09 November 2013

The Technology Chronicles: “Firefox cookie blocking effort delayed again, as Mozilla commitment wavers”

The Mountain View open source software foundation revealed eight months ago that it was testing a tool that would restrict tracking files by default from companies users didn’t interact with. The early expectation was that it would reach the general public in Firefox version 22, released in late June.

But a few months later, Mozilla halted the patch midway through the testing process. Then it announced it was “committing to work” with the Cookie Clearinghouse initiative at Stanford on a more nuanced approach.

Now that effort is on hold, pushing completion of the project well into next year, The Chronicle has learned. Even then, Mozilla won’t necessarily adopt the feature, an executive said in an interview.

That remains to be seen, said Harvey Anderson, senior vice president of business and legal affairs. Once that’s out there, I think you still have to compare that against the other systems and ecosystems being proposed.

James Temple

Hmm, pressures from advertising interests? Given that the majority of Mozilla’s revenues come from , is there any surprise that these enhanced privacy features are being delayed indefinitely?

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