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<title>Privacy & Security Preferences</title>
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<h1 id="privsec_preferences">Privacy & Security Preferences</h1>
<p>The sections listed below describe the Privacy & Security preferences.
To see the preference panels, follow these steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open the <span class="mac">&brandShortName;</span>
<span class="noMac">Edit</span> menu and choose Preferences.</li>
<li>Click the Privacy & Security category. If no subcategories are
visible, double-click Privacy & Security to expand the list, then
click the name for the preferences you want to view or change.</li>
</ol>
<p>For help with a panel's settings, click the appropriate link below.</p>
<div class="contentsBox">Related sections:
<ul>
<li><a href="#privacy_and_security">Privacy & Security</a></li>
<li><a href="using_priv_help.xhtml#private_data_prefs">Private Data</a></li>
<li><a href="using_priv_help.xhtml#cookies">Cookies</a></li>
<li><a href="using_priv_help.xhtml#images">Images</a></li>
<li><a href="cs_priv_prefs_popup.xhtml#privacy_and_security_preferences_popup_windows">Popup Windows</a></li>
<li><a href="passwords_help.xhtml#passwords">Passwords</a></li>
<li><a href="passwords_help.xhtml#master_passwords">Master Passwords</a></li>
<li><a href="ssl_help.xhtml#privacy_and_security_preferences_ssltls">SSL/TLS</a></li>
<li><a href="certs_prefs_help.xhtml#privacy_and_security_preferences_certificates">Certificates</a></li>
</ul>
</div>
<h2 id="privacy_and_security">Privacy & Security Preferences -
Privacy & Security</h2>
<p>This section describes how to use the main Privacy & Security
preferences panel. If you're not already viewing it, follow these
steps:</p>
<ol>
<li>Open the <span class="mac">&brandShortName;</span>
<span class="noMac">Edit</span> menu and choose Preferences.</li>
<li>Click the Privacy & Security category.</li>
</ol>
<h3>User Tracking</h3>
<p>These settings allow you to communicate your tracking preferences to
websites and to actively block tracking requests from known tracking
sites. <a href="glossary.xhtml#user_tracking">User tracking</a> refers
to websites (including advertisers, analytics providers, and social sites)
collecting and analyzing comprehensive data on your web browsing patterns,
thus affecting your privacy. For more information on this topic, see
<a href="privacy_help.xhtml#why_and_how_are_websites_tracking_me">Why and
How Are Websites Tracking Me?</a> The following options are available in
this section:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Tell websites that I do not want to be tracked</strong>: Check
this to instruct &brandShortName; to inform every website you explicitly
visit (along with any providers of third-party content embedded in its
pages) that you don't want your browsing behavior being tracked.
If checked, a <a href="glossary.xhtml#do_not_track">Do Not Track</a>
request is sent to each website visited.</li>
<li><strong>Prevent tracking activities by known sites</strong>: Check
this to instruct &brandShortName; to actively block connections to
websites which are known to provide tracking services. You may not see
any content coming from these sites in the web page visited.</li>
<li><strong>Warn me when known tracking activities were detected</strong>:
Check this to be presented with a notification bar when content was blocked
which can be used for tracking. This bar contains the following buttons:
<ul>
<li><strong>Keep Blocking</strong>: Dismiss the notification bar without
loading the content from an identified tracking site.</li>
<li><strong>Unblock</strong>: Allow such content to be loaded now and
automatically when this page is visited again in the future.</li>
<li><strong>Preferences</strong>: Open the Privacy & Security
preference panel.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Notes</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Honoring a Do Not Track request is voluntary, thus individual websites
are <em>not required</em> to obey it. Websites and services that follow
the policy should stop gathering and using information about your web
browsing pattern for all activity for which Do Not Track is selected.</li>
<li>Requesting Do Not Track from a website should not affect your ability
to use the website properly (e.g., when using a
<a href="glossary.xhtml#web_application">web application</a> or when
putting items into a cart while shopping).</li>
<li>Note that Do Not Track does not <em>prevent</em> advertisements from
being presented to you while browsing. Since the website is not allowed to
gather and utilize information about you, the content of the advertisements
will be less specific if you have the Do Not Track option selected.</li>
<li>Tracking prevention actively blocks content known to be used for tracking
in a web page. Thus, the page may appear incomplete. Such sites are
identified by periodically downloading a list of known tracking sites
which are to be blocked if enabled. Tracking sites <em>not</em> on that
list will still be connected to until they are listed.</li>
<li>The selection of <q>Unblock</q> in the notification bar for a specific
site can be revoked in the Permissions tab of the Data Manager. When in
a <a href="using_priv_help.xhtml#browsing_in_a_private_window">private
window</a>, these options aren't present in the notification bar.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="location_aware_browsing">Location Aware Browsing</h3>
<p>Websites may want to obtain more detailed information about the user's
location, e.g., to offer specific services close to the current position. For
that purpose, they can request the longitude and latitude (along with other
information like altitude and heading, as available) from a browser.
&brandShortName; will never provide that information without the user's
consent. However, a notification is displayed for a page that requests the
location at least the first time that this site is visited. The preferences
located in the center section of the <a href="#privacy_and_security">Privacy
& Security panel</a> allow you to disable this feature entirely:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Prompt me for permission if a request is made</strong>: Select
this if you want &brandShortName; to prompt you if the website you are
visiting is requesting geolocation information. The notification provides
the following options:
<ul>
<li><strong>Share location</strong>: Select this option if you want the
current location to be determined and forwarded to the requesting site,
for <em>this</em> request only.</li>
<li><strong>Not for this request</strong>: Select this option if you do
<em>not</em> want the current location to be determined and forwarded
to the requesting site, prompt again for the next request.</li>
<li><strong>Always for this site</strong>: Select this option if you
want the current location to be determined and forwarded to the
requesting site, also for all <em>future</em> requests.</li>
<li><strong>Never for this site</strong>: Select this option if you do
<em>not</em> want the current location to be determined and forwarded
to the requesting site, also for all <em>future</em> requests.</li>
</ul>
Closing or dismissing the notification will not give any response to the
requesting page at all.</li>
<li><strong>Disable this feature and deny all requests</strong>: Select this
option for not being prompted for geolocation requests. &brandShortName;
will appear to a website as if it doesn't support this feature.</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Notes</strong>:</p>
<ul>
<li>Geolocation is a third-party web-based service. &brandShortName; collects
certain information about your internet access (e.g., wireless access
points) and sends those to this service.</li>
<li>The accuracy of the response varies and may range from city level to
within a few meters of your actual location.</li>
<li>No information about the requesting site itself is provided to the
geolocation service. The information returned by that service is provided
to the website by &brandShortName; in response to its request.</li>
<li>The requesting site receives an identification token that allows it to
track your movement for a limited time using the geolocation service.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="safe_browsing">Safe Browsing</h3>
<p>Some websites contain potentially dangerous content and may have been
reported as malicious. The preferences located in the lower section of the
<a href="#privacy_and_security">Privacy & Security panel</a> allow you
to select which types of reported websites will be blocked. If enabled,
&brandShortName; compares each website's address you are about to visit
against regularly updated lists. A warning is issued prior to actually
loading a reported website, thus giving you the opportunity to cancel the
loading process. The following options are available in this section:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Block reported attack sites</strong>: Check this if you want
&brandShortName; to warn you if the website you are about to visit has
been reported as a site that is trying to infect your computer with
malicious software. Such <a href="glossary.xhtml#malware">malware</a> may
interfere with your computer's functions or steal your personal
information. It is also frequently used to send spam email or to spread
more malware.</li>
<li><strong>Block reported web forgeries</strong>: Check this if you want
&brandShortName; to warn you if the website you are about to visit has
been reported as a site that pretends to be a legitimate website of some
well-known organization or service. Websites like this are frequently set
up to mislead you in providing username and password or other sensitive
personal information (commonly known as
<a href="glossary.xhtml#phishing">phishing</a>).</li>
</ul>
<p>When you are trying to visit a website that has been reported as malicious
(and the feature is enabled), you will see one of the following warnings:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Reported Attack Page!</strong> This website has been reported
as a website trying to infect your computer with malware.</li>
<li><strong>Reported Web Forgery!</strong> This website has been reported
as a website trying to steal your personal information.</li>
</ul>
<p>No harm has been done at this point. Select one of the following options:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Get me out of here!</strong> Do <em>not</em> load this website.
Instead, go to &brandShortName;'s default start page.</li>
<li><strong>Why was this page blocked?</strong> Opens a web page showing you
the information reported on this specific website (this is an external
page located with the provider of this service). If no such report data is
available, a page with general information is shown.</li>
<li><strong>Ignore this warning</strong>: Proceed with loading the page. Only
use this when you are <em>certain</em> that the selected page is authentic
and safe to visit. At the top of the page, a notification bar will appear,
giving you an option to report errors to the provider of this service:
<ul>
<li><strong>This isn't an attack site</strong> or <strong>This
isn't a web forgery</strong>: Click this button to open a new tab
allowing you to report false warnings (this is an external page).</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Important</strong>: The Safe Browsing feature is switched on by
default. It is <em>not</em> recommended to disable either function as this
may result in you visiting unsafe sites.</p>
<p><strong>Note</strong>: If no warning is shown for a specific website, it
does not <em>guarantee</em> that this site is trustworthy; it just means
that it has not been reported. Attack and phishing websites may <em>look</em>
safe but are secretly trying to attack you or to steal personal information.
The website's owner or provider may not be aware that the site has been
compromised.</p>
<p>[<a href="#privsec_preferences">Return to beginning of section</a>]</p>
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