Mozilla is removing the Do Not Track feature from Firefox. The browser maker claims that the setting cannot guarantee users’ privacy, and sometimes even backfires.
The Do Not Track-(DNT) functionality is disappearing from the Firefox browser. That’s according to Windows Report. Mozilla added DNT in Firefox after researchers Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm developed it in 2009. DNT is a browser setting that allows users to ask Web sites not to track them. The setting is sent via an HTTP header.
Only: fewer and fewer websites take DNT into account. Mozilla even claims that the signal sometimes has a negative effect on users’ privacy. Therefore, the company decides to remove DNT from Firefox. Other browsers such as Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome still possess the DNT capability.
From DNT to GPC
DNT was succeeded by Global privacy Control (GPC) in 2020. That setting is hidden in Firefox behind the option Tell websites not to sell or share my data. GPC is better respected than DNT. Legislation such as the European GDPR helps enforce that GPC does not remain a dead letter.
In that regard, Mozilla notes that DNT remains mostly dead letter, and consequently redundant. This does not diminish Firefox’s privacy: DNT, according to Mozilla, gives a rather false sense of privacy. Those who do not want to be tracked by Web sites are better off checking the GPC setting.
Mozilla has found DNT to be a problem for some time. As recently as 2018, Firefox integrated its own system to protect privacy precisely because DNT was inadequate.