The Firefox team announced that Firefox 87 will introduce SmartBlock. It is an intelligent tracker blocking mechanism for Firefox Private Browsing and Strict Mode. SmartBlock also ensures that privacy protections in the web browser are accompanied by a web browsing experience.
SmartBlock
Introducing a policy that blocks trackers on the web creates the risk of blocking components that are essential for some websites to function properly. This can cause images not appearing, features not working, poor performance, or even the entire page not loading at all.
To avoid this problem, Firefox 87 offers a new privacy feature, SmartBlock, which intelligently fixes up web pages that are broken by Firefox’s tracking protections, without compromising user privacy. To be able to do this, SmartBlock provides local stand-ins for blocked third-party tracking scripts. These stand-in scripts behave like the original ones to make sure that the website works properly.
These stand-ins are bundled with Firefox, this means no third-party contents from the tracker will be loaded, thus they can’t track the user. The stand-ins don’t include any code that would support tracking.
FAQ
What is the latest version of Mozilla Firefox?
The latest version of Mozilla Firefox is Firefox 110 and it was released on February 14, 2023.
Is Firefox still used today?
Yes, Firefox is still widely used today. It is a popular web browser that is known for its speed, security, and privacy features. It continues to be a popular choice among users who value privacy and security when browsing the web.
Is Mozilla Firefox a Chinese company?
No, Mozilla Firefox is not a Chinese company. It is a free and open-source web browser developed and maintained by the Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization based in the United States.
Is Mozilla Firefox free?
Yes, Mozilla Firefox is a free and open-source web browser. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems and can be downloaded from the official Mozilla website. Firefox is free to use, download, and distribute, and it is supported by a community of developers and users who contribute to its development and maintenance.
What are the system requirements for running Mozilla Firefox?
For Windows
- Windows 7 or later
- Pentium 4 or newer processor that supports SSE2
- 512MB of RAM / 2GB of RAM for the 64-bit version
- 200MB of hard drive space
- macOS 10.12 or later
- Mac computer with an Intel x86 or Apple silicon processor
- 512 MB of RAM
- 200 MB hard drive space
- Firefox will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:
- glibc 2.17 or higher
- GTK+ 3.14 or higher
- libstdc++ 4.8.1 or higher
- X.Org 1.0 or higher (1.7 or higher is recommended)
- For optimal functionality, we recommend the following libraries or packages:
- DBus 1.0 or higher
- GNOME 2.16 or higher
- libxtst 1.2.3 or higher
- NetworkManager 0.7 or higher
- PulseAudio