Mozilla Releases Firefox 72 With Fingerprint Protection

Mozilla has released a new version of Firefox that prevents fingerprinting. The browser now blocks various techniques that allow users to be ‘fingerprinted’ by third parties. Users will also no longer see notifications from websites.

Mozilla released the new version of the browser on Wednesday. For fingerprint protection, Mozilla mainly looks at companies that use the technology, rather than the technology itself. Fingerprinting is a method of identifying a unique user based on characteristics of the user’s browser, surfing behavior or computer. For example, some sites look at the size of a screen or which version of an operating system someone is using. With enough of such variables, a tracker can determine with reasonable certainty that something is about a specific user. That way, it can be tracked across different websites.

Because fingerprinting consists of a combination of factors that are quite harmless in themselves, it is difficult to stop it technically. In Firefox 72, fingerprinting is blocked by blocking all requests from a third party by default, if that company is known for fingerprinting. Mozilla works together with Disconnect for this. That company maintains a list of companies that use fingerprinting. Disconnect also keeps track of which companies do cross-site tracking. Companies that use both methods can no longer use tracking. Mozilla says it’s helping Disconnect build new methods for detecting fingerprinting. With that block it is not only impossible to request information from a user’s system, but also to request information via network requests such as a user’s IP address.

Firefox 72 now also blocks notifications from websites. These are replaced by a small notification dot in the URL bar. Also, the picture-in-picture mode is now also available for macOS and Linux users.