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Taking another leap towards securing users’ digital privacy, Mozilla rolls out Firefox 145 with enhanced fingerprint protection features. With the latest update, Firefox ensures better prevention against snoopy elements that track users’ system and usage details, without disrupting the usual browsing experience.
Firefox 145 Boasts Enhanced Fingerprint Protection
In a recent blog post, Mozilla elaborated on the new privacy features rolled out with the latest Firefox 145 browser release. According to Mozilla, these features ensure better fingerprint protection for users, securing their privacy from snooping elements.
As explained, browser fingerprinting isn’t confined to using web trackers and fingerprinting scripts to track users’ browsing habits. Instead, it also includes logging explicit information about users’ devices, such as hardware identifiers, processor cores, and even the fonts used on the system. These subtle details further ensure the development of unique digital fingerprints for online users. Mozilla has shared a detailed list of these fingerprinters in a separate document.
Since these details often constitute information necessary for the website’s functionality, it’s often difficult to prevent the logging of these details for fingerprinting. However, with the latest Firefox release, Mozilla aims to reduce this tracking to a bare minimum while ensuring a smooth browsing experience for users. As stated in its post,
Firefox’s approach is to target the most leaky fingerprinting vectors (the tricks and scripts used by trackers) while preserving functionality many sites need to work normally. The end result is a set of layered defenses that significantly reduce tracking without downgrading your browsing experience.
Despite all the usefulness of this feature, Firefox still empowers users to manage their interactions while visiting different websites. So, if users experience any lags or broken sites due to enhanced protection, they may choose to customize the privacy setting for individual web pages, as explained here.
Private Browsing Protected Already – Default Roll Out Expected Soon
For now, these enhanced fingerprint protection features are available with the Firefox browser’s Private Browsing Mode and ETP Strict mode. Mozilla has confirmed rolling it out as a default setting in upcoming browser releases.
This isn’t the first move from Mozilla to protect its customers’ digital privacy. Rather, the firm has been taking numerous similar steps since 2020, when it rolled out Enhanced Tracking Protection – a dedicated feature aimed at preventing browser fingerprinting. Later on, the firm released “Total Cookie Protection” to block intrusive third-party cookies. With the latest improvisation, Mozilla merely levels up its privacy game, ensuring to give a tough time to digital snoopers.
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source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/mozilla-firefox-gets-new-anti-fingerprinting-defenses/
