Firefox makes it possible to track trackers

Firefox has been working hard this year to focus on user privacy. They have also shown this in a new blog post that they are focusing more and more on this.

For example, earlier this year they released an update that blocked external trackers and cryptominers on websites by default. However, they have now also made it possible to see which websites are tracking you. With this you can see how many external trackers and social media trackers are further blocked.

Where can I see this?

You are now naturally wondering where exactly you can see the trackers that have been blocked. This is easy to see, for example by going to your Hosting and clicking on the shield.

Then click on Show report and here you can see exactly what is blocked. This applies to social media trackers, cross site trackers, tracking content, fingerprints and even crypotminers.

You can also see whether there have been any data leaks on websites you have an account on. You can further use this information to change your password on certain websites if necessary.

Social media trackers

Perhaps you are now wondering what social media trackers are exactly, actually it is very simple. These are trackers of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

They follow your surfing behavior on the internet outside their own platforms to build a profile of you. Subsequently, they can use this data to sell it on to other parties.

Firefox users can set how strict they want this to be. So you can set it to standard, strict or customized with your own settings.

This also applies to cross-site tracking cookies, which do exactly the same as social media trackers but are often used for advertising. They are used to better tune advertisements to you so you click on them faster.

Tracking content

Content is also tracked, this can take different forms. For example, the loading of external images, videos or advertisements.

Tracking code is then processed in these images or videos and makes it possible to follow you. This also allows advertisements to be customized to make them more enticing for you.

fingerprints

Perhaps the most obscure from the list of different trackers. Fingerprints are trackers that find out the settings of your browser to create a digital profile of you.

Just like fingerprints, your fingerprint is unique, this also applies to the built up fingerprint profile. Since it is unique, they can precisely build a profile with your data.

This can also be used in combination with social media trackers and cross site tracking to build up a comprehensive profile of you. All advertisements you receive are then personalized to you.

Cryptominers

The most annoying of all is the Cryptominer, this is also sometimes called cryptojacking. With this, a Cryptominer is incorporated into the advertisement that uses your PC to minus.

Thanks to the Cryptominer, your processor usage goes up further making your computer a lot slower. Fortunately, these kinds of advertisements are usually blocked by both virus scanners and web browsers themselves.
If you do notice that this is happening somewhere, you can always report it, because this is seen as abuse.

If you have any further questions on this subject you can always check whether a chat employee is available.If there is no one on the chat, you can submit a ticket to our helpdesk.