Firefox 90 comes with just-in-time support for unblocking Facebook when users log in

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Image: Mozilla

Firefox 90 appeared from Mozilla this week, and one of the new features that arrived was better support for logging in using Facebook credentials when the browser is in strict tracker blocking mode or a private window.

SmartBlock first appeared in Firefox 87, released in March, and provided local replacements for blocked third-party tracking scripts.

“These replacement scripts behave just enough like the original ones to make sure the website works properly. They allow damaged sites that rely on the original scripts to load with their functionality intact,” Mozilla said at the time.

However, one area where SmartBlock failed was the support of Facebook login buttons on the web. In a blog post, Mozilla explained that it was because Facebook trackers were included in the list of trackers provided. from its partner, but the SmartBlock 2.0 update should fix the problem.

“Prior to Firefox 90, if you were using a private browsing window, when you clicked the ‘Continue with Facebook’ button to log in, the login was not successful because the requested third-party Facebook script was blocked by Firefox”, the blog states.

“Now, SmartBlock 2.0 in Firefox 90 eliminates this login problem. Initially, Facebook scripts are all blocked, just like before, ensuring your privacy is protected. But when you click the” Continue with Facebook “button to log in, SmartBlock reacts by quickly unlocking the Facebook login script just in time for the login to proceed smoothly. ”

Mozilla said the new feature worked on “numerous websites” and that Firefox will continue to block Facebook trackers on all sites a user is not signed in to.

Users on Windows will now have Firefox updated in the background, with Firefox 90 checking every 7 hours for a new version. To enable background updating, users must allow automatic installation of updates and select the “When Firefox is not running” check box. The feature works only when the browser has been installed by its installer, rather than unzipped from a zip file, and does not have a language pack installed.

Although Mozilla said it would gradually roll out the feature, there is a napp.update.background.scheduling.enabled flag to allow users to enable it now.

Firefox on Windows will also get a third-party about: page that lists modules, such as antivirus, that have been injected into the browser and may be causing problems.

Firefox 90 will also support Fetch metadata request headers to allow web apps to defend against certain cross-site attacks.

“The Sec-Fetch-Site HTTP Request Header allows the web application server to distinguish between a same-origin request from the corresponding web application and a cross-origin request from a website controlled by an attacker,” Mozilla said. .

“Inspecting the Sec-Fetch- * headers ultimately allows the web application server to deny or even ignore malicious requests due to the additional context provided by the Sec-Fetch- * header family. In total there are four different headers Sec-Fetch- *: Destination, Mode, Site and User which together allow web applications to protect themselves and their end users from [cross-site attacks]. ”

The latest edition of Firefox finally marks the end of support for FTP in the browser, and most users who do not have hardware-accelerated WebRender will use WebRender software instead.

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