Mozilla removes Do Not Track setting from Firefox and suggests an alternative
Mozilla has removed support for Do Not Track from Firefox, with the company stating that it was a setting that was largely ignored by websites anyway.
More than this, Mozilla believes that Do Not Track sometimes served to reduce privacy, rather than increasing it. The suggestion for affected users is to start using options within Global Privacy Control (GPC) which are legally enforced in some countries, and far more widely respected by websites regardless of legislative requirements.
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The Do Not Track setting was something of a utopian idea, and one that proved largely ineffective. Firefox was the first web browser to adopt the feature, but now it is gone as of the nightly build of version 135.
While Mozilla has not made a big announcement about ditching the setting, it is mentioned in support pages as Windows Report notes:
Starting in Firefox version 135, the “Do Not Track” checkbox will be removed. Many sites do not respect this indication of a person’s privacy preferences, and, in some cases, it can reduce privacy.
Even though DNT setting were not respected by many sites, all is not lost for those hoping to boost their privacy online. Mozilla recommends using GNC, saying:
If you wish to ask websites to respect your privacy, you can use the “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” setting. This option is built on top of the Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is respected by increasing numbers of sites and enforced with legislation in some regions. To learn more about this, please read Global Privacy Control.
It is not clear if the likes of Edge ad Chrome will follow suit and also drop DNT.
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