Mozilla has released version 70 of its Firefox web browser. Find out the main changes the company made to better protect your privacy.
Mozilla released version 70 of its Firefox web browser in October 2019. Its push this year has been building privacy-centric features that are enabled by default in its products, according to company officials. Toward that end, Mozilla has rolled out the free Privacy Protections report and other privacy-related features in Firefox 70.
The Privacy Protections Report
A new feature in Firefox 70 lets you view the Privacy Protections report within the browser. The report shows you:
How many trackers the Enhanced Tracking Protection service has blocked on your behalf. The Enhanced Tracking Protection service is a collection of Firefox features designed to protect your privacy when you are using the Firefox browser. The service is enabled by default and works behind the scenes, so you might not even be aware that it is running.
The Enhanced Tracking Protection service blocks different types of trackers that collect information about you. Besides cookies, it blocks:
- Third-party trackers (trackers placed by websites you have not visited)
- Social media trackers (trackers that social media sites place on other websites so they can see what you do online)
- Fingerprinters (scripts that collect settings from your browser and computer)
The service also blocks cryptojacking scripts, which are designed to siphon your computer’s processing power.
How many known data breaches have exposed your personal information. In September 2018, Mozilla introduced Firefox Monitor, a free tool that you can use to see whether any of your email addresses have been compromised in publicly known data breaches. The Privacy Protections report lets you know at a glance if your email addresses have been compromised in any data breaches and whether any of your passwords have been exposed as a result.
How many passwords you have stored in Firefox Lockwise. Firefox Lockwise is a free password management suite. The Firefox Lockwise browser extension stores your passwords within the browser on your desktop computer. You can sync the passwords with Android and iOS mobile devices via a mobile app. With this setup, the passwords you save in Firefox will be available on all your mobile devices, without having to install the Firefox browser on them.
The Privacy Protections report lets you know how many passwords you have stored in Firefox Lockwise and how many mobile devices you have synced. In addition, you can quickly view your saved logins with the click of a button.
Other Privacy-Related Features
Mozilla has made other privacy-related changes in Firefox 70. For example, Firefox now strips path information from the HTTP referrer (i.e., data sent in an HTTP connection) sent to third-party trackers to prevent additional data leaks. In addition, it has added a random password generator to Firefox Lockwise so that you can create strong passwords to protect accounts containing personal information.
We can show you how to further ensure your privacy when using Firefox or any other browser when you are online. For instance, we can show you how to set up and use a virtual private network (VPN) when using the Internet.
Firefox (47) flickr photo by Jason.IT shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
