The ability for users to control the flow of data (known as "privacy" and "user control") is an important value for Mozilla, and important part of the Firefox user experience.

Past work

Firefox 1.0

• Clear Private Data tool
• Per-site cookie preferences
• Password manager
• Per-site popup blocking

Firefox 2.0

• Per-site XPI install

Firefox 3.5

• Private Browsing Mode
• Clear Recent History tool

Firefox 4 and future roadmap

Local Disk Privacy

• extend privacy control to plugins
• locally encrypt passwords and form data by default
• token/client certificate support for authentication / sync

Online Privacy

• analyse use cases for third party cookies, choose better defaults
• auto-expiring cookies
• put behavioural tracking in user's control (opt-in)
• reduce browser signature in UA header and other inspectible APIs
• continue to invest in web infrastructure that solves desired use cases while putting control in user's hands

User Interface changes to enhance user control

• consolidate site permissions into single manager
• provide actionable controls per-site