Tracking our activities on the Internet is no more a big deal. We see a lot of ads based on our interests or browsing history. Though you might have convinced yourself that there’s nothing to worry about, there are people who shivered just by thinking “they are getting tracked all day.”
Most of the websites use cookies to make a not of our languages preferences, websites we visit, time spend on those websites, our searches, browsing habits, etc.
I understand that not everyone collects these data with an aim to misuse it. But the problem arises when brokers and advertising networks use these cookies to collect user information without the consent. In this case, users need to have powerful control over what advertisers know about them.
Earlier this month, Mozilla announced Enhanced Tracking Protection, a default feature against third-party cookies in the Firefox Quantum browser. In addition to that, the team has now introduced a project called ‘Track THIS‘ to help people fool advertisers.
Read: Firefox to Add Letterboxing: Tor’s Anti-Fingerprinting Technique
How Track THIS tool actually works?
Track THIS opens 100 tabs crafted to fit a specific character including a filthy rich person, a doomsday prepper, an influencer or Hypebeast.
This tool aims to depersonalize the browsing history in a way that advertisers’ trackers will struggle targetting ads to the users and eventually confuse them. This doesn’t stop users from seeing ads but make sure they are not personalized ads.
According to the official blog post, “Let’s be clear, though. This will show you ads for products you might not be interested in at all, so it’s really just throwing off brands who want to advertise to a very specific type of person. You’ll still be seeing ads. And eventually, if you just use the internet as you typically would day today, you’ll start seeing ads again that align more closely to your normal browsing habits. If you’d rather straight-up block third-party tracking cookies, go ahead and get Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox.”
Now, let’s understand the working of Track THIS step by step:
- First of all, you need to manage their tabs and save you work. Alternatively, you can even open a new tab or window to try Track THIS.
- The tool will automatically open 100 tabs and then ask you to choose a profile and trick advertisers into thinking that you are someone else.
- Then, you’ll have to confirm that you’re ready to open 100 tabs based on the selected profile.
- Lastly, you can close all the tabs and open up a new window. The effect of TRACK THIS will remain for few days but the ad trackers will then start serving ads on according to your normal browsing habits.
Also Read: Mozilla Launches Firefox Send: A Free Encrypted File Sharing Service
Once Mozilla is done with experimenting, you can expect a Firefox browser with Enhanced Tracking Protection to block third-party tracking cookies by default. Though users are excited about the news, there are people who still confused about opening 100 tabs on their phone.
Anyway, What do you think about this new feature? Share with us in the comments below.
