Firefox drops cookie resistance. Introduced 13 years ago, the “Do not track me” option will disappear from the browser from version 135.
The explanation on Firefox’s support page is clear: “Many sites do not respect this indication of personal privacy preferences and, in some cases, it can even reduce privacy. » The “Do not track me” options that remain in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge are just as ineffective. In Firefox, the option will be replaced by Global Privacy Control. Required by law in certain regions, it allows you to indicate that you do not want your browsing to be tracked.
The “Do Not Track” feature was launched at the request of the US Federal Trade Commission, which wanted to create an Internet equivalent to “Don’t Call Me” lists for telemarketers. The option offered in browsers was supposed to ensure that advertisers would not track you to build a profile of your choices and tastes. Each browser had also adopted its own approach; in Firefox, it was a “Ask websites to “Don’t track me”” checkbox in the settings.
Counterattack
And this is where the problem lies. The “Do not track me” option did not block anything, it simply informed the websites that the Internet user did not wish to be tracked: it was up to them to respect this wish or not. However, the “Do Not Track” function gradually became a standard setting in all browsers, while marketers struggled to imagine new ways to get around it. Ultimately, the feature even became a way to track internet users through a “digital fingerprint,” including across different browsers. This is what led Apple to remove it from Safari in 2019.
In any case, the standoff between Internet users and advertisers over navigation tracking continues. Today, the ball is once again in the user’s court, who has no choice but to systematically click on “Refuse all” in GDPR notifications or activate specific software.
