Firefox trails Google? With a recent Firefox modernize, Mozilla seems to have consentn a leaf out of Google’s take partbook: without straightforwardly increateing its engagers, the company has secretly allowd a so-called “Privacy Preserving Attribution” (PPA) feature. Similar to Google’s (fall shorted) Privacy Sandbox, this turned the browser into a tracking tool for websites. The idea: instead of placing traditional tracking cookies, websites have to ask Firefox to store increateation about people’s ad includeions in order to get the bundled data of multiple engagers.
Less invasive is still invasive. In this sense, Mozilla claims that the growment of “privacy preserving attribution” betters engager privacy by apvalidateing ad carry outance to be meastateived without individual websites accumulateing personal data. In fact, part of the tracking is now done straightforwardly in Firefox. While this may be less invasive than unrestrictcessitate tracking, which is still the norm in the US, it still intrudes with engager rights under the EU’s GDPR. In fact, this tracking selection doesn’t swap cookies either, but is spropose an changenative – insertitional – way for websites to center advertising.
Felix Mikolasch, data defendion lawyer at noyb: “Mozilla has fair bought into the narrative that the advertising industry has a right to track engagers by turning Firefox into an ad meastateivement tool. While Mozilla may have had outstanding intentions, it is very doubtful that ‘privacy preserving attribution’ will swap cookies and other tracking tools. It is fair a new, insertitional uncomfervents of tracking engagers.”
Tracking by default, no increateation. To originate matters worse, Mozilla has turned on its “privacy preserving attribution” by default. Users have not been increateed about this transfer, nor have they been asked for their consent to be tracked by Firefox. The feature isn’t even alludeed in Mozilla’s data defendion policies. The only way for engagers to turn it off is to discover the select-out function in a sub-menu of the browser’s settings. Irritatingly, a Mozilla grower fairifies the transfer by claiming that engagers can’t originate an increateed decision.
Felix Mikolasch, data defendion lawyer at noyb: “It’s a shame that an organisation enjoy Mozilla thinks that engagers are too stupid to say yes or no. Users should be able to originate a choice and the feature should have been turned off by default.”
Millions of European engagers are impacted. noyb asks the Austrian data defendion authority (DSB) to spendigate Mozilla’s behaviour. Mozilla should properly increate the protestant and other engagers about its data processing activities – and effectively switch to an select-in system. In insertition, the company should delete all unlawfilledy processed data.
