Firefox Makes Total Cookie Protection a Default for All Users to Make Sure They're Safe Online

Sophie Webster, Tech Times 14 June 2022, 09:06 pm

On June 14, internet browser Mozilla Firefox announced that it will use its Total Cookie Protection or TCP as a default for all of its users, taking it as an opportunity to grow its base.

Firefox to Use TCP as Default

The TCP feature was first introduced in February 2021 and was restricted to Firefox's tracking protection feature called the Enhanced Tracking Protection Strict Mode.

The feature was then enabled by default in private browsing windows when Firefox 89 was launch in 2021.

Starting June 14, Total Cookie Protection will now be the default for all Firefox users worldwide, not just in private windows or if you choose to have stricter settings.

Compared to other internet browsers like Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox claims to be the most private and secure browser available across Mac and Windows.

Also Read: Google Plans to Stop Selling Ads: What's Next After Phasing Out Browser Cookies?

Mozilla's chief security officer, Marshall Erwin, tells TechCrunch that Total Cookie Protection is Firefox's "strongest privacy protection to date."

Mozilla believes that by making TCP the default for all of their users, they will be kept safe online.

Erwin added that since internet users are having their data collected without their knowledge, and the data are sold and used to manipulate them into buying things based on their interest.

Meanwhile, Total Cookie Protection is the feature that breaks that cycle because it puts people first, protect their privacy, gives them a choice and "cuts of Big Tech from the data it gets daily."

How TCP Works

The TCP feature creates a different cookie jar for each website that you visit and confines the cookies to the specific site where they were created.

The trackers can only see your online behavior, and it prevents tracking companies from using the cookies to see what you're browsing from website to website.

This means that the amount of information that the companies get from you is reduced and all the invasive advertisements that you see online is diminished.

Also, TCP offers extra privacy protections given by existing anti-tracking features like Enhanced Tracking Protection or ETP, which Mozilla launched in 2018 and became default to all Mozilla Firefox users in 2019.

The ETP blocks the trackers based on the list, but there were still some issues because there were still ways for trackers to evade being blocked.

For example, many of the trackers just set up a new tracking domain that was not on the list. Meanwhile, the TCP feature restricts the functionality completely.

When third-party cookies are blocked, this can break some website functionality. This is why the reason why Firefox's Total Cookie Protection does not completely remove the third-party cookies.

Access to the cookies is restricted, and in that way, the browser experience is not affected as the TCP feature continues to offer strong protection against tracking.

Also, cross-site cookies are an exception as they are needed for non-tracking purposes, like the ones used by third-party login providers.

This means that the website and the login provider will access the same jar so the user can sign in easily. Firefox will remember the preference of the user for a maximum of 30 days.

However, TCP does not protect users from all cookie pop-ups. The company stated that while it protects users from the third-party tracking that might happen on the website that ask you to accept or decline their privacy policy in a cookie banner, TCP does not protect users against first-party tracking.