Firefox 74.0 Released, DNS over HTTPS is enabled by default for US users
March 10, Mozilla Firefox development team announced the latest release of the web browser ‘Firefox 74.0’. For US-based users, DNS over HTTPS is enabled by default, and it includes the new add-on feature, which blocks Facebook tracking.
As Mozilla had introduced a four-week release cycle, this Firefox 74 came out four weeks after v73, which was released in December.
DNS over HTTPS (DoH), enabled in this release, is a name-solving technology which converts a host name into an IP address on encrypted HTTPS. It is standardized by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). On February 25, Mozilla announced that they would enable it by default for US-based users, and revealed that Cloudflare would be used as a provider that offers DoH by default. Users also have the option to switch to NextDNS. To enable DoH, go to Network Settings in Preferences.
In regards to security, it supports TLS 1.2 and above. TLS 1.0 and TSL 1.1 are no longer supported. Sandbox security has been improved.
Now users cane delete add-ons that are installed via external applications from the add-on manager (about:addons). Going forward, only users can install add-ons, and installing add-ons via external applications will not be allowed.
‘Facebook Container’ is the new notable add-on that prevents Facebook from tracking user behavior on web. For any websites besides Facebook, it will automatically block Facebook login, likes, and comments. To avail oneself of the add-on, users must install it.
In addition, there are other features that cater to developers, and security fixes. Mozilla has also released the latest version of FireFox for Android 68.6.0.