Update 2: According to current information, Firefox will block all third-party trackers by default as of summer 2019 (planned release: July 7, 2019). Source: golem.de
Update 1: The official release of Firefox v65 took place on May 29th. With this version a revised Privacy Control Center was presented, but by default only known tracking cookies in private browser mode are blocked.
Quote from the Mozilla blog: “We continue to experiment and share our journey to ensure we balance these new preferences with the experiences our users want and expect. Before we roll this feature out by default, we plan to run a few more experiments and users can expect to hear more from us about it.”
Further information at Mozilla.org.
At the end of August 2018, Mozilla announced the introduction of a so-called tracking prevention in Firefox. With this, Firefox wants to prevent more and more 3rd party tracking methods in the future. According to current information, this applies to all types of 3rd party cookies, but also to other recognition mechanisms – such as dubious fingerprinting methods that aim to uniquely identify a client or user. The functions of the Firefox Tracking Prevention are announced for the release of version 65 on 29.01.2019.
From our point of view, the following points must be observed when assessing this announcement:
- Firefox has a market share of 22% for desktop browsers and 0.5% for mobile browsers in Germany (Source: Own evaluation of the ADITION traffic).
- Based on the total German internet usage (approx. 55 % desktop and 45 % mobile), the future Firefox Tracking Prevention affects around 13 % of online traffic.
Firefox has already announced a total of four similar steps in the last few years, but these have always been withdrawn shortly before the release. Whether Firefox is really serious this time cannot be said with certainty today.
What are we working on??
Since Firefox has already announced similar steps several times, we have already dealt very intensively with this topic in the past. We have made both purely operational preparations and strategic measures for these profound changes.
For certain usecases we have – as far as technically feasible – planned extensions, so that they can remain in their basic form when the Firefox Tracking Prevention is released in January 2019. In the past, we have not implemented or prepared any systems, such as Deep Finger Printing, which, according to the old German data protection law and always since the GDPR came into force, are beyond data protection legality and contradict our responsibility in this respect towards internet users but also our customers and partners.
ADITION Universal Tag
For example, we are currently developing a solution specifically for the PostClick Conversion Case that does not require 3rd party cookies and still ensures that PostClick conversions can be measured. The process is as follows:
Within the European Full Tech Stack by virtual minds, an overarching task force is also intensively involved in evaluating the concrete characteristics of the announced Firefox update and developing further countermeasures to the already existing solutions in order to guarantee the operation and the fullest possible functionality of our systems in the future.
European netID Foundation
In addition to our own developments, such as probabilistic identification mechanisms, this also includes the intensive exchange with the European netID Foundation, of which we are a partner.
The European netID Foundation was founded by our shareholders ProSiebenSat1 and United Internet together with RTL as founding members in order to prepare for a future and medium-term foreseeable internet landscape that can no longer rely on the use of 3rd-party tracking methods (especially cookies) as it does today.