Firefox is ending Do Not Track, but there are better ways to protect your privacy – here’s what I recommend
- The Firefox web browser is ending support for Do Not Track
- This involved asking websites not to track you, but this was routinely ignored
- There are much better alternatives to keep your data safe
Firefox is one of the best web browsers you can get, but it will remove support for the Do Not Track feature in the upcoming version 135 of the app. This is used to ask websites not to track users across the internet using cookies and other trackers. At first glance, this move sounds like a blow to your privacy, but in the long run it can ultimately be a positive change.
Previously, if the Do Not Track setting was enabled, Firefox would send a request to websites telling them that you did not want to be tracked. Founded in 2009, Do Not Track was intended to be a simple way to keep your private data safe, and Firefox was the first web browser to adopt this feature.
Yet concerns have been raised over the years that Do Not Track simply doesn’t work. Since it’s just a request, websites are free to ignore it completely – which many do. If trackers can be used to increase a website’s advertising profits, what website owner will pass up an opportunity to make more money from your private data?
Moreover, in a supporting article Firefox developer Mozilla announced that Do Not Track would be phased out and stated that the feature can actually do that reduce your privacy. This may be because some users enable it and assume it will protect them, neglecting other privacy-enhancing features that work.
What you can do instead
While these concerns persist, Firefox, like some other browsers, has added its own more robust privacy features. Mozilla recommends that you use the Global Privacy Control setting in Firefox instead, as it is respected by more websites and even enforced by law in some places.
In addition, Firefox has many other built-in features designed to combat trackers. That includes enhanced tracking protection, which blocks known trackers, and a Facebook container that stops Meta websites – notorious for their privacy violations – from tracking you across the web.
So while Firefox ending support for Do Not Track may seem like a blow to your privacy at first glance, in reality the browser is simply discontinuing a feature that never really worked well in the first place.
Instead, there are other settings – plus a host of excellent extensions – that can be used to keep your private data safely out of the hands of trackers and advertisers.
