If you are are Firefox user, you may have already noticed this. If you are not, you may want to switch. As the privacy business has boomed in the last several years, some tech companies have stepped up their game. After Apple’s announcement earlier this year about ad blocking software, people have started to pay more attention to ads they see on websites, especially the ones that follow them.
Though development of this new version of Firefox is recent, Mozilla has long been a pioneer and a trendsetter in privacy. Unlike some browsers that state they are protecting your privacy, Firefox is true to their word and offer you a privacy mode. Sometimes, that does not stop the user from seeing tracking ads. Some sites will attach what is called an ever cookie. You probably know the ads we are talking about. You go to search for something, and then you see relevant ads for whatever it was for the next few days. However, this new version adds a tool to combat that issue in the form of a privacy feature called Tracking Protection.
Even in Firefox’s privacy mode, you could still unwittingly share a cookie with a 3rd party. At least until this feature came out. By using this feature, you can stop that from happening. If you encounter a website where the page seems broken, the tracking protection is easy to pause or turn off. That is because some of the pages you view, may be built around such trackers. That also makes it easier to deal with the possible new trend in websites.
Recently, some sites have stopped allowing content to be seen for people with ad blockers on. One UK site has done this, and strangely, the site tries to make you feel bad for not seeing their ads. It says they rely on ad revenues to keep them going. It feels almost like they are begging you to let them show you ads. We realize that ads support free content, but it seems unusual for a company to make that sort of request.
Tracking Protection will not make you anonymous, it will stop 3rd party advertisers, though. A big advantage to this change is it will mean many sites may load faster and become more efficient. Some sites have enough ads or trackers to cause interruptions in other things until the page fully loads. Of course, if you are in a corporate setting, your employer can still track the pages you have been to. Also, if you are concerned about your privacy, using Tracking Protection with a VPN is a good idea.