Facebook has come under fire recently for its treatment of its users’ personal data after revelations about Cambridge Analytica and information that Facebook grants third-party apps and services certain access to your data. Many users have gone on a rampage with #deleteFacebook flooding the internet, but, Mozilla has a solution and it has released a Firefox tool called Facebook Container. This add-on is to stop the social network from seeing what you do online beyond Facebook’s own site. It isolates Facebook from tracking the rest of your browsing activity.
Mozilla created an extension its Firefox web browser with the Facebook Container and the company’s aim is to stop third-party apps and services trackers from working outside of the Facebook website. When you first run the add-on, it’ll log you out of Facebook, delete anything that the website will use in keeping tabs on you such as, Facebook cookies and the text files browsers save. After this when next you load Facebook, Firefox will open it in a separate container labelled with the word “Facebook” in blue in the address bar.
However, Mozilla’s introduction to Facebook Container gave some warnings and instructions, for instance, you should note that certain features of Facebook embedded into other websites may be problematic to use such as Facebook comments and Like buttons so if you are a regular user of these features, this may not be the solution for you. Also logging into other websites using your Facebook account may become difficult.
Mozilla is not the only one taking this step as Google’s Chrome has started blocking ads for sites that overuse them and Apple’s Safari is cracking down on trackers. Also, Mozilla Firefox is experimenting with blocking in-page pop-ups that try to get us all to subscribe to newsletters, take surveys and redeem coupons.
One important thing to note however is that Mozilla isn’t singling out Facebook, Mozilla stated that their team wanted to “start with a well-defined problem that we can solve quickly.” Facebook fits the bill with its recent poor privacy practices. More details about this new add-on can be found in Mozilla’s introduction to Facebook Container.
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