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Firefox Turns Encrypted DNS On By Default To Thwart Snooping ISPs

posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @02:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the and-everyone-else-on-the-network dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

Firefox will start switching browser users to Cloudflare's encrypted-DNS service today and roll out the change across the United States in the coming weeks.

"Today, Firefox began the rollout of encrypted DNS over HTTPS (DoH) by default for US-based users," Firefox maker Mozilla said in an announcement scheduled to go live at this link Tuesday morning. "The rollout will continue over the next few weeks to confirm no major issues are discovered as this new protocol is enabled for Firefox's US-based users."

DNS over HTTPS helps keep eavesdroppers from seeing what DNS lookups your browser is making, potentially making it more difficult for Internet service providers or other third parties to monitor what websites you visit. As we've previously written, Mozilla's embrace of DNS over HTTPS is fueled in part by concerns about ISPs monitoring customers' Web usage. Mobile broadband providers were caught selling their customers' real-time location data to third parties, and Internet providers can use browsing history to deliver targeted ads.

Wireless and wired Internet providers are suing the state of Maine to stop a Web-browsing privacy law that would require ISPs to get customers' opt-in consent before using or sharing browsing history and other sensitive data. The telecom companies already convinced Congress and President Trump to eliminate a similar federal law in 2017.

Also at:
Mozilla Blog
The Register

Previously:
Firefox Begins Enabling DNS-over-HTTPS for Users

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:50PM (6 children)

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday February 26 2020, @04:50PM (#962956) Journal

    What if Mozilla could somehow use this "Tor" thingy?

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  • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:55PM (3 children)

    by vux984 (5045) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @08:55PM (#963076)

    "Tor" already uses this "Mozilla" thingy, so you'd be creating a circular dependency. :p

    The Tor Browser[140] is the flagship product of the Tor Project. It was created as the Tor Browser Bundle by Steven J. Murdoch[30] and announced in January 2008[141]. The Tor Browser consists of a modified Mozilla Firefox ESR web browser, the TorButton, TorLauncher, NoScript, and HTTPS Everywhere Firefox extensions and the Tor proxy

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_%28anonymity_network%29#Tor_Browser [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: 2) by Booga1 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:04PM (2 children)

      by Booga1 (6333) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:04PM (#963080)

      You're quite right and all, but I have the feeling that DannyB's comments were intended to be read with more than a little bit of sarcasm. :)

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:28PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:28PM (#963106)

        The acid from his wit is rather tasty, isn't it?

      • (Score: 2) by vux984 on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:01PM

        by vux984 (5045) on Wednesday February 26 2020, @10:01PM (#963148)

        I expect so too, hence the smiley in my GP post.

  • (Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:57PM (1 child)

    by takyon (881) <takyonNO@SPAMsoylentnews.org> on Wednesday February 26 2020, @09:57PM (#963143) Journal

    Interestingly, Mozilla never moved forward on integrating Tor in the mainline browser [soylentnews.org], but the Chromium-based Brave browser appears to have done it.

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    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by edIII on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:42AM

      by edIII (791) on Thursday February 27 2020, @12:42AM (#963248)

      Well, yeah. It's not like Brave has anything to lose. They're the ones who are marketing to you and using your personal data in the first place. All under the guise of giving you a reach-around to give you the impression of control.

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