Global shopping season is coming: What matters more than discounts?
The year-end shopping season is approaching. Major retailers all over the world will soon be offering irresistible discounts — for example, through Black Friday and Cyber Monday — to encourage the public to buy for the holiday season. During this time, many people are planning their next purchase no sooner than they’ve paid for their last.
If this sounds like you, there is one vitally important thing that you should pay attention to: finding a trustworthy browser to secure your privacy.
Now, you might be a little confused: Why does privacy matter in online shopping? What many people don’t realize is that while you go browsing from site to site, you’re often followed by cookies that collect data on where you’ve been and what you’ve done. This is a technique known as “cross-site tracking,” and most of it takes place invisibly — without your knowledge.
Do the same ads always appear? You may be being tracked
Cookies can help advertisers serve you custom ads across the web and in your social-media feeds, which is why something you’ve seen on one site “follows” you to another, desperately trying to catch your eye.
Besides the irritating ads, there is another negative effect of trackers: slowing down the web. With Mozilla, we believe that you should have a say in how your data is used. After all, it can be used to subtly shape the content you consume or even to influence your opinions.
Join Mozilla: Gain control while on the web
At Firefox, we’re always looking to build features that are true to the Mozilla mission of giving people control over their data and privacy whenever they go online. With today’s Firefox release, users can choose to block both cookies and storage access from third-party trackers with what we’re calling Enhanced Tracking Protection. This is designed to effectively eliminate the most common form of cross-site tracking.
Another solution is to use Private Browsing with Tracking Protection right in Firefox. Just click on the burger menu button in the top right of your browser window, you’ll find the “New Private Window”. When you browse in a Private Window, Firefox doesn’t save the pages you visit, cookies, searches or temporary files. It also has tracking protection to block those pesky third parties who chase you with ads about the things you just browsed.
What’s more, Mozilla has launched Firefox Monitor, a free service that notifies people when they’ve been part of a data breach. Just visit monitor.firefox.com to see if your email address and/or personal info was involved in a publicly known past data breach. Secondly, sign up for Firefox Monitor using your email address and we will notify you about data breaches when we get wind of them.
For mobile users, we have Firefox Focus, a browser designed to be fast, simple, and completely private for iPhone, iPad, and Android. Firefox Focus is free of tabs and other visual clutter; you can erase your sessions with a simple tap. Most importantly, it helps users browse the web without being followed by tracking ads, which are notorious for slowing down your mobile experience.
If you’re in Indonesia, India, The Philippines, or Thailand, you should try Firefox Lite, a lightweight but feature-packed browser that lets you reduce mobile data usage and browse quickly even on slow connections. Firefox Lite is also equipped with Private Browsing and Tracking Protection features to help prevent your browsing data from being collected or tracked by most websites/advertisers.
We’re continuing to work hard in delivering the features to give people greater control while on the web. Watch this Mozilla blog for more updates in the coming months.