Protect your privacy in Mozilla’s Firefox using these 12 cool About:Config tips and tricks
Everyone is worried about privacy these days and most browsers leak your personal browsing history for variety of reasons. Though you cant control all that the browser can snoop on you, you can make certain changes in the way your browser behaves to control the same.
If you are using Mozilla’s Firefox browser you can add/edit certain features to enhance privacy using the awesome About:Config.
The about:config page contains most (if not, all) of Firefox configuration options. It is so far the most effective, and the most powerful way to tweak and enhance your Firefox performance. Here are 12 most important tweaks that you should know to protect your privacy while browsing on Firefox.
How to access About:Config in Firefox :
In your Firefox, type about:config in the address bar.
You will be shown a warning page. Click the “I’ll be careful, I promise!” button to proceed.
On the main page, you will see a long list of configuration entries. Enter the name of the key you want to update in the “Filter” field. The list will narrow to only the entries that match your keyword as you type.
To modify the value, simply double click on the entry value field and update the entry. That’s all!
Tips and Tricks for tweaking Privacy settings in Firefox
privacy.trackingprotection.enabled = true
This is Mozilla’s new built in tracking protection.
geo.enabled = false
Disables geolocation.
browser.safebrowsing.enabled = false
Disable Google Safe Browsing and phishing protection. Security risk, but privacy improvement.
browser.safebrowsing.malware.enabled = false
Disable Google Safe Browsing malware checks. Security risk, but privacy improvement.
dom.event.clipboardevents.enabled = false
Disable that websites can get notifications if you copy, paste, or cut something from a web page, and it lets them know which part of the page had been selected.
network.cookie.cookieBehavior = 1
Disable cookies
0 = accept all cookies by default
1 = only accept from the originating site (block third party cookies)
2 = block all cookies by default
network.cookie.lifetimePolicy = 2
cookies are deleted at the end of the session
0 = Accept cookies normally
1 = Prompt for each cookie
2 = Accept for current session only
3 = Accept for N days
browser.cache.offline.enable = false
Disables offline cache.
browser.send_pings = false
The attribute would be useful for letting websites track visitors’ clicks.
webgl.disabled = true
WebGL is a potential security risk. Source
dom.battery.enabled = false
Website owners can track the battery status of your device. Source
browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo = 0
Even with Firefox set to not remember history, your closed tabs are stored temporarily at Menu -> History -> Recently Closed Tabs.
Hope you like these tweaks. We will be bringing another set of Firefox tweaks in near future to help you get the maximum from your Firefox.
Stay tuned!
I stupidly refreshed Firefox (51.0) so had to find and reset per your instructions above. However, “browser.safebrowsing.enabled” is no longer there. Can you please advise the revised setting here?