Skip to main content

Optional Tracking Protection feature in Firefox also speeds up web browsing

Firefox laptop
Image used with permission by copyright holder
With all the recent reports of just how far certain companies (we’re looking at you, Facebook) go to track users’ web browsing habits, it makes sense that you might want to opt out of tracking whenever you can. And it seems that there is another benefit to this, at least for Firefox users: speed.

Software engineer and former Mozilla employee Monica Chew and research Georgios Kontaxis have released a paper titled Tracking Protection in Firefox For Privacy and Performance, which won the best paper award at the Web 2.0 Security and Privacy workshop, VentureBeat reports.

Recommended Videos

The paper shows that with Tracking Protection enabled, not only did Chew and Kontaxis see a 67 percent reduction in cookies set in the Alexa Top 200 news sites, but page load times were reduced by a median 44 percent, and overall data usage was reduced by 39 percent. Even if you aren’t too concerned about privacy, that speed increase alone might be enough of a reason to enable the feature.

The speed boost comes from blocking requests to tracking domains, so it won’t speed up browsing across the board, but considering the amount of sites that use some sort of tracking, the benefit should be fairly noticeable. Currently, Tracking Protection isn’t turned on by default, as Mozilla is still gathering feedback about how the feature works, but it’s fairly easy to enable the feature.

While this feature should be a hit among power users, it’s not likely every feature that Mozilla has been introducing in Firefox will see the same reception. Last week we reported that a new feature in Firefox called “Suggested Tiles” will scan your history in order to place targeted ads on the new tab page.

For more information on the study, see the full paper, which is freely downloadable on Scribd. To see how to turn on Tracking Protection in Firefox for yourself, see Mozilla’s support page for the feature.

Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
Mozilla Firefox’s new feature will make it harder for ISPs to spy on you
firefox chrome back end mozilla symbol hq headquarters building sign convention open source

Mozilla is pressing ahead with its controversial DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) feature that many across the United States and the United Kingdom have lobbied against. The update will add an additional layer of encryption to your internet traffic and makes it more difficult for ISPs to snoop on your browsing data.

Whenever you punch in a web address, the browser queries a dedicated server to process that human-readable domain name into an IP address to find out where that website is actually located. Called DNS Lookup, it is the first step a browser takes to load your website. But since this process is not encrypted, it’s easy prey for internet carriers and allows them to potentially keep tabs on what websites you visit.

Read more
Mozilla Firefox’s new add-on lets you surf the web with your voice
mozilla apple google microsoft lawsuit headquarters

Mozilla is bringing a voice assistant to its Firefox browser. The company has released an experimental, new add-on that lets you surf the web with just your voice. Called Firefox Voice, it’s capable of recognizing natural-language speech and can do much more than simply fire up websites on command.

Firefox Voice offers the ability to perform a whole bunch of browser-related tasks hands-free. Once installed, you can ask it to open websites, switch to another tab, take the current web page’s screenshot, and more. You can invoke it either by clicking the add-on’s button or pressing the keyboard shortcut. Firefox Voice also understands natural language which means you don’t necessarily have to stick to specific commands.

Read more
Mac monitors could finally receive the big upgrade they’ve always needed
Apple Mac Studio and Studio Display.

A new rumor has surfaced that suggests Apple may be focusing on upgrading the display technology on many of its products. If accurate, 2025 could see Apple introduce a 24-inch iMac and Studio Display with a 90Hz refresh rate display panel.

An anonymous source recently shared information on the Upgrade podcast hosted by Myke Hurley and Jason Snell. The source detailed that Apple’s timeline included a launch of the M3 iPad Air with a new and improved 90Hz panel, followed by a 24-inch iMac launch with the updated display technology, and finally the 27-inch Studio Display with the new panel. In addition to the upgraded Mac panels, the same bump from 60Hz to 90Hz is reported to also come to the next-gen iPad Air.

Read more