Firefox 4 Beta 11 Lands With "Do Not Track"

[nsane.forums]

Mozilla have released Beta 11 of Firefox 4 today, and as previously predicted there will be another beta before it reaches Release Candidate (RC) stage, with work on Beta 12 already underway. Currently, the beta page has yet to be updated, but you can grab the EN-US version from their official supported link here.

In a posting last night on Google Group mozilla.dev.planning, Firefox Release Manager, Chris Legnitto, let it be known that, "QA has signed off on Firefox 4 beta 11. We intend to push it to mirrors tonight / tomorrow morning PST".

Legnitto also commented on the lengthy QA to ship cycle, hinting at a more streamlined process to come in the future.

Just to let you know, releases aren't as easy as flipping a switch. The release mechanics generally follow these steps:

1. Release to mirrors

2. Wait for sufficient mirror uptake for update testing

3. Test the updates on the "releasetest" channel to make sure the bits on the mirrors are ok

4. Wait for sufficient mirror uptake for release to the beta audience

5. Push webpages live

6. Test the updates on the "beta" channel, get QA signoff on them

7. Update download links on mozilla.com

8. Announce to the world

As an aside, there are exciting plans to pipeline and automate the mechanics of releases to cut down the time it takes to go from QA signoff to tested bits on the wire.

Firefox 4, based on the Gecko 2.0 engine, will bring an updated user interface, new ways to organise tabs, a revamped add-on manager, support for HTML5 video standards, multitouch support on Windows 7 and a range of performance and security enhancements. The full release notes for beta 10 can be viewed here.

Don't forget that you can discuss this beta, and nightly builds right here on Neowin in the "Meet Firefox 4.0 (beta 11)" topic.

View: Original Article

[DKT27]

Firefox 4 beta 11 has landed a useful security feature for people who are sick of "stalkertizements," those cookie-based ads that use your browsing history to target ads at your perceived tastes. The new "Do Not Track" feature in Firefox 4 beta 11 for Windows, Mac, and Linux sends out a header that tells Web sites that you want to opt out of behavioral tracking, though Mozilla cautions in a blog post that it will take some time for sites and advertisers to respond to the header.

This diagram shows how Firefox's new 'Do Not Track' feature works.

The feature can be toggled via a check box in the Advanced tab of Firefox's Options window.

Mozilla privacy lead Alex Fowler said that the engineers decided to base the feature in the header sent from the browser because it's something that all Web pages read as they load. A blacklist or cookie-based solution would be harder to implement across different browsers. He acknowledged that successful implementation of "Do Not Track" also depends on advertisers and site owners respecting that incoming header.

He added that the initial stages of a legislative fix are under way as at least one member of Congress--Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.)--plans to introduce a bill ordering the Federal Trade Commission to create a "Do Not Track" program for advertisers. However, a second bill also being proposed does not include the "Do Not Track" option. Both might have a hard time passing in today's antiprivacy climate, although a bill with "Do Not Track" would be the harder sell because of its stronger privacy controls.

Mozilla security and privacy engineer Sid Stamm has documented the technical implementation of "Do Not Track."

Other changes in Firefox 4 beta 11--which Mozilla hopes will be the penultimate Firefox 4 beta--include moving connection status messages to a small overlay window, re-enabling WebGL on Linux, disabling automatic switching to offline mode when no network connection is detected, and a redesign of the default about:home page. The full changelog is available here.

View: Original Article