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Firefox Borrows From Tor Browser Again, Blocks Canvas Fingerprinting (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla engineers have borrowed yet another feature from the Tor Browser and starting with version 58 Firefox will block attempts to fingerprint users using the HTML5 canvas element. The technique is widely used in the advertising industry to track users across sites. Firefox 58 is scheduled for release on January 16, 2018.
Canvas fingerprinting blocking is the second feature Mozilla engineers have borrowed from the Tor Project. Previously, Mozilla has added a mechanism to Firefox 52 that prevents websites from fingerprinting users via system fonts. Mozilla's efforts to harden Firefox are part of the Tor Uplift project, an initiative to import more privacy-focused feature from the Tor Browser into Firefox.
Canvas fingerprinting blocking is the second feature Mozilla engineers have borrowed from the Tor Project. Previously, Mozilla has added a mechanism to Firefox 52 that prevents websites from fingerprinting users via system fonts. Mozilla's efforts to harden Firefox are part of the Tor Uplift project, an initiative to import more privacy-focused feature from the Tor Browser into Firefox.
Yeah it’s for generating 2D graphics.
If like me you gave up on it years ago because it became bloated and slow, try out the latest beta. It's really fast even under a heavy load.
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I've actually spoken informally to some firefox people in person regarding addons.
They do know it's a problem, but they feel that the temporary disruption was worth it. They also know the new webextension system is not yet up to the task of replacing the old extensions, but neither is the old one is severely holding up the browser in terms of both security and performance.
The idea is that they get the first version up and running, then work on improving the extension system to put back as many of the missing bits as they can, but in a manner which doesn't break performance or security. With luck, by the time the last pre change LTS goes out of support, the new extension will be able to support the kind of things that people need. Apparently there are quite a lot of heavy extension users at Mozilla so there's internal pressure to get firefox to be as good as it always was in this regard.
Personally I'm optimistic that they can achieve their goal.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Pale Moon, a Firefox fork, has had this for ages in about:config
Just set "canvas.poisondata" to "true"