privacy
To prevent websites from identifying you by the fonts installed on your computer, Firefox will now use a common set of fonts to display web pages.
Hardware Information
Websites can also try to identify you by asking for details about your hardware.
- Processor Cores: Firefox will report that your computer has either 4 or 8 processor cores, even if the actual number is different.
- Touch Support: It will report that your device has 0, 1, or 5 touch points, hiding the true capabilities of your screen or trackpad.
- Screen Size: Firefox will report a slightly smaller screen size than you actually have to make your screen dimensions less unique.
How to Enable These New Protections
These new fingerprinting protections are available in Firefox when you use Private Browsing or set your Enhanced Tracking Protection to “Strict” mode. Here’s how to turn on Strict mode:
- Click the shield icon to the left of the address bar.
- Click on “Protection Settings“.
- Under “Enhanced Tracking Protection,” select “Strict“.
The “Strict” setting offers the most privacy by blocking a wide range of trackers, including fingerprinting scripts, in all windows. While these features are not on by default yet, Mozilla is working on making them the standard. For more advanced users, additional fingerprinting protection settings can be found in Firefox’s about:config page, such as privacy.resistFingerprinting.