Already years ago, the free web browser Firefox declared war on advertising trackers, now the browser stores cookies for each website individually. This makes tracking even more difficult.
Browser version 86
With the new browser version 86 Firefox now stores each cookie individually, so only the actual creators of the cookies can read them. With the new feature called “Total Cookie Protection”, the fight against tracking continues. Already in 2019, the open-source browser Firefox began to block all cookies considered infected with trackers by default. With the separate storage of cookies Mozilla Firefox now takes the next step. There are exceptions to the changes, if users log in to a web app with a Google, GitHub or Facebook account, access is granted to the cookies needed for this purpose. The exception is enabled by tightly defined exceptions. With the “Total Cookie Protection” feature, each website gets a “cookie jar” assigned to it specifically, thus a certain number of cookies it can access. With this, Firefox complements the supercookie protection which was introduced with Firefox version 85.
JavaScript API
In the future, users themselves should be able to determine the cookie exceptions, for this Apple’s Safari team has proposed the JavaScript API. With the Storage-Access-API, pages can ask for access to a specific third-party cookie. Currently, the Storage Access API is favored by the Safari, Firefox, and Microsoft Edge browsers. Google Chrome also supports the interface, this has to be enabled by the user as it is inactive by default. Back in January this year, Mozilla integrated a new feature in its browser to make tracking more difficult without cookies, thus also eliminating the widespread technique of cross-site tracking.
Google relies on privacy sandbox
In contrast to Apple and Mozilla, Google wants to go other ways with the Chrome browser for the time being, before third-party cookies are completely excluded. With the so-called Privacy Sandbox, Google’s Chrome team wants to make advertising placements possible without the classic tracking. The team’s proposals have so far caused a stir among data protectionists and advertising professionals.
