Configure Firefox to reject cookie banners automatically

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Mozilla is working on a new feature for its Firefox web browser that takes the annoyance out of dealing with so-called cookie banners. Mozilla created a built-in solution that deals with cookie banners for Firefox users. More precisely, Firefox rejects cookie banners automatically when the feature is enabled, provided that the site has a "reject all" option. If there is just an "accept all" option, that option is selected instead.

Please note that the feature is available in Firefox Nightly only at this point. There is a good chance, however, that it will be included in Firefox Stable soon. For now, Firefox Nightly is required to use the functionality.

Mozilla ran a campaign back in November 2022 to get feedback from Firefox users who used the automated cookie banner handling of the browser. The page is still up and it provides some information on the feature, including how to enable it in Firefox.

Enable Firefox's automatic handling of cookie banners

1. Load about:config in the Firefox address bar.
   
2. Confirm that you will be careful if a warning page is displayed.
   
3. Search for cookiebanners.service.mode.
   
4. Double-click on the preference and set its value to 2.
   
5. If you want to have the same functionality in private browsing mode, search for cookiebanners.service.mode.privateBrowsing and set its value to 2 as well.
   

Instructions for Firefox Focus and Firefox for Android are provided as well. These are similar, but require that the preference ookiebanners.bannerClicking.enabled is set to True as well on about:config.

The effect of the change

Firefox handles most cookie banners that websites display automatically from that moment on; this worked considerably well during tests, but not on all sites. One issue that some users may have with the feature is that it is configured to accept cookies if there is no "reject" option available.

Some Firefox users may prefer that the browser is not acting at all in that case. While that would return cookie banners on sites that do not display reject all options, it would give users the option to deal with these cookies, including leaving the site without allowing cookies to be placed by it.

Firefox users had to use browser extensions such as Auto Cookie Optout or Never-Consent in the past to deal with cookie notices automatically.

Mozilla is not the only browser developer that is working on rejecting cookie banners automatically. Brave is working on such a feature as well, and you may already enable it in the browser. Vivaldi introduced the feature back in April of 2021 in the company's browser.

Now You: how do you handle cookie banners?
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