Jul 17, 2024 15:00:00

Firefox now collects user data for advertising purposes by default, here's how to disable it

Firefox 128 , released on July 9, 2024, added a setting called 'Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad analytics' that improves ad performance without collecting personal information. This feature has sparked controversy over data protection.

Privacy-Preserving Attribution | Firefox Help
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/privacy-preserving-attribution

'Privacy-Preserving' Attribution: Mozilla Disappoints Us Yet Again
https://blog.privacyguides.org/2024/07/14/mozilla-disappoints-us-yet-again-2/

For advertising: Firefox now collects user data by default | heise online
https://www.heise.de/en/news/For-advertising-Firefox-now-collects-user-data-by-default-9801345.html

'Allow websites to use privacy-preserving ad analytics' can be accessed through Firefox's Preferences.

The relevant item is in the 'Privacy and Security' section of the settings. Uncheck this to disable it. It is on by default.

This setting toggles on and off a feature called 'Privacy Protection Attributes (PPA)'. PPA is an experimental feature added in Firefox 128, a system designed to help websites understand the performance of their ads without collecting personal information. Mozilla, the developer of Firefox, explains its intentions for implementing the feature, stating, 'We want to significantly reduce harmful advertising practices across the web by providing sites with a non-intrusive alternative to cross-site tracking.'

According to Mozilla, the PPA will allow browsers to track users instead of websites, preventing websites from tracking users unintentionally.

This PPA has sparked debate from the perspective of privacy protection. Although this feature minimizes the number of entities that can collect personal information, personal information is still collected, so privacy expert Jonah Aragon pointed out that 'Mozilla is falsely claiming that by incorporating software made for the advertising industry, the advertising industry has a legitimate interest in collecting personal information and tracking people across the Internet, over all other parties, including the interests of individuals,' and criticized Mozilla for adding features that are unnecessary and not in the best interest of users. Aragon suspects that adding these features will improve Mozilla's cash flow.

On the social site Hacker News, some have pointed out that the problem is that the feature is turned on by default without user consent.

As these discussions were taking place, Bobby Hawley, Firefox's chief technology officer, took to Reddit to explain, 'The internet has become a giant surveillance network, and our goal is to do something about it. Our tracking prevention feature is far stronger than others in its field. Some people object to advertising, regardless of its privacy nature, so we've also provided a toggle to turn it off. We don't believe digital advertising will ever go away, but if we do it right, surveillance should go away.'