• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, October 27, 2023

The upcoming version of Mozilla's Firefox browser will enable users to activate the Global Privacy Tool -- a universal "do-not-share-my-data" command -- directly from the privacy settings.

The Global Privacy Control, a mechanism developed by privacy advocates, aims to allow people to reject targeted advertising throughout the web, instead of opting out company-by-company.

States including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Montana and Texas have recently passed laws or regulations requiring companies to honor universal opt-out mechanisms like the Global Privacy Control.

Mozilla intends to ship Firefox 120 with the Global Privacy Control turned off by default in the normal browsing mode, and turned on in private browsing mode. Some other browser developers that offer Global Privacy Control, such as Brave and DuckDuckGo, turn on the setting by default.

While Firefox has included a version of the Global Privacy Control since late 2021, activating the tool was more complicated than checking a single box.

The ad industry has previously argued that companies shouldn't be required to honor do-not-track settings that are set by default.

Ad groups have also previously argued that mandates to honor universal opt-outs violates advertisers' First Amendment rights by unreasonably burdening “commercial speech.”

Firefox 120 is expected to ship next month.