Mozilla watcher Sören Hentzschel has spotted an uncanny change in Android and iOS versions of Firefox and Firefox Focus browsers. It turns out th

Mozilla removes ad-tracking code from Firefox. What does it change?

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2024-09-23 14:30:05

Mozilla watcher Sören Hentzschel has spotted an uncanny change in Android and iOS versions of Firefox and Firefox Focus browsers. It turns out that the SDK from Adjust, which was used for tracking the effectiveness of ad campaigns, has been removed from the newest builds of these browsers.

A screenshot of Mozilla’s Mercurial repository for the Firefox browser’s release branch showing that a metric service and an associated toggle switch have been removed. The link is provided by Sören Hentzschel. Source: Mozilla’s Mercurial repository

If you haven’t been following Firefox super closely, you might wonder: Why was there an ad-tracking SDK in the first place? After all, Mozilla has always positioned itself as a champion of privacy. So, what’s the deal with third-party trackers in their browser?

It might shock some, but Mozilla has quietly used the Adjust SDK for years. Back in 2020, a curious Redditor on the Firefox subreddit demanded answers about this telemetry partnership — questioning what data was sent, how it was used, and how it squared with Mozilla’s privacy-first image.