{"id":63019,"date":"2019-10-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/foxtail\/2019\/10\/22\/firefox-privacy-protections\/"},"modified":"2019-10-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:00:00","slug":"firefox-privacy-protections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefox privacy protections reveal who\u2019s trying to track you"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You could say that a web browser is kind of like a car. The engine drives you where you want to go, and a dashboard tells you what\u2019s happening under the hood. And cars these days have dashboards that go beyond the basics of your speed and fuel level. They also alert you to things you might not realize, like when you need to brake and if you\u2019re driving in a blind spot. The latest Firefox has a new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/firefox\/privacy\/products\"><b>privacy protections <\/b><\/a>dashboard that reveals who\u2019s trying to track you behind the scenes and helps you stop them.<\/p>\n<h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/firefox\/privacy\/products?utm_source=blog.mozilla.org&#038;utm_campaign=firefox_frontier&#038;utm_medium=referral\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2106\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/fx_tracker-graph.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1824\" height=\"984\" \/><\/a>Block trackers before they can track you<\/h2>\n<p>On nearly every website you visit, data about you is transmitted to third party companies, some well known and others less familiar. For example, 81% of web traffic is tracked by Google, and 62% of the top 10,000 websites load a Facebook tracker according to <a href=\"https:\/\/whotracks.me\/\">WhoTracks.me<\/a>. And there are <a href=\"https:\/\/whotracks.me\/trackers.html\">many more third parties<\/a> gathering data.<\/p>\n<p>Third party tracking happens behind the scenes, fueling a large network where your personal data is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en_us\/article\/bjpx3w\/what-are-data-brokers-and-how-to-stop-my-private-data-collection\">collected<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wired.com\/story\/wired-guide-personal-data-collection\/\">consolidated<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/theconversation.com\/its-time-for-third-party-data-brokers-to-emerge-from-the-shadows-94298\">traded<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/gizmodo.com\/online-depression-tests-are-collecting-and-sharing-your-1837876776\">sold<\/a> without your knowledge. Once they have your information, third party data brokers can <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marketplace.org\/2019\/03\/07\/when-it-comes-to-intrusive-data-collection-facebook-might-be-the-least-of-our-problems-data-brokers\/\">save it<\/a> indefinitely for future use that we can\u2019t predict. The good news is that Firefox with Enhanced Tracking Protection combats that.<\/p>\n<p>To see who\u2019s trying to track you on individual webpages, click on the shield icon to the left of the Firefox address bar. (If you don\u2019t see the shield, <a href=\"https:\/\/support.mozilla.org\/kb\/update-firefox-latest-version?utm_source=blog.mozilla.org&#038;utm_campaign=firefox_frontier&#038;utm_medium=referral\">here\u2019s how to update your Firefox<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2088 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/shield-in-browser-600x145.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"145\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When the shield is <b>purple<\/b>, Firefox has blocked trackers and harmful scripts on a site.<\/li>\n<li>When the shield is <b>gray<\/b>, no known trackers or harmful scripts were detected on a site.<\/li>\n<li>When the shield is <b>gray and crossed out,<\/b> Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned off on a site.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/firefox\/new\/?utm_source=blog.mozilla.org&#038;utm_campaign=firefox_frontier&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_content=firefox-privacy-protections\">download Firefox<\/a>, <b>Standard level <\/b>tracking protection is enabled, blocking known <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/firefox\/what-are-social-media-trackers\/\">social media trackers<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/firefox\/what-is-a-web-tracker\">cross-site tracking cookies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/firefox\/block-cryptominers-with-firefox\/\">cryptominers<\/a> and tracking content in private windows on all sites, which provides a good balance of tracking protection while not breaking your favorite websites. You can choose to boost your privacy protections to <b>Strict<\/b>, or fine tune them using the <b>Custom<\/b> option. That allows you to block\u00a0 <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/firefox\/how-to-block-fingerprinting-with-firefox\/\">fingerprinters<\/a> and tracking content in all windows, not just private ones.<\/p>\n<p>To see the specific trackers lurking behind the scenes on a site, click the shield, then click on the tracker type to expand the list.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2091 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/CrossSiteTracking_bl_EN.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"581\" height=\"830\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>How many trackers are following us, and what do they know?<\/h2>\n<p>Since we enabled tracking protection in June, we have tested and observed how many trackers are creeping on our web traffic. The results are startling. On some sites, we experienced zero or just a few trackers. On other sites, the list of trackers reads like the ingredient list on a highly processed snack cake \u2014 long, artificial and unappetizing.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of a day, we estimate that everyone using Firefox will block over 10 billion trackers combined! Between June and October, Firefox has blocked 450 billion trackers, and (update!) as of December, we&#8217;ve blocked more than a trillion! That\u2019s an incredible amount of personal, private information that you are keeping out of the black box of third party data collection when you use Firefox.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/tracker-graph_EN1.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2736 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/tracker-graph_EN1.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"660\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Maybe you&#8217;re thinking: <i>Trackers track. Who cares if a shoe ad follows me around? <\/i>Data trackers can be used to learn a great deal more about you than your footwear obsession. Things like your:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>age,<\/li>\n<li>gender,<\/li>\n<li>relationship status,<\/li>\n<li>family members,<\/li>\n<li>mom\u2019s name,<\/li>\n<li>mom\u2019s mom\u2019s name,<\/li>\n<li>income,<\/li>\n<li>education,<\/li>\n<li>ethnicity,<\/li>\n<li>hobbies,<\/li>\n<li>health concerns,<\/li>\n<li>financial situation,<\/li>\n<li>bra size,<\/li>\n<li>fertility,<\/li>\n<li>movie genre preference,<\/li>\n<li>diet,<\/li>\n<li>fitness routine,<\/li>\n<li>sexual desires,<\/li>\n<li>exact location right now,<\/li>\n<li>likelihood to vote<\/li>\n<li>and so much more.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Even if ad targeting sounds innocuous \u2014 what\u2019s another pair of kicks, after all \u2014 the level of detail used in ad targeting is increasingly detailed. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.iab.com\/guidelines\/taxonomy\/\">Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) classifies content online<\/a> upon which advertisers can target you against, making it possible for advertisers to know very personal things about what you might be going through based on your internet consumption. Some of these classifications include \u201cPanic\/Anxiety Disorders,\u201d \u201cSexuality,\u201d \u201cSubstance Abuse,\u201d \u201cSpecial Needs Kids,\u201d \u201cInfertility,\u201d \u201cLegal Issues,\u201d \u201cCredit\/Debt &#038; Loans,\u201d and \u201cDivorce Support\u201d \u2014 highly personal information that advertisers just don\u2019t need to know about you. And that\u2019s just the beginning.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s impossible to know how complete and invasive our profiles are because we can\u2019t easily access them. It\u2019s equally impossible for us to know how and when this information will be used for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/neilhowe\/2017\/11\/17\/a-special-price-just-for-you\/#583fdd8590b3\">price discrimination<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2019\/10\/08\/opinion\/ai-hiring-discrimination.html\">employment discrimination<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2019\/2\/7\/18211890\/social-media-life-insurance-new-york-algorithms-big-data-discrimination-online-records\">service denials<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal\">election influencing<\/a>, and other insidious practices.<\/p>\n<p>When you take all that into account, why not stop third parties from tracking you when you can?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mozilla.org\/firefox\/new\/?utm_campaign=firefox_frontier&#038;utm_content=firefox-privacy-protections&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_source=blog.mozilla.org\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2203\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/skyline-2000-trackers-firefox-full_EN.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"778\" height=\"363\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You could say that a web browser is kind of like a car. The engine drives you where you want to go, and a dashboard tells you what\u2019s happening under the hood. And cars these days have dashboards that go beyond the basics of your speed and fuel level. They also alert you to things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":727,"featured_media":52121,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Firefox privacy protections reveal who\u2019s trying to track you<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/\",\"name\":\"Firefox privacy protections reveal who\u2019s trying to track you\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/privacy-protection-report_header.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-22T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-10-22T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/5c987afc4f606be73692d2acfdd1316c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/privacy-protection-report_header.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/wp-content\/blogs.dir\/278\/files\/2019\/10\/privacy-protection-report_header.png\",\"width\":2500,\"height\":1375},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/firefox\/firefox-privacy-protections\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Firefox privacy protections reveal who\u2019s trying to track you\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/\",\"name\":\"The Mozilla Blog\",\"description\":\"News and Updates about Mozilla\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/5c987afc4f606be73692d2acfdd1316c\",\"name\":\"M.J. 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