Firefox was created by Mozilla as a faster, more private alternative to browsers like Internet Explorer, and now Chrome. Today, our mission-driven company and volunteer community continue to put your privacy above all else. Feb 04, 2021 The Private Internet Access Firefox extension features: - WebRTC blocking - Sort gateways by latency - Website URL whitelist - Easy on/off switch Private Internet Access features: - IP Cloaking. Your IP address will be changed to a Private Internet Access IP address to hide your identity and location.
Firefox was created by Mozilla as a faster, more private alternative to browsers like Internet Explorer, and now Chrome. Today, our mission-driven company and volunteer community continue to. Firefox Private Network (beta) Protect your browser’s connection to the internet. View all Products. Close Who We Are menu. Mozilla Manifesto. Learn about the values and principles that guide our mission. Mozilla Foundation. Meet the not-for-profit behind Firefox that stands for a better web.
As we’re all online more these days, the Firefox browser privacy features have never been more important. For instance, as you’re hopping through different sites searching for pantry recipes or immunity boosters, Enhanced Tracking Protection is blocking third-party trackers from collecting that data and serving you ads that are eerily on the nose. Or, when you’re researching the difference between cold, flu and seasonal allergy symptoms, private browsing mode will automatically erase your private browsing history (because your symptoms are your business).
The best thing about these browser privacy features is that they’re not mutually exclusive. You can opt to use them all and level-up your online safety as much as you want.
Here’s a quick guide to four Firefox privacy features you can access, and how they protect you when you’re online:
Enhanced Tracking Protection | Ad Blocker Extensions | Private Browsing Mode | Facebook Container | |
What is it? | An invisible shield that blocks several types of trackers. Makes it harder for third parties to track you around the web. | Third party extensions that stop ads from showing up on pages you visit. May impact the way publishers support journalists. | A protected browsing experience that doesn’t remember your history or logins. Also, Firefox is one of the only browsers that blocks third party trackers by default in private mode. | A browser extension that makes it harder for Facebook to track you on the web. |
You might use it to… | Prevent many third party trackers from following you from site to site. | Block the noisy, blinking ads on your favorite websites. | Automatically forget search history you’d like to keep private. | Prevent Facebook (and Instagram) from tracking you around the web. |
On/Off in browser | Automatically on | Optional | Optional | Optional |
What to know | Nothing more required. Just open Firefox and enjoy extra protection! | Might not block all ads. | Doesn’t make you anonymous online. | Doesn’t block ads on Facebook. More questions answered |
Get more info | Enhanced Tracking Protection in: | Ad Blocker Roundup | Private Browsing – Use Firefox without saving history | More about Facebook Container |
Where to get it | Built into Firefox | Download and install extensions | Built into Firefox Open your Firefox File menu, and select New Private Window | Download and install extension |
And if you’re on Facebook more and more to connect with the communities you love in real life, you can limit the amount of data they’re getting from you with the Facebook Container extension. You’ll be in good company — over two million people already have!
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Today, with the launch of Firefox 87, we are excited to introduce SmartBlock, a new intelligent tracker blocking mechanism for Firefox Private Browsing and Strict Mode. Cogent field coil drivers. SmartBlock ensures that strong privacy protections in Firefox are accompanied by a great web browsing experience.
Privacy is hard
At Mozilla, we believe that privacy is a fundamental right and that everyone deserves to have their privacy protected while they browse the web. Since 2015, as part of the effort to provide a strong privacy option, Firefox has included the built-in Content Blocking feature that operates in Private Browsing windows and Strict Tracking Protection Mode. This feature automatically blocks third-party scripts, images, and other content from being loaded from cross-site tracking companies reported by Disconnect. By blocking these tracking components, Firefox Private Browsing windows prevent them from watching you as you browse.
In building these extra-strong privacy protections in Private Browsing windows and Strict Mode, we have been confronted with a fundamental problem: introducing a policy that outright blocks trackers on the web inevitably risks blocking components that are essential for some websites to function properly. This can result in images not appearing, features not working, poor performance, or even the entire page not loading at all.
New Feature: SmartBlock
Atihdw76 sys drivers for mac. To reduce this breakage, Firefox 87 is now introducing a new privacy feature we are calling SmartBlock. SmartBlock intelligently fixes up web pages that are broken by our tracking protections, without compromising user privacy.
Firefox Private Browsing Shortcut
SmartBlock does this by providing local stand-ins for blocked third-party tracking scripts. These stand-in scripts behave just enough like the original ones to make sure that the website works properly. They allow broken sites relying on the original scripts to load with their functionality intact.
The SmartBlock stand-ins are bundled with Firefox: no actual third-party content from the trackers are loaded at all, so there is no chance for them to track you this way. And, of course, the stand-ins themselves do not contain any code that would support tracking functionality.
In Firefox 87, SmartBlock will silently stand in for a number of common scripts classified as trackers on the Disconnect Tracking Protection List. Here’s an example of a performance improvement:
An example of SmartBlock in action. Previously (left), the website tiny.cloud had poor loading performance in Private Browsing windows in Firefox because of an incompatibility with strong Tracking Protection. With SmartBlock (right), the website loads properly again, while you are still fully protected from trackers found on the page.
Firefox Private Search
We believe the SmartBlock approach provides the best of both worlds: strong protection of your privacy with a great browsing experience as well.
Firefox Private Browser
These new protections in Firefox 87 are just the start! Stay tuned for more SmartBlock innovations in upcoming versions of Firefox.
The team
This work was carried out in a collaboration between the Firefox webcompat and anti-tracking teams, including Thomas Wisniewski, Paul Zühlcke and Dimi Lee with support from many Mozillians including Johann Hofmann, Rob Wu, Wennie Leung, Mikal Lewis, Tim Huang, Ethan Tseng, Selena Deckelmann, Prangya Basu, Arturo Marmol, Tanvi Vyas, Karl Dubost, Oana Arbuzov, Sergiu Logigan, Cipriani Ciocan, Mike Taylor, Arthur Edelstein, and Steven Englehardt.
Firefox
We also want to acknowledge the NoScript and uBlock Origin teams for helping to pioneer this approach.