Firefox to begin blocking third-party cookies by default

February 24, 2013

Firefox is giving people concerned about their online privacy another reason to like the popular browser. It will begin blocking cookies from third-party advertisers in an upcoming release. While Firefox users can already use the Do Not Track extension to stave them off, the patch will allow the browser to do it by default. That means sites you’ve visited can leave cookies on your computer but ad networks that don’t already have one on your machine can’t. Cookies are the reason the ads you see online seem to know that you’re thinking about going back to school or in the market for a new car. And you might be surprised how many of them you pick up when you surf the Internet. In fact, the nation’s top websites leave dozens of pieces of tracking technology on visitors’ computers so as to profile people and flash them targeted ads. Some people think it’s a matter of privacy. What if, for instance, you’re researching something online that you don’t want anyone to know about or associate with you -- things like a medical condition or prickly political issue? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2029195/firefox-to-begin-blocking-third-party-cookies-by-default.html