Many websites show you advertisements based on your browsing behavior collected by them through tracking cookies. If you do not want your browsing to be tracked by websites, then you can configure your Firefox web browser to communicate with websites and tell them not to track you. In recent versions of Firefox, you can tell the web sites whether you want to be tracked, do not want to be tracked or leave the setting un-configured. The websites then act upon your preferences and they may not track you. However, its up to the websites to respect your tracking options.
Here is how you can configure tracking preferences in Firefox:
- Start Firefox. Press the Alt key to make the menubar visible. In the menubar select Tools → Options to open the Firefox options window.
- In the Options window, select the Privacy tab.
- Under the Tracking section, you can select one of the three options for tracking – tell sites that you do not want to be tracked, tell sites that you want to be tracked, or do not tell sites anything about the preferences.
- Click on the OK button to save the settings.
If you select the do not tell anything about my preferences, then the sites will take action as per their default policies – most of the sites will continue to track your browsing behavior. If you tell websites not to track you, then some features on sites may not work, for example, you may have to enter you location or ZIP code manually each time.