Firefox has begun blocking “thousands” of crawlers automatically. On Tuesday, the company said the idea is for the measure to speed up navigation and improve the user experience by preventing websites, data analysis and digital advertising companies from following the Internet surfer’s steps during a session.
It is worth mentioning, however, that the novelty is not as deep as the measure implemented by Apple’s Safari a few years ago. In the case of “Apple”, the browser bar the action of practically all the crawlers of other companies. For Firefox, the lock is restricted to the most popular software on the market.
The Apple browser still has implementations that block navigation settings (the famous cookies), which can be difficult for the Internet user, who depends on them to, for example, stay logged in to channels that require login and password access.
What Mozilla wants to do is reach the middle ground: Firefox will not bar cookies and will still have the option to create exceptions for crawlers of user preference. A spokesman for the foundation told The Verge that blocking all cookies “would lead to scenarios where some sites would not function properly,” then this approach serves to “prevent potential problems.” A control in the Firefox settings menu will allow you to adjust the security level, going from the default “Medium” to “High”.