Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop

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  • Revision id: 310993
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  • Creator: Lee
  • Comment: Try to explain the different ETP settings options more clearly, which involved moving some sections around. General changes for clarity.
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: ffloare
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  • Is current revision? No
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Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox automatically protects your privacy as you browse. It blocks trackers that follow you around online to collect information about your browsing habits and interests without breaking site functionality. It also includes protections against harmful scripts, such as malware that drains your battery.

How to tell when Firefox is protecting you

The shield to the left of the address bar tells you when Firefox is blocking trackers and scripts on a site.

Shield Address barFx130Shield-Addressbar
  • Fx91ShieldIcon-Blue Blocking: Firefox blocked trackers and harmful scripts on a site.
  • Fx89ShieldIcon Active: Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned on on a site, but Firefox didn't block any trackers or scripts.
  • Fx91shield-ETPoff Inactive: Enhanced Tracking Protection is turned off on a site.

What Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks

Firefox uses a list of known trackers provided by Disconnect. By default, Firefox blocks the following types of trackers and scripts:

  • Social media trackers
  • Cross-site tracking cookies
  • Fingerprinters
  • Cryptominers
  • Tracking content in Private Windows

See below for more information and how to adjust your global Enhanced Tracking Protection settings.

How to tell what’s being blocked on a site

Click the shield icon on the left of the address bar to see what Firefox has blocked.

Protections for panel

This panel will display different information depending on the site you’re on.

  • Blocked: Firefox blocked these trackers and scripts. Select each one to see a detailed list.
  • Allowed: These are the trackers and scripts that were allowed to load on the page. This happens because some websites may require loading trackers and scripts to function properly. Firefox only allows trackers and scripts needed for the site to work and blocks the rest. For more information, visit SmartBlock for Enhanced Tracking Protection.
  • None Detected: Firefox looked for these trackers and scripts, but did not find them on this site.

Protections Dashboard

Open the Protections Dashboard to see a personalized summary of what's been blocked on all sites for the past week, including tools to take control of your online security.

  • Click on the shield icon Fx89ShieldIcon then select Protections Dashboard
  • Or, type about:protections into the address bar

This will open the Protections Dashboard page in a new tab.

What to do if a site seems broken

If a website seems broken, disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection might fix the issue by allowing trackers on just that site. Enhanced Tracking Protection will still prevent trackers on other sites.

Toggle Enhanced Tracking Protection for a site

To disable Enhanced Tracking Protection on a site:

  1. Visit the website.
  2. At the left of the address bar, click the shield icon Fx91ShieldIcon-Blue.
  3. At the top of the panel, toggle off the Enhanced Tracking Protection switch Fx91ETPbluetoggle.
    Protection panelFx138ProtectionPanelOff
  4. The page will reload automatically and Enhanced Tracking Protection will be turned off Fx91shield-ETPoff. The site will be added to the Enhanced Tracking Protection exception list.

Follow the same process to re-enable Enhanced Tracking Protection on the site. The site will be removed from the exception list, and the page will reload automatically.

Report a broken site

If a broken site starts working properly again after turning off the Enhanced Tracking Protection, you can click the shield Fx91shield-ETPoff icon and select Send report. This will show the Report a Broken Site panel.

Fx98ETP-ReportBrokenSite

The Send Report button will send site related data to Mozilla, so future Firefox versions can load that site working properly with Enhanced Tracking Protection enabled for everyone. By filling the optional Describe the problem field helps us fix the problem faster.

If disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection resolves issues with a broken site, consider submitting a Broken Site report to the Webcompat team. To do so:

  1. Open the Report broken site panel. Either:
    • Click the menu button Fx89menuButton to open the menu panel. Then, select Report broken site.
    • Alternatively, click the shield icon Fx89ShieldIcon at the left of the address bar and select Report broken site.
  2. The URL field will show up with the current tab URL, you can change it if you wish.
  3. Pick an option from the What's broken dropdown.
  4. Optionally, add a short description of the issue.
    Fx123-Report broken site panel
  5. To submit your report, click the Send button.
  6. A success message will confirm your submission. To conclude, click Okay.
    Fx123-Report broken site panel Success message Okay
  • The reporting tool will not work on a new tab or about: Firefox page.
  • For Nightly and Beta channel users: You can send a detailed report using the Send more info link, located at the lower end of the Report a broken site panel.

For more information, see How do I report a broken site in Firefox desktop?

Adjust your global Enhanced Tracking Protection settings

When you download Firefox, Enhanced Tracking Protection is already enabled and set to the default Standard setting. All included protections are enabled globally (for all sites).

To view or change your Enhanced Tracking Protection settings for all sites, follow the steps below.

  1. In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and select Settings (or Preferences, in some cases).Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings. Then select Privacy & Security.
    • Or, click the shield icon Fx89ShieldIcon on the left of the address bar, then select Protection Settings.
    Protection settings
  2. This will open the Settings Privacy & Security panel in a new tab and show you the Enhanced Tracking Protection settings.
    Standard ETP
  3. To change the protection setting, select either Standard, Strict or Custom
  4. If required, select the reload all tabs button reload all tabs retina to apply your new protection settings.

Compare settings options

Firefox can block trackers and protect against harmful scripts according to your preference.

You may encounter breakage on some sites when Enhanced Tracking Protection is set to Strict or Custom. This is because trackers are hidden in some content. For example, a website might embed an outside video or social media post that contains trackers. To block the trackers, Firefox must also block the content itself. Trackers are often hidden in the following types of content:
  • Login fields
  • Forms
  • Payments
  • Comments
  • Videos

Standard

The default Firefox setting, Standard is balanced for protection and performance. Pages will load normally. Firefox will block the following:

Balanced for protection and performance. Pages will still load normally.
  • Cross-site cookies in all windows
Total Cookie Protection is an advancement built into Enhanced Tracking Protection that works by maintaining a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit. This confines every cookie to the website where it was created and prevents cookies from tracking you across sites.
WebCompat exceptions for tracking content in Private Windows are allowed in the Standard setting
  • Major issue tracker exceptions are allowed
  • Minor issue tracker exceptions are allowed
  • Known fingerprinters in all windows
  • Suspected fingerprinters in Private Windows

Strict

Offers stronger protection to further increase privacy. Firefox will block the following in addition to the Standard settings:

More trackers are blocked compared to the Standard setting
WebCompat exceptions for tracking content can be toggled under the Strict and Custom setting. The default setting is:
  • Major issue tracker exceptions are allowed
  • Minor issue tracker exceptions are not allowed
Deselecting both the major and minor checkbox options will block all trackers, even on sites that may break without them.
  • Suspected fingerprinters in all windows
Prevents redirect trackers (bounce trackers) from collecting data as you navigate between websites. These trackers redirect you through intermediate URLs to gather information about your browsing habits.
How it works:
  • Firefox automatically detects and classifies bounce trackers.
  • Cookies and storage associated with these trackers are cleared if no user interaction occurs within a designated time.

Custom

Want to block some trackers and scripts, but not others? Use Custom if you understand the Enhanced Tracking Protection options in Firefox

You can also turn off all protections in Custom by deselecting all checkboxes, this allows all trackers and scripts to load.

Read these articles to learn more about the different types of tracking protection included in Firefox:

Copy Clean Link

Starting with Firefox version 120, the Copy Clean Link feature is automatically enabled to safeguard users against URL-based tracking by stripping tracking parameters from any copied URL.

Copy from the address bar

To copy URLs from the address bar stripping any tracking parameters it may have, do the following:

  1. Right-clickRight-click (or hold down the Control key while you click) the URL you want to copy and select Copy Clean Link.
  2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.
    Copy Clean Link address bar

Copy from in-page links

To copy URLs from in-page links stripping any tracking parameters it may have, do the following:

  1. Right-clickRight-click (or hold down the Control key while you click) the URL you want to copy and select Copy Clean Link.
  2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.

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