Firefox 22 to block third-party cookies

Stanford, CA, United States (4E) – Mozilla’s popular web browser Firefox will get an added feature courtesy of Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer. Mayer has written a patch that will effectively block third-party cookies from tracking users through the Firefox web browser.

The patch will be featured on Firefox 22. Last Tuesday, Mozilla just released the 19th version of the web browser.

The patch only allows cookies from websites the user browses. Only cookies that have come from an origin website will be allowed.

“Collateral impact should be limited. Safari’s cookie policy has been in place for over a decade, and it is included in both the desktop and iOS versions of the browser. A few websites may require a tiny code change to accommodate Firefox in the same way as Safari,” Mayer wrote in a blog post.

Third-party cookies are used by advertisers to track what users search and shop for online. Firefox won’t be the first web browser to block third-party cookies. Apple’s Safari web browser blocks third-party cookies.

Google’s Chrome browser allows third-party cookies, while Internet Explorer allows some cookies.

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