Firefox Ditches 'Do Not Track' Feature in Version 135 in Favor of 'Global Privacy Control'

[Cpt.Jank]

Mozilla says that "many sites do not respect" Do Not Track requests, as they rely on voluntary compliance, adding that the feature may actually harm user privacy—likely alluding to the fact that it makes it easier for sites to fingerprint and track you. As such, as of Firefox version 135, Mozilla will disable the Do Not Track feature. As a replacement for the feature, Mozilla recommends using the more advanced "Tell websites not to sell or share my data" toggle built into Global Privacy Control, which it says is more widely respected and backed by law in some regions.

This is also just the latest in a long line of changes to both Firefox and web privacy, at large. For one, Google recently completely removed third-party cookies from its Chrome browser—a move it claims is in support of user privacy but has been widely criticized for putting Google in something of a monopoly position when it comes to tracking the data of Chrome users. Overall, the community feedback on Reddit seems to be either positive or indifferent, although one criticism of the new reliance on Global Privacy Control is that GPC doesn't block Google Analytics tracking requests, although the reasoning behind leaving Google Analytics in-tact is that many sites don't function correctly when it is blocked or disabled.

Global Privacy Control (GPC) is a proposed specification designed to allow Internet users to notify businesses of their privacy preferences, such as whether or not they want their personal information to be sold or shared. It consists of a setting or extension in the user's browser or mobile device and acts as a mechanism that websites can use to indicate they support the specification.

Essentially, GPC in Firefox tells the websites you visit "not to sell or share information about your browsing session on that website," although, notably, it doesn't appear to prohibit the collection of browsing data. According to Mozilla's support page about GPC, certain US states—California, Colorado, and Connecticut are called out specifically—mandate that GPC also be treated as a Do Not Track request, and in other areas, like the EU, UK, Nevada, Utah, and Virginia, GPC grants additional benefits on top of DNT, including opting out of targeted ads and sale of personal data.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[ymdhis]

So they changed the http header that sites don't support (or ignore, or use for fingerprinting) into a different http header that sites don't support (or ignore, or use for fingerprinting). Fucking genius, give the Mozilla CEO another pay raise, I think he/she hasn't gotten one in at least a month.

 

[Wirko]

I also want a global cookie consent killer. I don't mind receiving all sorts of stinky cookies because they never survive until next day.

 

[Chaitanya]

Have noticed Firefox has gotten horrible memory hog recently probably worse than Chrome at this point.

 

[Space Lynx]

Have noticed Firefox has gotten horrible memory hog recently probably worse than Chrome at this point.

ram is cheap these days, not sure why people complain about this anymore?

 

[Wirko]

Have noticed Firefox has gotten horrible memory hog recently probably worse than Chrome at this point.

But how nicely do these browsers behave when the system is short on free RAM?

 

[Raiden85]

Tried Firefox again after ditching it about a decade ago. Still noticeably slower than Chrome at loading pages and still no native HDR support, which in almost 2025 is insane.

 

[A Computer Guy]

But how nicely do these browsers behave when the system is short on free RAM?

They don't even behave nicely when you have plenty of ram

 

[Chaitanya]

ram is cheap these days, not sure why people complain about this anymore?

Tell that to Laptop makers who keep soldering 16GB of RAM(optional extra until recently so most of time its 8GB base) for their office oriented notebooks and even with 32GB of RAM these notebooks come to a crawl.

Tried Firefox again after ditching it about a decade ago. Still noticeably slower than Chrome at loading pages and still no native HDR support, which in almost 2025 is insane.

lack of HDR support doesnt bother me, also with uBlock origin having webpages advertisement free open and read the entire article without having adverts shoved down every 2-3 paragraphs is worth the penalty of slow load times.

 

[Haytham]

ram is cheap these days, not sure why people complain about this anymore?

Even if you have a lot of RAM on your PC, excessive RAM usage by the browser can significantly slow down your browsing.

 

[Scrizz]

Have noticed Firefox has gotten horrible memory hog recently probably worse than Chrome at this point.

No, it's not even close. Firefox is still much better with memory than Chrome.

Let's say I use enough tabs to find out.

 

[Raiden85]

Tell that to Laptop makers who keep soldering 16GB of RAM(optional extra until recently so most of time its 8GB base) for their office oriented notebooks and even with 32GB of RAM these notebooks come to a crawl.


lack of HDR support doesnt bother me, also with uBlock origin having webpages advertisement free open and read the entire article without having adverts shoved down every 2-3 paragraphs is worth the penalty of slow load times.

You can still block ads in Chrome with Ublock Origin Lite, not as customizable but trying both side by side for a few weeks as someone who has used Ublock Origin for many years there is sod all difference to be honest when it comes to blocking ads, and it's manifest v3 compatible. Plus I find the lite version less of a resource hog so that's a nice bonus.

 

[Dave65]

Have noticed Firefox has gotten horrible memory hog recently probably worse than Chrome at this point.

Still better than Chrome.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Oh shiney! a new feature, forget that old useless one, this one works for everyone! including data miners.

 

[Shihab]

So they changed the http header that sites don't support (or ignore, or use for fingerprinting) into a different http header that sites could disregard and end up in court. Fucking genius, give the Mozilla CEO another pay raise, I think he/she hasn't gotten one in at least a month.

Fixed that for you.

 

[csendesmark]

ram is cheap these days, not sure why people complain about this anymore?

Tell that to those mac users

Still better than Chrome.

That is little consolation, we deserve an objectively good browser.

 

[Chomiq]

ram is cheap these days, not sure why people complain about this anymore?

Because shit code is still shit code.

 

[Vayra86]

That is little consolation, we deserve an objectively good browser.

Good luck finding complete consensus over what is objectively good

 

[Caring1]

Damn my brain, I read that as Global Piracy Control

 

[Frick]

No, it's not even close. Firefox is still much better with memory than Chrome.

Let's say I use enough tabs to find out.
View attachment 375289

Yeah I was gonna say I usually have a several dozen tabs up at any point and it's fine on memory. I don't think I've ever seen it go above 3GB.

lack of HDR support doesnt bother me, also with uBlock origin having webpages advertisement free open and read the entire article without having adverts shoved down every 2-3 paragraphs is worth the penalty of slow load times.

I use Chrome at work and Firefox at home and I wouldn't say Chrome is any faster really. Not meaningfully so anyway. That said some sites just don't work on Firefox. Filling out like important forms and stuff online usually requires Chrome for me. Some drop down menus don't work right on Firefox, especially not the mobile version.

 

[ErikG]

Firefox forever!

 

[A Computer Guy]

Because shit code is still shit code.

Sometimes it's not so much the browser but the site one loads into it.

 

[Veseleil]

I don't mind receiving all sorts of stinky cookies because they never survive until next day.

I nuke everything many times a day.

 

[Zareek]

I use Chrome at work and Firefox at home and I wouldn't say Chrome is any faster really. Not meaningfully so anyway. That said some sites just don't work on Firefox. Filling out like important forms and stuff online usually requires Chrome for me. Some drop down menus don't work right on Firefox, especially not the mobile version.

I also use Chrome (corporate preference) for work and some Firefox for some backwards compatibility things. I switched from Firefox at home to Brave because of the issues Firefox has with some sites and better Ad blocking.

Overall, this doesn't surprise me, hopefully it is a positive. I'm worried that Mozilla is just slowly dying. Chromium browsers will rule unopposed, yeah, I know I'm partially responsible.

 

[Space Lynx]

Firefox forever!

yes, i agree

I'm worried that Mozilla is just slowly dying. Chromium browsers will rule unopposed, yeah, I know I'm partially responsible.

people have been saying this for 15 years now, it will be fine, even if it did die, an offshoot would take the lead, like Waterfox or PaleMoon, maybe not as nice, but yeah Chromium will never be king, especially now that v3 update has pissed off so many people

Brave will eventually have to move to v3 btw, they can delay it for awhile sure, but eventually their adblocking will suffer because of the v3 chromimum update