this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024
435 points (98.9% liked)

Firefox

17602 readers
602 users here now

A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
top 24 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I'm surprised this isn't already a thing for decades but ok.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It is already a thing for 2 years, since this is just an update to an old blog post to say that they'll do even more now.

Aside from that, it wasn't a thing, because as per the usual something on the web breaks when you change behavior like that, because some webpages rely on third-party cookies to provide their core functionality.

Someone (in this case the Tor Browser devs) had to come up with a way to have third-party cookies ~~and eat them, too~~ but isolate them from the third-party cookies that got created on other webpages.
On the technical side, this is called "first-party isolation", and basically each domain you browse to gets its own cookie jar to store first- and third-party cookies in.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

Cookie jar... I will use that term from now on

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Right? When I first started learning web dev (just a bit) I thought cookies were like that, quarantined to each website. Its insane that it hasnt been like that for this long

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Well, they were already quarantined to each website, but if that same website got embedded in half of all websites, that still enables a lot of tracking. So now they're also quarantined to each website and the website it's embedded in, if any.

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 weeks ago

Another Firefox W

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 46 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

That's great, but what's the update? The Lemmy cross-posts from two years ago have the same title.

update: I read the post and the last paragraph talks about the full blocking of third-party cookies as a thing that's "starting in 2024" (future tense). So my best guess is it's that, but whatever the August 28th update was could have cleared all this up.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

So the update is, Firefox now blocks all third party cookies by default?

That's great and new news... I just wish this post reflected that, so I wouldn't have to dig through comments to figure out what changed between 2022 and today.

I was confused enough when they initially announced Total Cookie Protection in 2021 and then re-announced it as rolled out to all users in 2022.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I think that's what it is, except my use of the term "block" was mostly wrong. This seems to accept them but keep them isolated, defeating their effectiveness as a way to track users across sites.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 weeks ago

I don't think it's anyone's fault for being confused or misinterpreting what's in the article, because even Mozilla calls it blocking:

And starting in 2024, all our users can look forward to Firefox blocking even more third party cookies.

The linked page is even more confusing, because it provides a link back to this page for clarification about which third party cookies are being blocked.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

That's today!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

Updated Aug. 28, 2024.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

Still waiting for it on mobile

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

It's there on mobile. Check the details tab in tracking protection. You should see it mentioned there.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Well shit! How long has that been there? I still use Firefox (ok, Librewolf and Mull) but I had given up on ever seeing that on mobile.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Agreed. It's desperately needed on mobile

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

@Delusion6903 @bitwolf Firefox still has some ad features you have to find and turn off, don't know how to do this on Firefox for Android

https://blog.zgp.org/turn-off-advertising-features-in-firefox/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I'm actually using Mull so I'm thinking this is pretty well covered

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 weeks ago

Nononoooo! You gotta triple because double makes it neutral!