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Intelligent Tracking Prevention

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Level 1

I was contacted by the IT Team at my office and they said Firefox is implementing a feature to set DNT as a default which will prevent DTM/Launch from firing. We have all our vendor tags and analytics tags in Launch. Does this mean we will not be able to track our customers anymore if they use Firefox? Can anyone help us with this? Thanks

1 Accepted Solution

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Correct answer by
Employee Advisor

I downloaded and installed the latest nightly build, and here's my findings:

  • Tracking was not affected on my test site, which uses the latest version of the Analytics AppMeasurement library and Experience Cloud ID service.
  • Tracking was blocked when I opened a private browsing window.
  • When I opened Firefox tracking protection settings, by default it was set to private browsing only. When I changed it to say always, Analytics tracking was blocked.
  • Going to a site with first-party image request CNAME redirects, tracking still worked, even with tracking protection enabled.

When Adobe Analytics was blocked, it showed this in the console:

The resource at “http://assets.adobedtm.com/launch-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.min.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More]

Loading failed for the <script> with source “http://assets.adobedtm.com/launch-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.min.js”.

Following the linked article, it says this tracking protection in private windows has been around since version 42, so since 2015. I'm guessing the 'always' option is new, however it's not enabled by default.

If you're concerned that Mozilla will switch tracking protection to 'always' by default, an option would be to ensure you're using a first-party implementation via CNAME redirects. However, given the number of sites that have dependencies on tracking libraries, the likelihood of this happening is pretty slim in my opinion.

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13 Replies

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Employee Advisor

AppMeasurement libraries currently do not check the DNT variable, so impact will be minimal.

If you would like to adjust your implementation to honor the DNT variable, here's a relevant forum thread on the topic: Disable tracking by "Do Not Track" Browser settings

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Level 1

We're migrating to Launch and I was told by our developers that the private browsing capability for FF will be the default soon for standard and that will block the Launch tag from firing. How do we work through this? I hope this is more clear for you. Thanks

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Employee Advisor

Firefox private browsing is basically the equivalent of Chrome's incognito mode. Both private browsing and incognito won't block Analytics tracking by themselves, however any cookies set during a session will be discarded after the browser window is closed. This means that every browsing session on the visitor's machine will request a new visitor ID, causing unique visitor count to rise. Quoting Firefox's page on Private Browsing​:

The Launch tag will still fire, but it will appear to be a different unique visitor every time they visit.

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Level 1

Have you heard about the FF Beta Browser that will make DNT as a standard feature for everyone that uses their browser? It's in beta and it should be updated very soon. If DNT is standard this means the Private Browsing feature will no longer be needed. Will this prevent the Launch tag from firing? If so what will Adobe do to work around being able to track customers that use FF?

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Employee Advisor

Do you have any information from Mozilla on these new features in Firefox that you anticipate will cause issues? I just checked their latest beta release notes page and did not see anything around private browsing or DNT.

If you're able to provide me with any announcements or details on Mozilla's plans, I'd be happy to elaborate on the impact it will make to Adobe Analytics/Launch.

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Level 1

It’s their night version it passed beta. Normally if it reaches the night version within 2 – 4 months is should be the next browser update. Try the night version for developers.

Sandra Sowers

Primary Consultant – Data Capture Team

Email: vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com<mailto:vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com>

Phone: 224-544-0093

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Level 1

Here’s the link to their test versions https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/desktop/. Sorry it’s the nightly version not night. Thanks

Sandra Sowers

Primary Consultant – Data Capture Team

Email: vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com<mailto:vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com>

Phone: 224-544-0093

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Level 1

Sorry I did more research to help you here’s a link that says it’s going to be in the next version. https://blog.nightly.mozilla.org/2018/08/23/these-weeks-in-firefox-issue-43/

Sandra Sowers

Primary Consultant – Data Capture Team

Email: vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com<mailto:vc.sandra.s.sowers01@lowes.com>

Phone: 224-544-0093

Avatar

Correct answer by
Employee Advisor

I downloaded and installed the latest nightly build, and here's my findings:

  • Tracking was not affected on my test site, which uses the latest version of the Analytics AppMeasurement library and Experience Cloud ID service.
  • Tracking was blocked when I opened a private browsing window.
  • When I opened Firefox tracking protection settings, by default it was set to private browsing only. When I changed it to say always, Analytics tracking was blocked.
  • Going to a site with first-party image request CNAME redirects, tracking still worked, even with tracking protection enabled.

When Adobe Analytics was blocked, it showed this in the console:

The resource at “http://assets.adobedtm.com/launch-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.min.js” was blocked because content blocking is enabled.[Learn More]

Loading failed for the <script> with source “http://assets.adobedtm.com/launch-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.min.js”.

Following the linked article, it says this tracking protection in private windows has been around since version 42, so since 2015. I'm guessing the 'always' option is new, however it's not enabled by default.

If you're concerned that Mozilla will switch tracking protection to 'always' by default, an option would be to ensure you're using a first-party implementation via CNAME redirects. However, given the number of sites that have dependencies on tracking libraries, the likelihood of this happening is pretty slim in my opinion.

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Level 4

sandras28979200​ - you should not be affected, DNT has been around for ages and its usually up to client to enable it or account for the flag when implementing a web analytics platform such as Adobe Analytics but I haven't seen or heard of any tool that automatically honors it.

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Level 3

Gigazelle

Do you have any update on your findings given the latest release of Firefox?

As per this Mozilla blog post, I think that Mozilla aims to block all cookies (and other site storage) from known "trackers" (Adobe Analytics, for our purposes) from "early 2019" (I understand this means v65 of Firefox).

If this is a correct interpretation, does it mean that Adobe Analytics will not function in any useful manner for anyone with a CNAME redirect (e.g., "metrics.mycompany.com" for "www.mycompany.com")?

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Employee Advisor

If you're using any kind of third-party cookie (cookie TLD doesn't match URL TLD), then you will basically be reverting to a fallback cookie method. For example, metrics.example.com is your cookie domain www.example.org - since example.com and example.org are different TLD's, the cookie will be blocked, and Analytics falls back to a first-party cookie.

If you're using CNAME redirects (metrics.example.com on www.example.com), my research shows that neither Mozilla or Apple touches those cookies. If you're hosting the AppMeasurement JS file on your own domain (without Launch/DTM), then you even get through content blocked by private browsing.

If you're using the Experience Cloud ID service, those cookies aren't generally affected either since they are first party. They are currently blocked by private browsing, though, since Launch/DTM is currently on their list of tracking domains. Cross-site tracking capabilities are also disabled, since the ID service uses a demdex cookie to enable cross-site tracking (and that cookie is the prime target of both Mozilla and Apple).

I logged in to Analytics and ran a trended report over the past month for this forum's metrics with a Firefox-only segment, and none of the metrics I looked at were affected, not even by a tiny bit. The report suite I'm looking at uses the Experience Cloud ID service. The latest version should not affect any tracking, as long as there are measures in place to fall back to a first-party cookie. Cross-site tracking capabilities are absolutely affected, so unique visitors are not deduplicated across domains for Firefox/Safari users. This makes perfect sense, since that is Mozilla's/Apple's aim with these browsing features.

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Level 2

Hi Everyone,

just to add here as with recent changes in Firefox regarding the content blocking if you choose the custom option and block the trackers in all windows then Analytics call/image will not fire. by-default standard option is selected so in that case, tracking will be disabled in private window but if user choose the custom option as per below screenshot then DTM/Launch call will not fire.

1817650_pastedImage_0.png

@BarryLennon Gigazelle