Software.com Find us on

Search

New users

Sign Up with Facebook

Don't use Facebook?

Create an account on Software.com to receive additional membership advantages, and to shop online quickly and easily.

Joining is free. All you need is a valid email address.

6 Jul 2011 By ABradney-George

Mozilla Firefox Do Not Track Privacy Features

6 Jul

The Latest Version Of Firefox Has Do Not Track Privacy Features That Give Users A Range Of Advanced Privacy Options When Browsing The Web. Here We Look At How It Works.

Over the last few years, more and more people have started to move towards online privacy through private browsing options and software designed specifically for better privacy protection. This trend should see even more options become available, like the Do Not Track privacy features that Mozilla has developed for Firefox users.

First released in Firefox 4, Do Not Track lets users request that websites exclude them from online tracking features so that privacy is maintained. After some industry criticism and analysis from a range of websites, the feature has been kept and further refined in the new Firefox 5.

In Firefox 4 the Do Not Track option was hidden away under Advanced settings, but as university professor and information technology specialist Michael Zimmer points out, Firefox 5 makes it much easier to find Do Not Track in the Firefox Preferences. Do Not Track for Firefox is also now available for Google's Android operating systems, making it the first browser to offer an anti-tracking option across multiple platforms.

However, it is important to remember that there was other criticism about this feature for a reason. One of the major issues being that it is up to companies whether they support the feature or not. The official Mozilla webpage for Do Not Track states that people may not notice any changes at first.

"Do Not Track is a step toward putting you in control of the way your information is collected and used online...It does this by transmitting a Do Not Track HTTP header every time your data is requested from the Web, " the site states, before going on to add:

"We are actively working with companies that have started to implement Do Not Track, with others who have committed to doing so soon."

While the feature may not be a perfect solution yet, it definitely adds more browser privacy options for people to consider. Plus with the shift to a rapid release development cycle for Firefox, improvements could be just around the corner.