Since the GDPR at the latest, cookies have been a subject that concerns many (especially in the EU). But it is not the GDPR that ultimately requires rethinking the usage, but rather the browser manufacturers who want to protect their users and above all their privacy from tracking measures. Firefox is currently doing a great deal to protect the privacy of browser users – and in the new version blocks all third party cookies, if the user does not actively choose a different setting.

This new feature, which was introduced under the name Enhanced Tracking Protection, was previously available as an option in the browser, but this feature has enabled only about 20 percent of browser users. This is too little for Mozilla, provider of the browser. Here they want to better protect all users and have therefore decided to activate this feature with the new version of Firefox for all. Thus, it should be prevented that, for example, companies can use tracking cookies to create detailed profiles of the users – without them even noticing or agreeing to it. But not all cookies are affected by this automatic blocking. When which cookies are accepted can be found in the Tracker Protection Information. If you want to allow certain cookies, you must activate them specifically.

Firefox is one of the first browser vendors to take this path so rigorously – but it’s likely that others will head in that direction as well. This raises questions in many areas as to how tracking can be made possible in the near future – because cookies are used for many purposes. Only approaches can now be found in the field of AI and there are already solutions that can be used. However, not every use can be changed easily and so it will probably take some time until it is really without cookies.