One of the most widely used browsers for PC from Mozilla is getting a new update today.

The latest update to Firefox comes for all the major platforms including Mac, Windows, Linux, and even Android. The update comes is called as Firefox 69 and is available for download from firefox.com.

With Firefox 69, Mozilla is improving the security and privacy of your data on the internet. This update focuses on blocking third-party tracking cookies and cryptominers. With today’s update, the company will by default enable the Enhanced tracking protection on your Firefox browser. With this update, the browser will block all known third-party tracking cookies according to the Disconnect List. This option will be by default enabled and will be available in the ‘Standard’ settings section.

This feature was first enabled in June this year to select users and the company got some positive feedback. Currently, over 20% of the overall Firefox users have the feature enabled in their devices. But with Firefox 69 where this feature is enabled by default, the company wants 100% of its users to be protected.

The first question that comes to our mind is how do we know that the Enhanced tracking protection is working or not??

To solve this problem, the company has found a solution. When you will visit a site and type a URL in the address bar, a shield will be visible in the status bar when the Enhanced tracking protection will be working. See the above image for a detailed understanding. Clicking on the shield icon will tell you the details about which companies are blocked.

What’s New:

  • ETP(Enhanced tracking protection) is being rolled out.
  • Block Autoplay videos let you block videos from automatically playing.
  • For our users in the US or using the en-US browser, we are shipping a new “New Tab” page experience that connects you to the best of Pocket’s content.
  • Support for the Web Authentication HmacSecret extension via Windows Hello now comes with this release(Required Windows 10 May 2019 or newer version)
  • Support for receiving multiple video codecs with this release makes it easier for WebRTC conferencing services to mix video from different clients.
  • For Windows 10 users, Firefox will give Windows hints to appropriately set content process priority levels, meaning more processor time spent on the tasks you’re actively working on, and less processor time spent on things in the background (with the exception of video and audio playback).
  • For our existing Windows 10 users, you can easily find and launch Firefox from a shortcut on the Win10 taskbar.
  • macOS users on dual-graphics-card machines (like MacBook Pro) will switch back to the low-power GPU more aggressively, saving battery life.
  • Finder on macOS now displays download progress for files being downloaded.
  • JIT support comes to ARM64 for improved performance of our JavaScript Optimizing JIT compiler.
  • Various security fixes.