Mozilla is celebrating ten years of Firefox with a handful of announcements. We told you about the launch of Firefox Developer Edition, which it had previously teased, but that’s only part of the celebration.
The regular Firefox browser is getting a Forget button to keep browsing history private on shared computers or protect users from visits to suspicious sites.
Mozilla commissioned a survey from Harris Poll, which found that men are three times more likely to have visited an adult website and “wish they could forget it.” Men are also twice as likely than females to have visited an online dating site while already in a relationship (and again, wish they could “forget” it).
Over half of young adults (19 – 34) have done something online they’d like to forget, while one in three women want to “forget an online shopping binge,” the survey finds. Men are more likely than women to clear their online browsing history daily.
Firefox is also adding DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn’t collect or store search info, as a search option across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.
Finally, Mozilla announced a new strategic initiative called Polaris to “bring together the best and brightest to explore new approaches to enhance privacy controls online.”
A spokesperson said in an email, “Polaris will bring together Mozilla’s global community with industry experts from the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT) and the Tor Project, and others, with an open call for participation. Initially, Mozilla is exploring an experimental tracking protection tool and working closely with Tor to test and strengthen their network.”
More on Mozilla’s new announcements here.
Image via Joshua Wolford