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Firefox's New Anti Tracking Feature Blocks Cryptomining and Fingerprinting Sites: How to Enable

Firefox's New Anti-Tracking Feature Blocks Cryptomining and Fingerprinting Sites: How to Enable

By Tasneem Akolawala | Updated: 10 April 2019 12:53 IST

Firefox has added new protections against cryptocurrency mining in latest beta

Highlights

Firefox Nightly Beta 68 and Beta 67 get these new protections
Users will have to enable these protections in Menu settings
These protections will block cryptomining and fingerprinting sites

Given the rise in harmful practices like cryptocurrency mining and fingerprinting, Mozilla has now introduced a new anti-tracking feature for its Firefox browser. The Internet browser company has added a feature that will allow users to block fingerprinting and cryptomining sites. Mozilla has partnered with Disconnect to block fingerprinting and cryptomining scripts, based on a compiled list of domains that has been collated over time. These new protections are live in Firefox Nightly Beta 68 and Beta 67, but are disabled by default.

Once you are on the latest Nightly Beta 68 or Beta 67 version of Firefox, the anti-tracking feature will have to be enabled manually. Head to Main Menu > Preferences > Privacy and Security > Under ‘Content Blocking', click on Custom > Check Cryptominers and Fingerprinters so that they are both blocked. Once enabled, Firefox will block any scripts that have been identified by Disconnect to participate in cryptomining or fingerprinting.

Firefox says that these protections will be turned on by default in Nightly in the coming weeks, and will enable these protections by default for all Firefox users in a future release.

For those unaware, fingerprinting scripts is essentially an unethical practice carried out by few websites, and they harvest a snapshot of your computer's configuration to build a digital fingerprint that can be used to track you across the web, even if you clear your cookies. Cryptocurrency mining scripts on the other hand, run costly operations on your web browser without your knowledge or consent .It uses the computer's CPU to mine cryptocurrency, slowing down the PC, draining the battery and racking up the electric bill.

You can download the Firefox Nightly Beta 68 and Beta 67 releases from the Mozilla website.

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