turn off advertising features in Firefox

Privacy-preserving attribution

(Update 10 Oct 2024) As of Firefox 143, this feature is not present in Firefox. See 1979093 - Remove checkbox in settings for feature that was never enabled on Bugzilla.

Mozilla is still working on a new implementation of this concept, in cooperation with Meta, Google, and other surveillance companies, but it’s not currently in the browser. If the new version ever ships, I’ll update this section with instructions for turning it off. More: The advertising cartel coming to your web browser

In earlier versions of Firefox (128-142), you can turn off Privacy-preserving attribution which is turned on by default. Here are the instructions for turning it off.

1. Click the menu button (≡) and select Settings.

2. In the Privacy & Security panel, find the Website Advertising Preferences section.

3. Uncheck the box labeled Allow websites to perform privacy-preserving ad measurement.

This can also be done in about:config using instructions from Michael Kjörling:

1. Go to about:config

2. Create an entry:
   dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled with a value of false.

That blog post also has info for disabling this by default in user.js which I have not tested.

Firefox for Android

(See above: I don’t currently have Firefox for Android to test if/when this is gone.)

Thom Holwerda posted:

1. Go to chrome://geckoview/content/config.xhtml
2. Use the search field to find the entry for aboutConfig and enable it
3. Go to about:config
4. Search for dom.private-attribution.submission.enabled and set it to false

Sponsored stuff on the new tab page

(Update 12 Oct 2025) Programmatic ads are coming to the New Tab page.

Since these are not released yet, I can’t confirm that these instructions will work. It should be possible to block these new ads by changing the New Tab page, which works for the existing sponsored stuff. The existing sponsored items have been on the new tab page for a while and do not seem to be a big deal, but it’s probably a good idea to fix the New Tab page while you’re dinking around with settings anyway, in the hope of blocking the programmatic ads before they start showing up. (The last thing you’re going to want on the new tab page is a programmatic ad that’s a credible fake of some real link or UI element. In a world where people click stuff by mistake, mimimizing the number of risky click targets you’re exposed to is a win, even if you’re the kind of person who would never fall for a fake login link or whatever.)

1. Click the menu button (≡) and select Settings (if you’re not already in Settings from the previous tip)

2. In the Home panel, you have two options.

1. Change the New Windows and Tabs settings to Blank Page (fastest) or Custom URLs

2. Uncheck any or all of these boxes: Sponsored shortcuts Sponsored Storiespersonally, I turn off a bunch of other stuff on the new tab page just for distraction control, too

The current versions of these ads seem mostly harmless, but I’ll update this for the programmatic stuff as I learn more.

Sponsored suggestions in search

Owen Nelson points out one more setting to check.

1. Go to Settings and select Search.

2. Scroll down to Address Bar — Firefox Suggest and turn off suggestions from sponsors

(According to Firefox Help, our preferred partner is adMarketplace. I don’t see this in the new user signup process, maybe I missed it.)

I think this is browser.urlbar.suggest.quicksuggest.sponsored in about:config.

(Update 28 Oct 2025) There is also a new Firefox Privacy-Focused Direct Results with possible sponsorships. This is not yet in Settings but people should be able to turn it off by setting browser.urlbar.quicksuggest.online.enabled to false.

Turn on Global Privacy Control

I’m going to end with some good news and ask, please don’t get mad at Firefox in general just because of one more fad-chasing move by management. I have been using this thing since it was Netscape Navigator, and even worked there for a while, and I have always been able to muddle through. Here is a place where Firefox is ahead of the other browsers: Global Privacy Control support.

1. From the ≡ menu button, Settings.

2. In the Privacy & Security panel, scroll down to Website Privacy Preferences and turn on Tell websites not to sell or share my data.

You can check that it works by going to globalprivacycontrol.org. Look for GPC signal detected at the top of the screen.

Ad blocker check

Mozilla seems to be doing better at keeping the scam ad blockers out of their extensions directory than Google—but that might just be that fewer malware developers are targeting Firefox now. But it is a good idea to check that your ad blocker is protecting you—privacy is now the number one reason why people install ad blockers. You can check your browser setup at EFF’s Cover Your Tracks site. If you don’t have a specific reason to use a different ad blocker, uBlock Origin is a safe default choice.

AI slop features

It Is Trivially Easy to Use Reddit to Manipulate AI Search, Research Suggests—so if you leave Firefox’s “AI” features on, you’ll probably be getting concealed spam messages among other things. To turn off all the slop features with one control:

1. From the ≡ menu button, choose Settings.

2. Select AI controls.

3. Turn on Block AI enhancements.

More info: Mozilla Support page

For system administrators

(Update 24 Dec 2024) If you have permission to write Firefox policies, preferences can be set and locked for all users. See turning off browser ad features from the command line.

Work in progress

This is a work in progress, will update as needed. If you’re looking for info on the Mr Robot TV show plugin I think this is totally gone by now and you should not have to do anything.

More on why to do this

The advertising cartel coming to your web browser: how a supposedly “privacy-preserving” ad feature can really increase your real-world privacy risks.

Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic

Ad features in other browsers

Google Chrome ad features checklist covers how to turn off the ad stuff in Google Chrome (the easiest so far).

turn off advertising measurement in Apple Safari (the setting is buried under Advanced so do this one tip and congratulations, you’re an advanced user)

Related

LWN comment: Firefox and controversial advertising features

Red Hat Bugzilla Bug 2297635 - Firefox silently enables advertiser tracking and breaks privacy without user permission Firefox pushed an update that enabled prototype advertiser spying functionality and Fedora forgot to disable it by default

remove AI from Google Search on Firefox While you’re on a roll removing crap that Big Tech wants you to like, might as well fix Google search results.

“Privacy-Preserving” Attribution: Mozilla Disappoints Us Yet Again At the end of the day, Mozilla knows this feature isn’t something that Firefox users want. If they truly believed this was the one path away from the constant data theft perpetuated by the advertising industry, they would’ve announced this loudly and proudly.

PET projects or real privacy? Some background info on privacy-enhancing ad personalization, which, to me, looks like an interesting technical dead end.

explainers/ppa-experiment at main · mozilla/explainers This is Mozilla’s POV about why they’re doing this. (They’re mixing up privacy protection and protection from individual addressability, which is a trend now, and an annoying one. As a privacy nerd, now I know how music nerds feel when people go on and on about Nickelback.)

How and Why to Disable Firefox’s ‘Privacy-Preserving’ Ad Measurements If I’ve learned one thing from the way the online ad industry evolved, it’s that people should have a choice in whether their data is being tracked. Even if it seeks to replace even more invasive systems, Firefox should have offered people a choice to opt into ad measurement, instead of enabling it silently.

Think before you click: why W3C members should decide not to put “attribution tracking” into web browsers

Bonus links

The Golden Calf Of Addressability: Reevaluating The Foundations Of Digital Advertising Advancements in AI have given us the tools to gather probabilistic insights by examining broader audience trends and modeling future behavior, rather than chasing the deterministic cookie trail to nowhere. (You still have to be careful—even if tracking is not deterministic it can still facilitate discrimination, matching scammers to victims, and other harms.)

The DOJ’s Witness List For The Google Antitrust Trial Is A Who’s Who Of Advertising (look, they released a list of all the people who know enough about web ads to give informed consent)