Firefox could soon block crypto miners and fingerprinters

Cover your tracks

Firefox could soon protect your PC from crypto miners and fingerprinting techniques (which follow you around the web when you use different browsers on the same computer).

As Bleeping Computer reports, Mozilla has been considering ways to block these threats since May 2018 and intended to implement a solution in Firefox 63, but such a feature was nowhere to be seen when version 63 appeared in October.

In a recent bug report, developer Johann Hoffman posted a mockup illustrating how crypto mining and fingerprinting protection could be integrated into Firefox's custom blocking preferences.

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The two new options will appear in your browser security settings. If you visit a site that contains 'blockable content', clicking a notification in your browser's address bar will reveal whether any fingerprinters or crypto miners have been detected.

What is fingerprinting?

Unlike tracking cookies, fingerprinters identify you using parts of your PC's unique configuration that are visible to all browsers.

A fingerprint can be built using a combination of your screen resolution, your list of installed fonts, and various settings related to your graphics card, including the way it renders certain objects.