{"id":1163,"date":"2013-02-25T10:21:15","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T15:21:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=1163"},"modified":"2013-02-25T10:21:15","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T15:21:15","slug":"firefox-to-begin-blocking-third-party-cookies-by-default","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/02\/25\/firefox-to-begin-blocking-third-party-cookies-by-default\/","title":{"rendered":"Firefox to begin blocking third-party cookies by default"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Firefox is giving people concerned about their online privacy another reason to like the popular browser.
\nIt will begin blocking cookies from third-party advertisers in an upcoming release. While Firefox users can already use the Do Not Track extension to stave them off, the patch will allow the browser to do it by default. That means sites you\u2019ve visited can leave cookies on your computer but ad networks that don\u2019t already have one on your machine can\u2019t.
\nCookies are the reason the ads you see online seem to know that you\u2019re thinking about going back to school or in the market for a new car. And you might be surprised how many of them you pick up when you surf the Internet. In fact, the nation\u2019s top websites leave dozens of pieces of tracking technology on visitors\u2019 computers so as to profile people and flash them targeted ads.
\nSome people think it\u2019s a matter of privacy. What if, for instance, you\u2019re researching something online that you don\u2019t want anyone to know about or associate with you — things like a medical condition or prickly political issue?
\nWhile you can intentionally wipe cookies from your computer through the settings of each browser you use, doing so sometimes doesn\u2019t work to keep your likes, dislikes and demographic information out of the reaches of companies that want to profit from such data.
\nThe Wall Street Journal found that some tracking technology is able to \u201cscan in real time what people are doing on a Web page, then instantly assess location, income, shopping interests and even medical conditions. Some tools surreptitiously re-spawn themselves even after users try to delete them.\u201d
\nNot only that, many websites don\u2019t honor do-not-track requests .
\nThe website for the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation last fall started telling visitors it would not honor their browsers’ do-not-track requests as a form of protest against the technology pushed by privacy groups.
\n“Do Not Track is a detrimental policy that undermines the economic foundation of the Internet,” Daniel Castro, senior analyst at the ITIF, wrote in a blog post. “Advertising revenue supports most of the free content, services, and apps available on the Internet.”
\nBehavioral advertising that tracks Web users so as to deliver relevant advertising to them is a service in which “everyone wins,” he added. “Ad-supported websites increase their revenue, users receive fewer irrelevant ads and more free content, and advertisers get to be in front of their target audiences.”
\nSome people might agree with him. If online ads are an unavoidable part of using the Internet, you may as well see the ones most relevant to the products and services you\u2019re actually interested in, right?
\nBut for those who hate them — just because — there are always tools such as the popular Chrome extension AdBlock that removes ads from your sight. And one called CatBlock will even replace them with pictures of cute kitties as long as you ante up and pay the developer a subscription of at least $5 a month.
\nThere\u2019s also a Firefox add on called AdBlock Plus that nixes them from your screen as well as a good one called Ghostery, which will really open up your eyes to how much companies are trying to track you online — it lets you see in real time who\u2019s trying to do it and blocks them.
\nvia Firefox to begin blocking third-party cookies by default | PCWorld<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Firefox is giving people concerned about their online privacy another reason to like the popular browser. It will begin blocking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,5,7,9,11],"tags":[369,717],"class_list":["post-1163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-apple","category-microsoft","category-security","category-software","category-windows","tag-firefox","tag-mozilla"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-iL","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7380,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/01\/09\/super-cookies-can-track-you-even-in-private-browsing-mode-researcher-says\/","url_meta":{"origin":1163,"position":0},"title":"‘Super cookies’ can track you even in private browsing mode, researcher says","author":"NCCT","date":"January 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If there's one thing websites love to do it's track their users. Now, it looks like some browsers can even be tracked when they're in private or incognito mode. 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Statistics from Web measurement company Net Applications illustrated a rapid decline in Firefox and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8773,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/12\/07\/mozilla-retires-firefoxs-sponsored-tiles-hunts-for-new-revenue-streams\/","url_meta":{"origin":1163,"position":3},"title":"Mozilla retires Firefox\u2019s sponsored tiles, hunts for new revenue streams","author":"NCCT","date":"December 7, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"By Sebastian Anthony | Ars Technica Way back in 2014, Firefox rolled out an unpopular feature to its nightly builds: sponsored tiles on its \"new tab\" page. The feature, which was opt-in by default, showed ads that were based on your browsing history. Eventually, after a very long beta testing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Software"","block_context":{"text":"Software","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/software\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8633,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/09\/23\/firefoxs-voip-service-firefox-hello-adds-instant-messaging\/","url_meta":{"origin":1163,"position":4},"title":"Firefox’s VoIP service, Firefox Hello, adds instant-messaging","author":"NCCT","date":"September 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you suffered through the Skype outage earlier this week, Mozilla would like you to know that you have another option: Firefox Hello. 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