Firefox Focus: Private iOS browsing made easy

Mozilla has released Firefox Focus, an iOS app that lets you browse the Internet without having to worry who’s tracking your online activity.

The app can be used independently, or can be integrated with the existing (installed) Firefox and Safari apps (more details about the usage can be found here).

Firefox Focus blocks ad, analytics, and social trackers, as well as other content trackers (e.g. embedded videos, photo slideshows, and news article embeds that track users). It also blocks some parts of web pages from loading, or it loads them with different fonts (as it also blocks Web fonts). All of this results in faster loading of web content.

But the most important thing about this app is that it makes “private browsing” extremely easy to use.

“If you download Firefox Focus and start to browse, you will notice a prominent ‘Erase’ button in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. If you tap that button, the Firefox Focus app erases all browsing information including cookies, website history or passwords,” Denelle Dixon-Thayer, Mozilla’s Chief Legal and Business Officer, explains.

“Of course, you can erase this on any other browser but we are making it simple here – just one tap away,” she noted. “Burying the tools to clear browsing history and data behind clicks or taps means that fewer people will do it. By putting the ‘Erase’ button front and center, we offer users a simple path to healthy online behaviors — protecting their online freedom and taking greater control of their personal data.”

“We at Mozilla believe that protecting one’s privacy should be as simple as a single tap. Firefox Focus is an experiment to see what happens when we make this radically simple,” she concluded.