Mozilla drags its feet on blocking cookies from unvisited websites

Mozilla has been courting controversy with its move toward blocking some third-party cookies by default in Firefox. While preventing unvisited websites from setting cookies is undoubtedly good for consumers, advertisers are none too happy about it. Sadly, Mozilla is now delaying this feature thanks to the complaints it has received from “concerned site owners.”

For many years now, Apple’s Safari has declined to set third-party cookies from unvisited sites by default. Recently, Mozilla moved to mimic this behavior with a patch submitted by Stanford grad student Jonathan Mayer. In the Firefox Aurora (pre-beta) release channel, this behavior is on by default. Earlier this week, the feature made its way to the Firefox Beta release channel, but it is now off by default. Considering how progressive Mozilla has been with enabling pro-consumer features, this caused something of a small panic in its privacy-focused community.

In a post on his personal blog, Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich explains the reasons behind wanting to block cookies from unvisited websites, and why this feature is taking longer than most to be fully implemented. Essentially, Mozilla is worried about false positives and negatives making the default browsing experience slightly more annoying for casual users. While it is certainly possible to accidentally block cookies from legitimate content delivery networks (CDNs), it doesn’t seem to be much of a problem. Millions of Safari users, including me, don’t set cookies from unvisited sites, and there hasn’t been any significant widespread problems there. Even if the Mozilla team has good intentions, it seems like they’re being overly cautious in an attempt to keep the advertising industry from revolting.

That said, Mozilla isn’t backing away from default unvisited third-party cookie-blocking completely. Eich goes on to say that “We are always committed to user privacy, and remain committed to shipping a version of the patch that is ‘on’ by default.” He then promises that Mozilla will update the public within six weeks about its intentions on modifying Mayer’s implementation. Mozilla’s bread and butter has always been user empowerment, so don’t think for a second that it will let this go. More or less, this seems like a song and dance to appear receptive to the ad industry’s concerns.

While complete blocking of third-party cookies might be right for some users, this compromise of only blocking third-party cookies from unvisited sites is a good middle ground. The vast majority of sites will continue to function perfectly, and it makes it harder for uncouth advertisers to track consumers. Let’s just hope that Mozilla has the guts to move forward with this feature for its next release instead of dragging its feet for six more weeks.

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Mozilla's Firefox OS will also appear on high-end phones

IDG News Service - The upcoming Firefox OS will appear on higher-end smartphones, and not just entry-level handsets, with Sony expected to release a premium device running the operating system, a Mozilla executive said.

"Sony is known for quality and user experience. So they are targeting for very very high (end). We are in joint discussions on the kind of device and what's the product," said Li Gong, Mozilla's senior vice president for mobile devices.

Mozilla's Firefox OS is among several fledgling mobile operating systems all vying for a presence in today's market dominated by Android and Apple's iOS. To start off, Firefox OS is targeting entry-level smartphone users and the first handsets will arrive in select markets in Europe and South America this July, Gong said in an interview Wednesday on the sidelines of the Global Mobile Internet Conference.

Mozilla, however, is in talks with additional vendors on developing higher-end phones using the OS, Gong said "The low-end entry point devices are good point to enter the market. But that doesn't mean we can't scale up or we don't want to scale. We do want to scale up," he said. "But an ecosystem takes some time to build."

Already, handset makers Sony, LG, ZTE, Huawei and Alcatel are working with Mozilla to develop phones running the Firefox OS. In addition, 18 telecom operators want to use the operating system, Gong said.

The initial industry support has Mozilla confident that its operating system can stand alongside Android and iOS as the third major operating system in the smartphone market.

"I can tell you there will be a third one (mobile OS) and it's going to be us." Gong said. "Why it's going to be us? It's because we are the only company that takes a pure approach. We are entirely open. Not only open source, but open process. No price, no nothing."

Google also markets Android as open source. But the behind-the-scenes development of the OS and its upcoming versions are still closed off to telecom operators and hardware manufacturers, according to Gong. These industry players can only make tweaks to Android once a new version is fully released.

"They may like it or not like it. But they have to take it," he said. "People like to see us because we are totally transparent. All the products, all the roadmaps, the delivery, feature sets, bugs, fixes, everything is open. Anybody can come in and see where it's headed."

Analysts, however, are doubtful that Firefox OS will change the mobile landscape dramatically given its late entrance into the market. At the same time, other open source mobile operating systems, such as the touch-version of Ubuntu and the Samsung-backed Tizen OS, are also competing for a share of the mobile OS market.

But Gong believes momentum is building for Firefox OS, and points to the company's large number of partners. In addition, the operating system is based on HTML5, a programming language in wide use, making the OS easy to develop apps for, he said. The first batch of Firefox phones will also feature performance on par with similar competing handsets, but at a lower price.

"When we started doing this project, people thought we were crazy. 'Who needs a third OS?'" he said. "But for businesses there is a strong desire for a third one. This is why the moment we stood up and said we are going to do it (make a mobile OS), so many operators came."

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