Mozilla was the first major brand to announce it was “pausing” its advertising on Facebook in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. Today, the organization announced a new tool it said will help keep Facebook from tracking your browsing across the web.
The Facebook Container add-on for Firefox promises to make it “much harder” for Facebook to track you when you’re not on its site. Mozilla has been working on the technology for several years already, accelerating its development in response to what it called a “growing demand for tools that help manage privacy and security,” according to a statement issued by Mozilla today.
Most people are probably aware that data they directly give to Facebook — such as “liking” a Page or updating their relationship status — may be sold to advertisers. But fewer people know that Facebook can also track their activities on other websites that have integrated with aspects of Facebook’s tracking technology, such as the pervasive “Like” button. And it’s in this scenario that Mozilla is now hoping to play the good guy.
The add-on, which can be installed through the usual means in Firefox, essentially “isolates” your Facebook profile from the rest of your web browsing, meaning you can use Facebook as usual without experiencing the off-site tracking part.
Mozilla launches Facebook Container add-on to isolate your web browsing activity from Facebook
