Your Tech Story

Mozilla Firefox

firefox etp

Mozilla Turns the ETP (Enhanced Tracking Protection) By Default On for Every Users

The users’ privacy has always been the biggest concern of all the browsers working out there. Safari from Apple has been at the top when it comes to maintaining the user’s privacy, and slowly, the other browsers are also taking a step forward in the same regard.

Another browser maker, Mozilla, has also announced that the Firefox will now have by default privacy from the third-party tracking software, through its Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) feature. Though the company had introduced the very privacy feature last year in October, and even, made it official in June this year, the users had to manually turn on the feature. But from today onwards, the feature will be by default on for everyone.

The feature is integrated with the new version of Firefox, i.e. Firefox version 69. And, users who will upgrade their browser, whether on desktop or over their Android smartphones, they will also get the feature turned on by default. With ETP, the browser will also be blocking the cookies that are set by websites that want to steal the information, like user behaviour to send ads to the users or to sell the information further to other companies.

firefox etp
Image Source: mozilla.org

The new ETP feature will also take an action on the crypto mining or cryptojacking by blocking it by default for every user. Cryptomining is a type of malware that is capable of taking over the resources of a computer, draining the CPU as well as the battery. Cryptomining that runs in the background is responsible for ruining the user experience.

The company announced the news through a blog post, where it also said, “Currently over 20% of Firefox users have Enhanced Tracking Protection on. With today’s release, we expect to provide protection for 100% of ours users by default. Enhanced Tracking Protection works behind-the-scenes to keep a company from forming a profile of you based on their tracking of your browsing behaviour across websites — often without your knowledge or consent.”

Since the release of the feature in June, the company have been testing it in different use cases, and according to it, the feature is ready to provide complete protection to its users. From now on, with the latest version of Firefox, the users will see a shield icon beside the address bar on the left. By clicking on the shield they can see which of the companies have been blocked by ETP.

Mozilla & Qualcomm to Launch a Native Firefox version for Windows 10 on ARM

On Thursday, the two tech giants, Mozilla and Qualcomm, announced that the two are working together on a native version of Firefox for Windows 10. Mozilla stated that it is going to develop a new version of Mozilla Firefox, compatible with the Snapdragon-powered Windows computers on ARM. The browser will be a 64-bit version of Firefox that will provide high-performance and better connectivity.

firefox
Image Source: cnbeta.com

Usually, Microsoft uses a number of emulation techniques to run the Windows 10 application on ARM-based machines, among which, the native apps run faster than the other. Mozilla has kept that in mind and has specifically designed the Firefox run on an ARM machine. Firefox will use individual cores to run every tab, and Qualcomm will provide an adequate amount of it for those tabs.

Senior Director of Firefox Product at Mozilla, Marissa Morris, said, “Mozilla is excited to be collaborating with Qualcomm and optimizing Firefox. We can’t wait to see Firefox delivering blazing fast experiences for the always on, always connected, multi-core Snapdragon computer platform with Windows 10.”

On the other hand, Qualcomm also announced its brand-new processor, the Snapdragon 8cx. The ‘X’ in the 8cx stands for ‘extreme’. The processor is specially designed for the Windows’ always-connected laptops and 2-in-1 convertible Pcs. It is a 7nm chip, the biggest of all chips, Qualcomm has ever made for a laptop or a PC. The chip will provide better performance, better battery life as well as better cellular connectivity, i.e. up to 2Gbps. The chip is specifically developed for the Window Pcs and is the first one of its kind.

Microsoft had just made the announcement of completely shutting down the Edge browser. Now with the improved Mozilla Firefox, there will be only two competitors left in the field, Firefox and Safari. Although Microsoft is also working upon its chromium browser with Google, Mozilla’s new browser may arrive sooner.