Firefox starts blocking third-party cookies by default and brings its Lockbox password manager to the desktop, rebranding it as Lockwise
have decided that tracking should be opt in, not opt out: https://blog.mozilla.org/... @dhh : Firefox now blocking tracker cookies by default ❤️. We must come to terms with the fact that Chrome is institutionally incapable of protecting users from surveillance capitalism, and make our browser choice accordingly. https://blog.mozilla.org/... Kyle Rankin / @kylerankin : Mozilla announced “Enhanced Tracking Protection” to protect people from tracking (https://blog.mozilla.org/...), but if you check out the https://disconnect.me/... list of trackers, all Google trackers are still allowed through. #privacy Jennifer / @jewifer : A lot of us at Firefox have been working our tails off these past couple months to make today's release of this feature, and SO many other things - http://lockwise.firefox.com/, http://send.firefox.com/, http://monitor.firefox.com/...) happen. Congrats to us! 🧡 🥳 https://twitter.com/... Disconnect / @disconnectme : “Enhanced Tracking Protection will automatically be set on by default as part of the ‘Standard’ setting in the browser and will block known “third-party tracking cookies” according to the Disconnect list.” https://blog.mozilla.org/... Emil Protalinski / @epro : Plenty new @Firefox privacy updates today: - Enhanced Tracking Protection is being turned on by default - Facebook Container extension got better - Lockwise password keeper got a desktop extension - Firefox Monitor now supports multiple email addresses https://venturebeat.com/... @firefox : To really protect people, we need to establish a new standard that puts people's privacy first. That's why today we're rolling out Enhanced Tracking Protection to all new users on by default: to make it harder for companies to track their every move. https://blog.mozilla.org/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : Huge. Hat tip to @Apple Safari team for providing air cover here. And now @mozilla @firefox team is also innovating in its own brilliant ways around the same goal of aligning web browser with people's expectations. https://twitter.com/... Stephen Shankland / @stshank : Mozilla @firefox follows Apple Safari and @brave in blocking websites and advertisers from tracking you online. It's on by default for new users and will be switched on for everyone else. https://www.cnet.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Mozilla has flipped the default: instead of asking users to opt out of tracking, Firefox now ships with Enhanced Tracking Protection enabled for new users, so third-party tracker cookies are blocked unless a site earns an exception. The same release rebrands the Lockbox mobile password manager as Lockwise and brings it to desktop, pairing privacy defaults with a lock-in feature.
The move lands in a browser market where the default-setter is also the biggest beneficiary of tracking — critics like DHH argue Chrome is structurally unable to make this change, while Kyle Rankin notes the Disconnect list still lets Google trackers through, making the block's scope the real story. The follow-on coverage shows Mozilla treating this as a floor, not a ceiling: Firefox 69 extended default blocking to fingerprinting and cryptomining months later, and Total Cookie Protection went on by default on desktop in 2022 after launching as opt-in.
First-order effects
- New Firefox users get third-party tracking cookies blocked out of the box, shrinking the data pool that ad-tech trackers collect from Firefox traffic unless sites negotiate exceptions.
- Lockwise gives existing Lockbox users a desktop password manager and extension, letting Mozilla compete for credential storage alongside its tracking protections.
Second-order effects
- The asymmetry Rankin flagged — Google trackers still passing under the Disconnect list — puts pressure on Mozilla to widen the block or face the charge that the default protects users from everyone except its own search-revenue partner.
- Chrome's inability to match the default sharpens the browser-choice argument DHH makes publicly, pushing privacy-conscious users toward Firefox and Safari and forcing advertisers to treat Firefox traffic as partially unmeasurable.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, browser defaults become de facto privacy regulation: Mozilla escalated from cookie-blocking to fingerprinting and cryptomining within months, then to full cookie partitioning by 2022, each step normalizing protections regulators have not mandated.
- A web where tracking is opt-in rather than opt-out shifts ad-tech economics toward first-party data and contextual targeting, since cross-site identity quietly stops working for a growing share of browsers.
The trend: Browsers are converting privacy protection from a user-controlled setting into a shipping default, with Firefox iterating from blocked tracker cookies toward full cookie isolation while Chrome's ad-funded model keeps it from following.