Global Privacy Control

Telling every single website you visit that you do not want to have your information spread is a bad time. It’s even worse when you have to repeat yourself on your phone, computer, or any other computer you use.

Firefox gives you a single control to ask every website you visit to not sell or share information about what you did on that website. This is called the Global Privacy Control. When you turn it on, Firefox will tell every website that you expect your data not to be sold to or shared with anyone other than the person or business you meant to interact with, or to have your data used for cross-site ad targeting.

This is similar to the Do Not Track setting we added in 2011, except it has a few differences. The most important difference is that Global Privacy Control doesn’t need the website you visit to listen to it voluntarily, like Do Not Track did. Some privacy regulators say that Global Privacy Control counts as a legal request to not have your data shared (an opt-out request). That means that if you are in an area covered by a law that says Global Privacy Control is an opt-out request, the website has to listen to you when you tell them.

The Global Privacy Control has (or will soon have) legal impact in the following areas: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, Utah, Virginia, and Europe. The effect of GPC varies from area to area, and more details can be found in the Legal Effects section of the GPC Specification the Legal Effects section of the GPC Specification.

Even if you aren’t in one of these areas, there is still a chance that this setting does something. Websites can still voluntarily honor your request. And who knows when your laws might change to add your area to the list above!