Firefox Focus 9.0 Comes with An In-Built Ad Blocker

• Firefox Focus’ next update is set to revamp its ad blocker in February.
• The new ad-blocker will block ad tracking as well as any ads to protect user privacy.
• Mozilla will be conducting a test phase at launch to see if ad-blockers increase interest in the app and its usage.

Advertisements and pop-ups ruin the internet browsing experience for nearly everyone, and most of us are reliant on third-party ad-blockers to deal with the issue. Mozilla wants to change that with the latest Firefox Focus 9.0 build coming with a built-in ad blocker to keep those pesky ads away.

For those who haven’t heard about Firefox Focus, it is essentially a lightweight version of the standard Firefox app for Android and iOS that is lighter on resources and focuses more on user privacy features. Your passwords are not saved by the app, and your browsing activity is not tracked by Mozilla. Some ads are already blocked on the current 8.1 build, but some improvements will be made to ensure all ads are blocked by the browser.

Image Courtesy of Bleeping Computer

The new blocking feature is set to go live on February 12^th 2019, and the feature is tuned towards blocking ad trackers and not the ads alone. The feature will undergo a test phase prior to its release and half the users will have the ad-blocker enabled while others will have the feature hidden temporarily. Mozilla will be collecting data on the Firefox browser’s usage metrics to see if having the feature increases usage and if users enable the features in the first place.

Firefox is not revealing any more information at the moment, and we will have to wait until the update releases to know more. Mobile browsers have been implementing ad-blockers following a number of user privacy incidents over the last two years. Microsoft Edge for Android was one of the first mainstream browsers to implement the feature in June 2018, and other developers are following suit as well.

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