Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop (original) (raw)

FirefoxFirefox Last updated: 03/04/2024 62% of users voted this helpful

Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox automatically protects your privacy while you browse. It blocks trackers that follow you around online to collect information about your browsing habits and interests without breaking site functionality. It also includes protections against harmful scripts, such as malware that drains your battery.

Table of Contents

• 1 Protections Dashboard
• 2 What Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks
• 3 How to tell when Firefox is protecting you
• 4 How to tell what’s being blocked on a site
• 5 What to do if a site seems broken
  • 5.1 Report a broken site
• 6 Adjust your global Enhanced Tracking Protection settings
  • 6.1 Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection
  • 6.2 Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection
  • 6.3 Custom Enhanced Tracking Protection
• 7 Copy without site tracking
  • 7.1 Copy from the address bar
  • 7.2 Copy from in-page links

Protections Dashboard

To see what’s been blocked on all sites over the past week, visit your Protections Dashboard. Click the shield to the left of the address bar and select or type about:protections into the address bar. This will open the Protections Dashboard page in a new tab.

What Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks

Firefox uses a list of known trackers provided by Disconnect. By default, Firefox blocks the following types of trackers and scripts:

• Social media trackers
• Cross-site tracking cookies (also isolates remaining cookies)
• Fingerprinters
• Cryptominers
• Tracking content: These trackers are hidden in ads, videos, and other in-page content. In Standard mode, tracking content is blocked only in Private Windows. To add this protection to all windows, visit your privacy preferences and select Strict or Custom as explained below.

To learn more about trackers and scripts blocked by Firefox, see Trackers and scripts Firefox blocks in Enhanced Tracking Protection and SmartBlock for Enhanced Tracking Protection.

How to tell when Firefox is protecting you

The shield to the left of the address bar tells you if Firefox is blocking trackers and scripts on a site.

How to tell what’s being blocked on a site

• Click the shield to see what Firefox has blocked.
  

This panel will display different information depending on the site you’re on.

• Blocked: Firefox blocked these trackers and scripts. Select each one to see a detailed list.
• Allowed: These are the trackers and scripts that were allowed to load on the page. This happens because some websites may require loading trackers and scripts to function properly. Firefox only allows trackers and scripts needed for the site to work and blocks the rest. For more information, visit SmartBlock for Enhanced Tracking Protection.
• None Detected: Firefox looked for these trackers and scripts, but did not find them on this site.
• Select to adjust your global privacy settings.
• Select to view a personalized summary of your protections over the past week, including tools to take control of your online security.

What to do if a site seems broken

If a site seems broken, disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection might fix the issue by allowing trackers on just that site. It allows trackers to load on that site only. Enhanced Tracking Protection will still prevent trackers on other sites. To disable it:

1. Visit the website.
2. At the left of the address bar, click the shield icon.
3. At the top right of the panel, toggle off the Enhanced Tracking Protection switch . The site will be added to your Enhanced Tracking Protection exception list, allowing trackers on it, and the page will reload automatically.
   

Follow the same process to turn Enhanced Tracking Protection back on. The site will be removed from the exception list, and the page will reload automatically.

You may encounter breakage on some sites when you’re in Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection. This is because trackers are hidden in some content. For example, a website might embed an outside video or social media post that contains trackers. To block the trackers, Firefox must also block the content itself. Trackers are often hidden in the following types of content:

• Login fields
• Forms
• Payments
• Comments
• Videos

Report a broken site

If a broken site starts working properly again after turning off the Enhanced Tracking Protection, you can click the shield icon and select Send report. This will show the Report a Broken Site panel.

The Send Report button will send site related data to Mozilla, so future Firefox versions can load that site working properly with Enhanced Tracking Protection enabled for everyone. By filling the optional Describe the problem field helps us fix the problem faster.

For more information, see How do I report a broken site in Firefox desktop?

Adjust your global Enhanced Tracking Protection settings

When you download Firefox, all protections included in Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection are already enabled.

To view or change your Enhanced Tracking Protection settings for all sites, click the shield to the left of the address bar on any webpage and select . This will open the Firefox Settings_Privacy & Security_ panel in a new tab.

Tip: These settings are also available from the Firefox menu:
In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click and then select or , depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button and select . Then select .

Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection

By default, Firefox blocks the following on all sites:

• Social media trackers
• Cross-site tracking cookies (other third-party cookies are isolated)
• Tracking content in Private Windows only
• Cryptominers
• Fingerprinters

Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection

To further increase privacy, select Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection. This will block the following:

• Social media trackers
• Cross-site cookies
• Tracking content in all windows
• Cryptominers
• Fingerprinters

1. Click the shield to the left of the address bar on any webpage.
2. Click .
   The Firefox Settings_Privacy & Security_ panel will open.
3. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select .
4. Select the button to apply your new privacy settings.

Custom Enhanced Tracking Protection

Want to block some trackers and scripts, but not others? Use Custom Enhanced Tracking Protection.

1. Click the shield to the left of the address bar on any webpage.
2. Click .
   The Firefox Settings_Privacy & Security_ panel will open.
3. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select .
4. Choose which trackers and scripts to block by selecting those checkboxes.
5. Select the button to apply your new privacy settings.

You can also turn off all protections in Custom by deselecting all checkboxes. This allows all trackers and scripts to load.

Copy without site tracking

Starting with Firefox version 120, the Copy without site tracking feature is automatically enabled to safeguard users against URL-based tracking by stripping tracking parameters from any copied URL.

Copy from the address bar

To copy URLs from the address bar stripping any tracking parameters it may have, do the following:

1. Right-click the URL you want to copy and select .
2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.
   

Copy from in-page links

To copy URLs from in-page links stripping any tracking parameters it may have, do the following:

1. Right-click the URL you want to copy and select .
2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.
   

These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Chris Ilias, Michele Rodaro, Mozinet, Joni, Marcelo Ghelman, Lamont Gardenhire, Jeff, Mark Heijl, Angela Lazar, PGGWriter, Samuelegrice@mymail.com, Fabi, k_alex, Bithiah, Abby, dirkpeukert4, Denys, Lucas Siebert

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