It means nothing “do not track” never worked.
That is exactly the reason for this change. It often didn’t work and probably makes you easier to fingerprint.
The new thing is the same but worse.
This option is built on top of the Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is respected by increasing numbers of sites and enforced with legislation in some regions.
Sounds like Mozilla at least think it’s better
The same Mozilla whose primary source of income is Google?
As opposed to… your generous donations?
That doesn’t absolve them.
With the feature removed, websites can act like they didn’t even go against my wishes.
There’s nothing to “absolve.” Feature was worthless.
If you wish to ask websites to respect your privacy, you can use the “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” setting. This option is built on top of the Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is respected by increasing numbers of sites and enforced with legislation in some regions.
So is the difference that DNT was asking for no tracking at all while this GPC setting allows for tracking data to be created but not forwarded to third parties? That seems reasonable, not all “tracking” is malicious. Though I wonder why, if DNT isn’t respected, any other vaguely similar setting would be.
Some company got sued or smth for ignoring gpc and it was ruled to legally count as opting out of data sharing
However, as we approach 2025, with growing concerns about online privacy and data protection, Mozilla believes that DNT is no longer an effective privacy measure. Many websites ignore the DNT signal. Therefore, Mozilla has removed the DNT signal from Firefox version 135.
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Mozilla believes that privacy preference is not honored by websites and that sending the Do Not Track signal may impact your privacy. The company has updated Firefox’s Do Not Track help support page to confirm that.
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The company recommends using the Global Privacy Control setting as an alternative to prevent websites from tracking user data.
The linked Global article makes Global Privacy Control sound like DNT… and less global than the label suggests.
Global Privacy Control (GPC) operates as a Do Not Sell mechanism in some US states, such as Colorado, California, and Connecticut. The feature can also indicate an opt-out of targeted advertising or a general request to restrict the sharing or sale of your data.
When you enable the feature, the GPC sends a signal to the websites you visit about your privacy preferences. This signal is intended to give users more control over their data and how the companies can use them online.
This signal is sent via a special HTTP header called DNT: 1 (Do Not Track)
Now I’m about as confused as when Firefox rolled out Total Cookie Protection and it was not particularly total.
