Mozilla has just released Firefox 86 that includes several new features including Total Cookie Protection a major privacy advancement that’s built into Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) Strict Mode and creates a cookie jar for each website you visit so trackers can’t follow you around the web. The update also adds support to watch several videos in Picture-in-Picture mode at once, the Print functionality has a cleaner design and better integration with your computer’s settings, and there are more performance improvements.
For several years, Mozilla has been pitching itself as the anti-Chrome - a product that cares about your privacy. In this update, Mozilla has added a new feature called Total Cookie Protection which can be enabled by changing the ETP settings to Strict Mode. Total Cookie Protection confines tracking cookies to the site on which they were created so that you can’t be tracked around the web.
Of course, cookies are not only used for tracking purposes, some are required to make a website operate properly. In the case of cross-site cookies that are needed for non-tracking purposes, Firefox will create a temporary exemption so that you’re browsing experience is not hurt. This new feature arrives just one month after Firefox introduced protections against supercookies - a more resilient tracking tool.
On the usability side of things, Mozilla has updated the printing options so that they are easier to use and better integrate with the computer’s settings. Firefox also lets you create several Picture-in-Picture videos at once now so you can keep watching more than one piece of content at once.
With this update, canvas drawing and WebGL drawing have been shifted over to the GPU process. Not only will this change make the browser better at handling these tasks but it should also make the browser a bit more stable resulting in fewer crashes.
You can download the new version of Firefox from Mozilla right now if you don’t have it installed already or you can wait for the browser to update automatically if you do. To update your browser manually, head into the hamburger menu, go down to Help and select About Firefox. The new update will download and you’ll be asked to restart your browser. If you’re on Linux, you’ll need to wait until the update becomes available in the package manager which could take up to a few days.
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