Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop

Firefox Firefox Last updated: 3 weeks, 5 days ago 64% of users voted this helpful

Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox automatically protects your privacy while 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.

Protections Dashboard

To see what’s been blocked on all sites over the past week, visit your Protections Dashboard. Click the shield Fx89ShieldIcon to the left of the address bar and select Protections Dashboard or type about:protections into the address bar. This will open the Protections Dashboard page in a new tab.

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: These trackers are hidden in ads, videos, and other in-page content. In Standard mode, tracking content is blocked only in Private Windows. To add this protection to all windows, visit your privacy preferences and select Strict or Custom as explained below.
Note: Total Cookie Protection is enabled by default in Standard mode. This confines every cookie to the website where it was created and prevents cookies from tracking you across sites (to learn more, see Introducing Total Cookie Protection in Standard Mode). Strict Mode also includes Enhanced Cookie Clearing, which allows users to clear third-party cookies more effectively.

To learn more about trackers and scripts blocked by Firefox, see Trackers and scripts Firefox blocks in Enhanced Tracking Protection, Third-party trackers and SmartBlock for Enhanced Tracking Protection.

Bounce Tracking Protection

Bounce Tracking Protection is a feature in Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) strict mode that 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.

Bounce Tracking Protection effortlessly enhances your privacy, operating in the background when ETP is set to strict mode. For technical details, visit the Mozilla Source Docs.

How to tell when Firefox is protecting you

The shield to the left of the address bar tells you if 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. Open the shield to see what was blocked.
  • 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. Open the shield and toggle the switch to turn it back on.

How to tell what’s being blocked on a site

  • Click the shield 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.
  • Select Protection Settings to adjust your global privacy settings.
  • Select Protections Dashboard to view a personalized summary of your protections over the past week, including tools to take control of your online security.

What to do if a site seems broken

If a site seems broken, disabling Enhanced Tracking Protection might fix the issue by allowing trackers on just that site. It allows trackers to load on that site only. Enhanced Tracking Protection will still prevent trackers on other sites. To disable it:

  1. Visit the website.
  2. At the left of the address bar, click the Fx89ShieldIcon shield icon.
  3. At the top right of the panel, toggle off the Enhanced Tracking Protection switch Fx91ETPbluetoggle. The site will be added to your Enhanced Tracking Protection exception list, allowing trackers on it, and the page will reload automatically.
    Protection panel

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

You may encounter breakage on some sites when you’re in Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection. 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

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 Fx89ShieldIcon shield icon 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, all protections included in Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection are already enabled.

To view or change your Enhanced Tracking Protection settings for all sites, click the shield Fx89ShieldIcon to the left of the address bar on any webpage and select Protection Settings. This will open the Firefox Settings Privacy & Security panel in a new tab.

Fx108settings-ETP
Tip: These settings are also available from the Firefox menu:
In the Menu bar at the top of the screen, click Firefox and then select Preferences or Settings, depending on your macOS version.Click the menu button Fx89menuButton and select Settings. Then select Privacy & Security.

Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection

By default, Firefox blocks the following on all sites:

  • Social media trackers
  • Cross-site tracking cookies (other third-party cookies are isolated)
  • Tracking content in Private Windows only
  • Cryptominers
  • Fingerprinters

Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection

To further increase privacy, select Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection. This will block the following:

  • Social media trackers
  • Cross-site tracking cookies (other third-party cookies are isolated)All cross-site cookies
  • Tracking content in all windows
  • Cryptominers
  • Fingerprinters

  1. Click the shield Fx89ShieldIcon to the left of the address bar on any webpage.
  2. Click Protection Settings.
    The Firefox Settings Privacy & Security panel will open.
  3. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select Strict.
  4. Select the reload all tabs retina button to apply your new privacy settings.

Custom Enhanced Tracking Protection

Want to block some trackers and scripts, but not others? Use Custom Enhanced Tracking Protection.

  1. Click the shield Fx89ShieldIcon to the left of the address bar on any webpage.
  2. Click Protection Settings.
    The Firefox Settings Privacy & Security panel will open.
  3. Under Enhanced Tracking Protection, select Custom.
  4. Choose which trackers and scripts to block by selecting those checkboxes.
  5. Select the reload all tabs retina button to apply your new privacy settings.

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

Copy without site tracking

Starting with Firefox version 120, the Copy without site tracking 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-click the URL you want to copy and select Copy Without Site Tracking.
  2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.
    Copy without site tracking (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-click the URL you want to copy and select Copy Link Without Site Tracking.
  2. Paste the clean URL from the clipboard.
    Copy without site tracking (in-page)

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These fine people helped write this article:

AliceWyman, Chris Ilias, Michele Rodaro, Mozinet, Joni, Marcelo Ghelman, Lamont Gardenhire, Jeff, Mark Heijl, Angela Lazar, PGGWriter, Samuelegrice@mymail.com, Fabi, k_alex, Bithiah, Abby, dirkpeukert4, Denys, Lucas Siebert
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