Firefox 60 Starts Showing Sponsored Stories in Pocket Tab With Option to Disable Them

Advertisement
By Ankit Chawla | Updated: 10 May 2018 10:32 IST
Highlights
  • Mozilla acquired Pocket last year
  • Firefox will not collect personal information
  • There will be an option to disable them in settings
Firefox 60 Starts Showing Sponsored Stories in Pocket Tab With Option to Disable Them

Mozilla recently announced that it would be shifting from a completely ad-free model to a one that involves pushing sponsored links to users in an attempt to garner revenue from its ultra-popular browser - Firefox. Starting Wednesday, May 9, with the release of Firefox 60, the browser is now showing occasional sponsored stories in Pocket's recommendations section in Firefox new tab.

As per a blog post by Mozilla, this decision apparently comes with proper privacy and quality standards in place. According to Nate Weiner, CEO and Founder of Pocket, all personalisation of sponsored links will take place on the client-side thus eliminating the need of collecting personal data and storing it. The sponsored links are claimed to show valuable content, useful for the reader. Lastly, as an open organisation, all code in Firefox is said to remain open source and transparent.

"We've come to accept a premise around advertising today that users need to trade their privacy and data in exchange for personalised, high quality experiences. Our experiments over the last few months have proved that this isn't true. We are indeed able to create personalised sponsored content that provides value to users without jeopardizing their privacy," said Weiner in the blog post.

Users who don't want to a particular sponsored story on the new tab of Firefox can remove it by hitting the Dismiss option after clicking the three-dot button from the top-right corner of the tile. Similarly, the entire Pocket Recommendations section can be removed by selecting the New Tab Preferences gear icon and then unchecking the Recommended by Pocket option.

Advertisement

Mozilla acquired Pocket (Read It Later) back in February last year. During the acquisition, Mozilla stated that the content bookmarking service would function independently, which does not seem to be the case slightly more than a year down the line. Pocket is available for download on Android, Google Chrome, iOS, Mozilla Firefox, Safari, and Windows.

Separately, Firefox version 60 for Android has been released by Mozilla. The update brings the new Quantum CSS engine, called Stylo, to the platform. It also has a View Page Source option that can now be accessed from the Page Action menu.

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Mozilla, Firefox, Pocket, Firefox 60
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. Vivo T4R 5G to Launch Soon in India; Design Teased
  2. iQOO Z10R With 32-Megapixel Selfie Camera to Launch in India on This Date
  3. Motorola Razr 60 Ultra Review: Flip Phone Perfection?
  4. Samsung Galaxy F36 5G India Launch Date Announced; Design Shown
  5. Realme 15 Pro 5G to Get 50-Megapixel Sony IMX896 Main Rear Camera
  6. Honor X70 With 8,300mAh Battery and Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 Launched
  7. iPhone 16 Available in India at Rs 69,999 in Flipkart's GOAT Sale 2025
  8. Realme C71 Launched in India With 6,300mAh Battery: See Price
  1. Honor X70 With 8,300mAh Battery, Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 SoC Launched: Price, Specifications
  2. Samsung Developing New Technologies to Bring Back S-Pen in Future Galaxy Z Fold Models: Report
  3. Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition Coming to Apple Silicon-Powered Mac on July 17
  4. Axiom Space’s Ax-4 Crew Returns from ISS Aboard SpaceX Dragon Grace After Record Research Mission
  5. Crystalline Ice Discovered in Space: New Study Reveals Hidden Order in Cosmic Ice
  6. NASA Deploys High-Tech Aircraft to Support Texas Flood Relief and Recovery Efforts
  7. Massive Boulders Ejected by DART Mission Could Complicate Future Asteroid Deflection
  8. The Map That Leads to You OTT Release Date: When and Where to Watch it Online?
  9. Anuraga Karikkin Vellam Streaming Now on SunNXT: Everything To Know About Cast, Plot, and More
  10. CyberPowerPC India Announces Launch of Esports Masterclass Series in Navi Mumbai
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.