Mozilla is in the early stages of experimenting with a Firefox new Private Browsing feature that would provide improved browsing privacy by blocking analytic companies and ad networks from tracking users’ surfing behaviors across websites.
The private browsing option available on all the popular browsers usually focuses on what is going on locally and doesn’t stop advertising networks, analytics, social and other services to collect data.
For instance, Firefox’s current private browser does not save any history of what sites you looked at on your local machine, but the records are stored on the sites themselves. However, Firefox new Private Browsing feature actively blocks various components of the websites that could track your behavior.
Mozilla wrote in a blog post regarding the Firefox new Private Browsing feature:
“The experimental Private Browsing enhancements ready for testing today actively block website elements that could be used to record user behavior across sites. This includes elements like content, analytics, social and other services that might be collecting data without your knowledge.”
Mozilla said some sites may not load properly with the new privacy settings and in that event, the browser will notify you that the page has been enabled with cookie collection. You will have the option to block and unblock certain websites, which will help you in controlling the privacy of your browsing.
The new private browser by Mozilla can also manage and verify Firefox add-ons with the aim to prevent them from accessing your personal information. In addition to cookies being wiped from your computer when you finish the private session, social networks and analytics tracking will be stopped from recording your visits.
But don’t think that your browsing will be completely invisible with the new testing feature. Your internet provider and the IT department where you work will be able to see which websites you surf and which files you download.
The Firefox new Private Browsing feature is released in a pre-beta version for Windows, Linux, Mac and Android users.