By Mozilla decides to block the canvas fingering feature from the Firefox browser in the upcoming version. They have rented in another similar feature from Tor Browser. This way, Firefox 58 version will block attempts to canvas fingerprint users who use the HTML5 element. Firefox has provided privacy protection measures to the users and canvas fingerprinting has been employed since long by the marketing and promotion industry for tracking their users.
Browser Fingerprinting
Browser fingerprinting is a privacy protection feature which has been serving as an alternative to browser cookies through the websites. The web analytics service make sure to detect the users and identify their online activities. You will find a large number of browsers using fingerprinting techniques. But, Mozilla calls it the issue of Canvas Fingerprinting which works by utilizing HTML5 browser’s canvas element.
The process of this element works like this. When a user appears on a website, it sends message to his browser for providing the concealed text or graphical image on a secret canvas element. Thus, the outcome is take out and a hash of it turns into the fingerprint of the web browser. The specific fingerprint has been shared among all the promotional advertising partners. This way, it uses to identify at the time when user appears on affiliated websites. Thus, a profile of browsing habits of the user is generated, and used for aiming advertising types.
Therefore, canvas fingerprinting serves accordingly because every browser and the mechanism has a precise hardware and software configuration is installed on it. The accomplishment of the website’s demand will effect in several ways to provide services for different and probably exclusive fingerprints. Few browsers fingerprinting efforts can be stopped by using specific types of add-ons such as Privacy Badger or DoNotTrackMe in combination using list from ad blocks.
Modification of Firefox
Firefox will turn into the first significant browsers to perform such a thing nearly this abundant online tracking method. The current modification of Firefox will require websites to prompt users for gaining permission before they can excerpt canvas data. This entirely new feature has been here over four years after the Tor Browser applied an alternative to permit the users to avoid canvas fingerprinting. It is the result of a continuing effort to apply all privacy and security patches of Tor Browser into Firefox.
Mozilla has created a history of efforts to avert online tracking of the user. Firefox 52 has stopped permitting the websites to get access the Battery Status API. The information is ideal to offer about the device used by the visitor and also to apply the safety against font fingerprinting system. Firefox 58 will be released in January 2018 and is ready to bring change set to occur with it is the elimination of WoSign and StartCom root certificates from Mozilla’s root store.
A conversation has been constantly moving on whether Firefox should carry on believing the certificates which were signed by the Staat der Nederlanden Root CA and the Dutch national CA. To bring about a new law that would permit intelligence and security to seize internet traffic and to employ False Keys in third party systems for acquiring the rights to systems and data.