Mozilla unveils new privacy tool that lets users create a FAKE browsing history to trick advertisers into thinking they’re someone else
- Mozilla will let people take a walk in someone else’s web history with new tool
- Track This opens up 100 tabs at once to fake one’s browsing history
- Tabs can be selected using a fake profile including ‘doomsday’ and ‘filthy rich’
- The tool adds to Mozilla’s growing number of privacy-centric features
Mozilla is amping up its overtures to privacy-focused users with a new tool that lets you fool ad companies via phony web history.
The tool, aptly dubbed ‘Track This,’ was developed through a partnership between mschf Internet Studios and Mozilla, and allows users to fabricate their history by opening up a torrent fake tabs.
The idea is pretty straightforward: by inundating your browser history with loads of fake visits — Track This opens up an eye-watering 100 tabs simultaneously — sleuthing through a ledger of web visits for targeted ad data would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack for companies.
To further sweeten the deal for users looking to throw nosy ad companies off their scent, Track This also injects a bit of fun to the process by letting you choose a type of curated fake profile that determines what types of tabs are generated.
The influencer option will send users into a stream of skin-care products, makeup, and more.
Among the profile options are Hypebeat, Filthy Rich, Doomsday, and Influencer, all of which have their own unique histories.
For instance, selecting the Hypebeast option might conjure up well-known pop-culture websites like Complex or various clothing brands like Supreme or Louis Vuitton, while Doomsday could send your web history plummeting down a hole of flashlights and canned foods.
To use the tool, all one has to do is hop onto their preferred browser, go to the Track This web page, and select a profile — some users, like those using Google Chrome, may have to change their pop-up settings before descending into tab madness.
As noted by Track This, it’s also advisable to open the tabs in a new window to avoid losing any important web pages that may already be open.
Track This is the latest effort by Mozilla to offer users a more privacy-focused browsing experience.
‘If it feels like the ads chasing you across the internet know you a little too well, it’s because they do,’ reads the company’s explanation of Track This.
‘That’s why we made Track THIS: to bring that out-of-sight tracking front and center.’
While there are already a host of tools that help protect you from the constant scourge of data-mining — many of which, like ad-blockers, are probably more effective in helping you regain web anonymity — Track This offers something that those tool don’t: a sense of independence.
In an interview with Vice, Daniel Greenberg, director of strategy and distribution for mschf said that feeling of autonomy is intentionally imbued into Track This.
Mozilla has made a concerted effort to court users away from other browsers like Google Chrome by building privacy into its experience.
‘These trackers and these websites really commoditize you, and they don’t really make you feel like a person,’ Greenberg, told Vice.
‘So we wanted to do something visceral that makes the user feel like they’re in control again.’
Unlike other encryption, ad-blockers, or heftier tools like using a virtual private network (VPN), Track This won’t save users from having their histories monitored — like before they will continue to be served ads based on their visits — but it will provide a sense of satisfaction in knowing that those ads are actually being tailored to someone else, perhaps even someone that’s ‘Filthy Rich.’
For Mozilla, features like Track This will also add to their ever-expanding efforts to give users a more privacy-centric browsing experience.
Earlier this month, the company announced that it will default its browser to use ‘enhanced tracking protection’ which makes it more difficult for big tech companies to monitor online movements.
