The Tracking Protection feature is available in Firefox 36, the current release channel version. It is not exposed in the preferences UI yet, but you can flip the "privacy.trackingprotection.enabled" about:config pref. To verify that Tracking Protection is working, visit cnn.com or nytimes.com and look for the shield icon in the address bar. On my laptop, cnn.com takes 18 seconds to load without tracking protection and 4 seconds with it. If you find a website that is broken by Tracking Protection, please file a bug on Bugzilla in the "Core :: DOM: Security" component. You can click the shield icon to disable Tracking Protection for individual websites.
Will Tracking Protection be enabled by default? I don't know. Mozilla must walk a narrow line between protecting user privacy and angering publishers such that they block Firefox users.
(I work for Mozilla, but not on the Tracking Protection project.)
>Mozilla must walk a narrow line between protecting user privacy and angering publishers such that they block Firefox users. //
Is there any precedent for that, it sounds impossible, that publishers would block one of the major browser brands like this; wouldn't it just mean people would use UA switchers?
The only reason FF wouldn't want to serve it users like this, that I can see, is so as not to annoy those they're in commercial relationships with like the company they forced the browser toolbar button on to everyone's Firefox to get sponsorship from.
> Is there any precedent for that, it sounds impossible, that publishers would block one of the major browser brands like this; wouldn't it just mean people would use UA switchers?
Some websites already detect ad blocker extensions and instruct users to disable them. If Firefox Tracking Protection was enable by default, it's possible publishers might do the same for Firefox users. Another precedent, though different circumstances, was when OkCupid asked its Firefox users to switch to Chrome or IE to protest Brendan Eich's appointment to Mozilla CEO.
Probably less than 1% of Firefox users know what a User-Agent string is. The path of least resistance, and the one likely suggested by the content sites, would be to switch to Chrome or IE. Even if Firefox users changed their User-Agent strings, websites could still detect whether a user is using tracking protection or ad blockers (by requesting known-blocked URLs to see if they are blocked).
> The only reason FF wouldn't want to serve it users like this, that I can see, is so as not to annoy those they're in commercial relationships with like the company they forced the browser toolbar button on to everyone's Firefox to get sponsorship from.
>Some websites already detect ad blocker extensions and instruct users to disable them. //
Indeed but ad blocking and user tracking are different orders of need for the advertisers. Advertisers still want access to FF users even if they can't track them. Currently with browser fingerprinting "don't track" is probably just another high-value data point to make the fingerprinting more successful.
>Probably less than 1% of Firefox users know what a User-Agent string is. //
How many people who've watched a ripped DVD know about DVDCSS. Firefox could just go the IE route and spoof by default (alright they don't quite spoof, just jam everyone else's UA strings in to their own). I see no reason that browser fingerprint spoofing (to coin a phrase) can't be as democratised as adblocking. How many adblock users know how it works?
>Which toolbar button is that?
"Hello" button that kept re-appearing had Telefonica's name with it; perhaps FF didn't view that as advertising but I imagine the market rate for "we'll put a button that links to your name in the browser of every Firefox user and when they remove it we'll put it right back" has got to be in the 10s of millions of USD.
