Firefox Focus for Android Updated With Total Cookie Protection

It works by maintaining a separate 'cookie jar' for each website you visit, effectively stopping cookies from tracking you around the web.

Firefox Focus

Mozilla is bringing its Total Cookie Protection feature from its desktop browser to Firefox Focus on Android — its “simple, privacy by default companion app.” This is also the first Firefox mobile browser to get Total Cookie Protection, helping users mitigate the cross-site tracking which allows companies to collect information about users. And that information would include the data on the sites you visit or the products you are searching for.

How does Total Cookie Protection work?

Total Cookie Protection works by maintaining a separate “cookie jar” for each website you visit, effectively stopping cookies from tracking you around the web.

Any time a website, or third-party content embedded in a website, deposits a cookie in your browser – Firefox Focus will confine that cookie to the so-called “cookie jar” assigned to that website. As a result, no other websites can reach into the cookie jars that don’t belong to them and find out what the other websites’ cookies know about you.

Firefox cookie jar

In real life, this means that ads will no longer be following you around the web and inside apps. Also, Total Cookie Protection will reduce the amount of information that companies gather about you whenever you go online.

Mind you, it is not the only privacy-focused feature Mozilla offers; quite the contrary, Total Cookie Protection joins their suite of privacy protections called Enhanced Tracking Protection or ETP for short.

There is also SmartBlock to keep websites working…

Mozilla has also added the SmartBlock feature In December along with other fixes that help keep websites running smoothly. These features work around breakage with websites, while those sites investigate proper fixes. SmartBlock helps fix issues related to Total Cookie Protection and other pro-privacy measures.

For example, some websites contain maps hosted on other servers. If the expected cookies are not being sent to those servers, because Total Cookie Protection is active, then the maps may fail to appear. With a simple work-around Mozilla can allow these maps to appear, without disabling any pro-privacy measures.

And for those who opt into stricter tracking protection, SmartBlock will provide them with replacements for commonly-blocked trackers, while keeping websites working. These replacements are bundled with Firefox, minimizing the risk of any tracking taking place.

You should still get a VPN…

While we applaud Mozilla for its work to improve privacy of its users, we think you should still use a VPN. It will go beyond protecting you against cookies by providing you with a different IP address that will make it much harder for companies to track you down.

In addition to making you more anonymous, that new IP address will also let you access parts of the Internet that could otherwise be outside of your reach. We’re talking about streaming services that may be blocked in your school or workplace, or major media websites that tend to be inaccessible in many high-censorship countries.

With a good VPN, the world is your playground – so if you still don’t have one, get it today. Visit our page with Best of the Best VPNs and take it from there.