Firefox 22 Will Block Third-Party Cookies

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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May 9, 2000
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Firefox is about to make a change in the way the browser handles third party cookies. With the release of Firefox 22, which is several versions out, all third party cookies will be blocked from installing on the user’s browser. This will effectively stop advertisers from tracking the user’s movements across websites.

With the patch, Firefox would allow all cookies from sites that a user actively visits, but would block cookies from third-party sites if a user has not visited that cookie's origin site.
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Here's a reason for me to upgrade...
It will block cookies that I'm already blocking.
 
While good, I think the way it needs to work is still accept the cookies for the session and just trash them after, and only do this for 3rd party ones. There's an option in the current FF but it's for ALL cookies. There needs to be a way to distinguish. Lot of sites don't work properly if you disable them outright.
 
Not really. Advertisers can still use a record of source IP addresses executing javascript. Slap on a little more JS code to identify the computer itself and you're right back to where you were.
 
Red Squirrel said:
...Lot of sites don't work properly if you disable them outright.
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Most of those sites are filled with trash code that is likely harmful and should be avoided anyway. Very few sites are worth allowing cookies for.
 
Will it be like their "plug-in blocker" and allow exceptions for companies that pay them enough money like Adobe or Google?
 
Super-D said:
Will it be like their "plug-in blocker" and allow exceptions for companies that pay them enough money like Adobe or Google?
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You know, Click to play is only for old exploitable plugins right? The reason why the latest flash version wasn't included was because it came out the same week as that version of firefox. If you have a old version it will default to click to play just like the other plugins.
 
Just as well. Of course pretty much every browser has had the option to block third party cookies from time to time, but most people probably don't even know what the feature does. I've just used various add-ons and such to do the same for for years.
 
prndll said:
Here's a reason for me to upgrade...
It will block cookies that I'm already blocking.
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True, you can already do this....

niconx said:
Not really. Advertisers can still use a record of source IP addresses executing javascript. Slap on a little more JS code to identify the computer itself and you're right back to where you were.
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...also true, they will just find an alternate way to do this and it will probably be worse than the use of cookies.
 
I wish Firefox would find a version of flash that doesn't beat it around like a red-headed step child and integrate it.
 
It seems to me like Firefox isnt as smooth as it used to be. Ive been on Chrome for a while now and I try every new version of Firefox that comes out because it was my favorite for so long that I want it to be again but after a couple hours on it, Im back on Chrome. Either Firefox is getting worse or Chrome is just so much better that it brings out the flaws in Firefox. I dunno.
 
Ryokurin said:
You know, Click to play is only for old exploitable plugins right? The reason why the latest flash version wasn't included was because it came out the same week as that version of firefox. If you have a old version it will default to click to play just like the other plugins.
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So new versions of flash are completely unexploitable? Awesome!
 
mrtheshaggy said:
I wish Firefox would find a version of flash that doesn't beat it around like a red-headed step child and integrate it.
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Agreed. Implementing a rock-solid and safe alternative to flash really needs to take some kind of focus. Be it integrated, an add-on, or a completely separate install.
 
Google is already my search engine, I don't need them as my everything else. Firefox works fine and it's addons are spectacular, I like how transparent Mozilla is and how dedicated their are to open web standards. If it wasn't for Firefox, we probably wouldn't have all the addons we have now in the first place, and concepts like 'active content control' probably wouldn't be as public as they have become. Firefox's open extension api allowed creative developers the freedom to make addons that allowed users to control what happens. I remember at one point Chrome's API didn't even allow you to block ads, it would only 'hide' them, which is why the first incarnation of adblock was a disaster on its browser. Shit with the way Google advertises their goddamn browser everywhere it's amazing they don't have 95% browser market share.
 
Damn lack of an edit button. Yep, it will be enabled by default.
"Users can already manually disable cookies in Firefox, but in version 22 it will be an automatically enabled feature."
 
xxEIEIOxx said:
...also true, they will just find an alternate way to do this and it will probably be worse than the use of cookies.
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No, if there was a worse more sinister way they'd already be doing it

This news is good news. Too many thieves and fly by nights in the advertising space that don't belong,
 
odditory said:
No, if there was a worse more sinister way they'd already be doing it

This news is good news. Too many thieves and fly by nights in the advertising space that don't belong,
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I can't think of any legal way to do the shit advertisers pull off. A lot of the crap they currently do should be illegal tbh.
 
Red Squirrel said:
While good, I think the way it needs to work is still accept the cookies for the session and just trash them after, and only do this for 3rd party ones. There's an option in the current FF but it's for ALL cookies. There needs to be a way to distinguish. Lot of sites don't work properly if you disable them outright.
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I have mine set to automatically wipe cookies on browser close. If you add them to the cookie whitelist they are skipped, so certain cookies I do want are kept. No plugins are needed to do this, but I did add the plugin "Cookie Whitelist, With buttons" addon that gives me the option to add the current domain I'm on to the whitelist with the click of a button.
 
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