What is Mozilla's new data collection feature, and how to disable it

Information collected by a new Firefox feature on online user activity is encrypted, and yet critics complain that the feature has been activated as a default – without users' consent. — Photo: Catherine Waibel/dpa

BERLIN: Mozilla Firefox recently introduced a feature called privacy-preserving attribution (PPA).

With the feature, that came with the update to version 128 of the browser, Mozilla aims "to help sites understand how their ads perform without collecting data about individual people."

While information collected by PPA on user online activity is encrypted, critics complain that the feature has been activated as a default - without users' consent.

The technology behind PPA is complex.

As Mozilla puts it, "attribution measures how many people saw an ad on a website and then later visited the advertiser's website to do something the advertiser cared about."

Firefox says the feature is a "non-invasive alternative to cross-site tracking," stressing it "does not involve sending information about your browsing activities to anyone."

Websites showing users ads "only receive aggregate information that answers basic questions about the effectiveness of their advertising," combining a report of your activity with many other similar reports, according to Mozilla.

Initially, only a small number of websites will be testing the feature and provide feedback to Mozilla to see if the method could gain traction.

Despite all the advantages Mozilla says PPA has compared to cross-website tracking, which collects detailed information on your individual online behaviour, critics were still quick to slam the new feature as a threat to online privacy following the update.

Disabling the feature is quite simple, though.

• To opt out, click on the menu button and click on settings.
• Under Privacy & Security, go to Website Advertising Preferences.
• Uncheck the box labelled Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement.

In an interview with German tech news website Heise Online, Mozilla said PPA was automatically enabled due to fears that not enough users would have noticed the new feature and activated it, "which would have led to insufficient participation to support this important standardisation work."

"We are convinced that the technology is designed to protect data by default and that it respects key data protection principles such as data minimisation, confidentiality and integrity," Mozilla said. – dpa