Mozilla has removed Do Not Track from the latest version of Firefox, a privacy feature it was the first to implement in 2011.

Do Not Track (DNT) was a feature designed to tell websites not to track a user. Although Mozilla was the first to implement it, the feature never offered the level of privacy Mozilla hoped it would, despite other browsers adopting the feature too. Much of the issue stemmed from many websites ignoring the flag and continuing to track users.

Mozilla is now following suit with virtually every other web browser and eliminating DNT. The organization explains that at least some of the reason is because DNT now serves as a privacy risk, rather than offering any benefit.

Starting in Firefox version 135, the “Do Not Track” checkbox will be removed. Many sites do not respect this indication of a person’s privacy preferences, and, in some cases, it can reduce privacy.

DNT is now considered a privacy risk because websites can tell when the feature is enabled, effectively giving them another metric or data point by which to identify users.

Mozilla encourages users to enabled the Global Privacy Control (GPC) feature as a replacement to DNT.

If you wish to ask websites to respect your privacy, you can use the “Tell websites not to sell or share my data” setting. This option is built on top of the Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is respected by increasing numbers of sites and enforced with legislation in some regions. To learn more about this, please read Global Privacy Control.

The organization further explains GPC in a dedicated page.

Introduced in Firefox version 120, you can make use of Global Privacy Control (GPC) to automatically notify websites not to sell or share information about your browsing session on that website.

GPC operates as a “Do Not Sell” mechanism in some US states such as California, Colorado and Connecticut. It may also be used to indicate an opt-out of targeted advertising or general request to limit the sale or sharing of your personal data in those jurisdictions, as well as in jurisdictions such as the EU, UK, Nevada, Utah and Virginia.

Removing DNT is the right move, as is Mozilla throwing its weight behind GPC. Users who want to preserve their privacy should enable GPC immediately.