this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
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[–] [email protected] 422 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 135 points 2 months ago (16 children)

Advertisers track you with device fingerprinting and behaviour profiling now. Firefox doesn't do much to obscure the more advanced methods of tracking.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Don't all the advanced ways rely on JavaScript?

[–] [email protected] 61 points 2 months ago (8 children)

Lots do. But do you know anyone that turns JS off anymore? Platforms don't care if they miss the odd user for this - because almost no one will be missed.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (8 children)

"Anymore"? I've never met a single soul who knows this is even possible. I myself don't even know how to do it if I wanted to.

I do use NoScript, which does this on a site-by-site basis, but even that is considered extremely niche. I've never met another NoScripter in the wild.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago

Why not just use ublock medium mode?

Roughly similar to using Adblock Plus with many filter lists + NoScript with 1st-party scripts/frames automatically trusted. Unlike NoScript however, you can easily point-and-click to block/allow scripts on a per-site basis.

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode

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[–] [email protected] 309 points 2 months ago (13 children)

For those who don't care to read the full article:

This basically just confines any cookies generated on a page, to just that page.

So, instead of a cookie from, say, Facebook, being stored on site A, then requested for tracking purposes on site B, each individual site would be sent its own separate Facebook cookie, that only gets used on that site, preventing it from tracking you anywhere outside of the specific site you got it from in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 205 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Hahahahaha so it doesn't break anything that still relies on cookies, but neuters the ability to share them.

That's awesome

[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Honestly, I thought that's how it already worked.

Edit: I think what I'm remembering is that you can define the cookies by site/domain, and restrict to just those. And normally would, for security reasons.

But some asshole sites like Facebook are cookies that are world-readable for tracking, and this breaks that.

Someone correct me if I got it wrong.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Total Cookie Protection was already a feature, (introduced on Feb 23st 2021) but it was only for people using Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) on strict mode.

They had a less powerful third-party cookie blocking feature for users that didn't have ETP on strict mode, that blocked third party cookies on specific block lists. (i.e. known tracking companies)

This just expanded that original functionality, by making it happen on any domain, and have it be the default for all users, rather than an opt-in feature of Enhanced Tracking Protection.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

They've been doing this with container tabs, so this must be the successor to that idea (I'm going to assume they'll still have container tabs).

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Container tabs are still a thing in FF. This is based on that work, if I remember correctly.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I love container tabs. It's one of the reasons I went back to FF.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

Basically creates a fake VM like environment for each site.

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[–] [email protected] 123 points 2 months ago (25 children)

I think this tips it over the edge for me to switch to Firefox

[–] [email protected] 62 points 2 months ago

I hope so! It's a wonderful side of the Internet to be on

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 82 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Aren’t cookies already limited to the site at which they were created??

What the fuck? You mean to tell me sites have been sharing cookies?

I thought all browsers only delivered cookies back to the same site.

[–] [email protected] 156 points 2 months ago (9 children)

The problem is that a website is generally not served from one domain.

Put a Facebook like button on your website, it's loaded directly from Facebook servers. Now they can put a cookie on your computer with an identifier.

Now every site you visit with a Facebook like button, they know it was you. They can watch you as you move around the web.

Google does this at a larger scale. Every site with Google ads on it. Every site using Google analytics. Every site that embeds a Google map. They can stick a cookie in and know you were there.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is this also how they know which ads to feed you?

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago

Yes, it's the reason for the tracking. To sell more targeted ads.

If you're up for reading some shennanigans, check out the book Mindf*ck. It's about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, written by a whistleblower, and details election manipulation using data collected from Facebook and other public or purchased data.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

I know Facebook and Reddit are in cahoots.

I went to visit Reddit a couple weeks back to read the Deadpool & Wolverine comments, but used the wrong container tab and now Facebook feeds me endless Marvel related stuff.

A lot of it is culture war bullshit too. Hmmmmm 🤔

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

NO.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_cookies

Maybe it's not allowed in your local jurisdiction? But it's been a problem since forever.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Why are we posting 2 year old articles as though they are new?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Looks like the article was updated today. I'm guessing this was originally covering an announcement for a future rollout and now it's finally happening?

[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

this article has not been edited, is from 2022, and says the feature was rolled out in June.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago (11 children)

I guess it says updated, but hey. PR for Firefox is cool, until the imminent enshittification.

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Does this make containers unnecessary? Or basically built in?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (3 children)

A lot different. Containers act as a separate instance of Firefox. So any sites you visit within a container can see each other as if you were using a browser normally. The containers can't see the stuff from other containers though. So you have to actively switch containers all the time to make it work right.

This keeps cookies locked to each page that needs cookies. So a lot stronger.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Good to see Firefox still has value to provide

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago

Firefox is awesome.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Is this different from blocking 3rd party cookies?

[–] [email protected] 64 points 2 months ago

A little. If a third party cookie is set while you're visiting a site, only that site will get the third party cookie back. Multiple sites can have embedded content making third party cookies, and with this change firefox will track where it was made and only give it back there.

With this change, it doesn't matter if it's first or third or whatever; cookies will only be given back to a site that matches much of what is in your location bar.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 2 months ago

Mozilla completes what Google was too afraid to finish.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago

Article from JUNE 14, 2022

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

Is this the reason why I have to "confirm it's you" every time I sign into a Google service now? I appreciate the fact that Firefox's protection is so good that Google doesn't recognize my PC anymore, but it's extremely annoying to have to pull out my phone every time I want to watch YouTube.

This might be what finally convinces me to ditch Google for good. Good job, Firefox devs.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No. That's just Google trying to pester you into using Chrome.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (8 children)

This wouldn't make you have to log in every time you watch YouTube. It means by signing in to google.com, youtube.com can't tell that you're signed in. If you sign in on youtube.com, you'll stay signed in on youtube.com unless you have something else deleting your cookies.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Maybe they should patent it, to protect their TCP IP.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is old news, from 2022!!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

From the blog post:

"June 14, 2022"

"Updated Aug. 28, 2024"

"And starting in 2024, all our users can look forward to Firefox blocking even more third party cookies."

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 2 months ago

I wonder how long until all the distros have this.

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