Firefox Turns On Total Cookie Protection by Default

Mozilla is rolling out today Total Cookie Protection by default for all Firefox users across the world. The new feature will complement Firefox’s existing privacy protections by creating a separate “cookie jar” that will confine cookies to the site where they were created, preventing trackers to analyze user behavior across multiple sites.

“Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser, that cookie is confined to the cookie jar assigned to only that website. No other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you — giving you freedom from invasive ads and reducing the amount of information companies gather about you,” the company explained.

This new Total Cookie Protection complements Firefox’s existing Enhanced Tracking Protection feature, which is turned on by default to block trackers from a list maintained by Mozilla. However, that feature alone wasn’t enough to prevent cross-site tracking as trackers who aren’t on the list can still track users without their knowledge. “Total Cookie Protection avoids these problems by restricting the functionality for all cookies, not just for those on a defined list,” Mozilla emphasized.

Thanks to Total Cookie Protection now being enabled by default, Mozilla claims that Firefox is now “the most private and secure major browser available across Windows and Mac.” If you’ve ever been surprised by how relevant and specific some ads you may encounter while browsing the web can be, then Firefox is definitely a great option. In contrast, Google is also committed to phasing out support for third-party cookies in Chrome with its new Privacy Sandbox, though the company has now delayed these plans to 2023.

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Conversation 6 comments

  • red.radar

    Premium Member
    14 June, 2022 - 10:55 am

    <p>I am grateful Mozilla is still around and kicking. I moved back to using Firefox from Edge and Chrome mainly because it was the best Cross platform experience, IMO. The privacy functionality is a nice plus </p>

  • SherlockHolmes

    Premium Member
    14 June, 2022 - 11:12 am

    <p>Dito. I use Firefox ESR because I dont need a new version every few weeks. Edge sadly has too much crap in it an Chrome is, well you know. Google. And Google is evil :-P. </p>

  • LT1 Z51

    Premium Member
    14 June, 2022 - 11:17 am

    <p>When I left IE11 in the early days of Windows 10, I moved to FireFox (right when they did the Quantum rebranding) and I’ve never looked back.</p><p><br></p><p>Hate Chrome/Chromium based browsers.</p>

  • dnwheeler

    14 June, 2022 - 3:24 pm

    <p>Third-party cookies should never have been allowed. When cookies were first introduced, everyone knew that third-party cookies would be a recipe for disaster.</p>

  • lightbody

    15 June, 2022 - 7:55 am

    <p>Does this replace the "Facebook Container" feature that I currently rely upon? Ever since I found out about it, I’ve not used Facebook in any other way.</p>

  • WaltC

    15 June, 2022 - 11:35 am

    <p>I really like Firefox x64 DE, directly obtainable through Mozilla…it’s the best browser made today, imo. Tried ’em all at one time or another–Firefox x64 DE is top flight–simply the best. Win11, no problem. It pretty much lets me browse the way I want to browse, and does not throw a lot of arbitrary settings favored by the browser developers at me while insisting that I do things their way. Often, "their way" is the wrong way, imo…;) Firefox treats its users as adults, while most of the other guys can’t even spell "adult" these days. Google is so childish it might as well change the company name to <strong>Alphabet Day Care for Tots</strong>.</p><p><br></p><p>I’d much rather have Mozilla involved with my browsing as opposed to Microsoft or Google, for obvious reasons. TCP looks like a nice feature, but I’ll reserve judgment, atm. Today, many sites hit you with a "turn off that ad blocker" message, or they won’t let you into the site. I do not mind that at all, but only under the proviso that the site doesn’t lose itself inside a sea of low-brow ads. In that case, I leave the site permanently.</p><p><br></p><p>I must be unusual, because, being 100% unapologetically male, I’d much rather see ads for automobiles and computer hardware than ads for panties, bras, and tampons. If the absence of tracking cookies buries me in a sea of utterly useless ads, selling only products I will never in a million years buy, I will turn it off. But it remains to be seen, however. I think Mozilla is the company to go with for Internet browsing. BTW, for those who don’t know, the "Developer Edition" of 64-bit Firefox operates precisely as a standard non-developer Firefox edition, as the developer tools in the browser remain hidden and unobtrusive <em>except</em> when they are needed–and then a mouse click brings up the developer-tool array. Exactly what I want. Ff x64 DE is not something cobbled up by a third party–it’s 100% direct from Mozilla.</p>

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