Privacy protection: Firefox’s attack against cookies

Firefox brings better privacy protection, as it announced Total Cookie Protection. The new feature prevents third-parties from tracking users.

A new level for privacy protection

The new feature is built into Enhanced Tracking Protection, for desktop. Thus, the Total Cookie Protection sets a separate “cookie jar” for each website. So, the cookies that each website deposits in the browser end up in a separate “jar.” Therefore it can not share the data with other websites.

Cookies are that kind of pieces of code that browsers store on behalf of each website. Although they are useful for an enhanced browsing experience, they also bring a serious privacy vulnerability.

Usually, web browsers allow cookie sharing between websites. Thus, third-party cookies allow them track users as they browse. This allows advertising companies to build a personal profile for each user and target it with personalized ads.

The Enhanced Tracking Protection came in 2019 to block cookies that track users. Still, Firefox considered this was not enough. As a result, it brought more protection against cookie-based tracking.

The new feature ensures that cookies can not track users from site to site, while browsing.

TCP’s exception

Still, Total Cookie Protection comes with an exception regarding cross-site cookies. Thus, if the browser needs them for any other purposes than tracking, i.e. login cookies. So, when TCP detects that a provider needs permission, it will granted for this, but only for the site users visit at a certain moment.

According to Mozillla, this ensures a smooth browsing experience, without giving up privacy.

The new option comes just a month after Firefox 85 brought Supercookie protections.

Supercookies are those cookies that replace ordinary cookies, in order to store identifiers. And it is much more difficult to erase or block.

So, Firefox 85 reduces their effectiveness and eliminates trackers’ possibility to use them on other websites.

As a conclusion, all these features block websites’ ability to “tag” users’ browser. So, the cross-tracking technique becomes impossible.