Do Not Track: Mozilla is dropping privacy feature due to ineffectiveness

In brief: An early adopt of a well intentioned web privacy feature will soon be bidding it farewell. Mozilla is planning to remove its Do Not Track feature from future versions of its Firefox web browser, but not for the reason you may be thinking.

Do Not Track was conceived roughly 15 years ago. As the name suggests, the optional setting allowed users to signal to websites – through their browser – that they did not want their activity tracked. Mozilla’s Firefox was the first browser to implement the feature but unfortunately for privacy advocates, it ended up being viewed as a mere suggestion rather than something that was truly enforceable.

As such, many websites simply ignored DNT requests. In some instances, the feature backfired by allowing sites to better track users through browser fingerprinting.

On its support page for DNT, Mozilla said the option to toggle the feature will be removed starting with Firefox version 135 (it has already been removed in the Nightly release). In its absence, Mozilla suggests using the ‘Tell websites not to sell or share my data’ setting, which is built on top of the Global Privacy Control. More information on GPC, which debuted in Firefox 120, can be found on Mozilla’s website.

Mozilla is not the first to distance itself from Do Not Track. Back in early 2019, Apple removed DNT from its Safari browser. Others, including Chrome and Edge, still offer the feature but with Mozilla joining Apple, it will be interesting to see how Google and Microsoft respond.

It’s not uncommon for websites and their advertising partners to build profiles of visitors and use that data to serve them targeted ads that appeal to their interests.

We do not yet know what Mozilla plans to do with DNT users once Firefox 135 arrives. The logical answer is that users will likely be presented with some sort of notification that DNT is no longer offered – perhaps with instructions on how to optionally enable GPC.