Firefox 69 arrives with blocking against miners, automatic content playback and more

The new version has been released from the popular web browser Firefox 69, as well as the mobile version of Firefox 68.1 for Android platform that Together with these two, the updates of the long-term support branches of 60.9.0 and 68.1.0 have been generated. (ESR 60.x branch will no longer be updated, transition to 68.x branch is recommended).

Inside the news that are introduced in this new branch of the browser default modes for blocking mining are highlighted of cryptocurrencies as well as blocking the automatic playback of content, plus other key browser enhancements.

What's new in Firefox 69

This new version of Firefox 69 comes with locks for different issues that benefit user navigation such is the case of inappropriate content, since in Firefox 69 comes with the function of ignoring cookies from all tracking systems third and block JavaScript inserts in addition to blocking those that are specially designed for cryptocurrency mining.

Previously, these locks were activated only when strict lock mode was selected, but now the lock is performed by default and according to the Disconnect.me list.

This lock will be visible when the shield symbol is displayed in the address bar and in the context menu you can see from which sites the cookies used to track movements were blocked, in addition to that in the same menu, you can selectively disable blocking of individual sites.

Another of the locks implemented by default in Firefox 69 is the automatic playback of multimedia content. In addition to the previously added function of muting the sound in the automatically playing video, it is possible to completely stop the video playback, not just turning off the sound.

For example, if advertising videos were previously shown on sites, but without sound, in the new mode, they won't even start playing without an explicit click.

On the other hand, we may find that the function of viewing video in the "Picture-in-Picture" mode was added (similar to the one implemented in Chrome) that allows you to view a video in the form of a floating window, which remains visible while browsing in the browser.

In addition to the innovations and bug fixes in Firefox 69, 30 vulnerabilities were fixed, of which only one was marked critical (CVE-2019-11751).

The decrease in the number of critical vulnerabilities is due to the fact that memory problems, such as buffer overflows and access to already freed memory areas, are now marked as dangerous, but not critical.

The new version fixes 13 problems that could lead to the execution of malicious code when opening specially designed pages.

Finally if you want to know a little more in detail about the news of this new version of Firefox 69 you can do it from the following link. Besides it is important to emphasize that the next version of Firerfox 70 that will enter the testing stage, has a launch scheduled for October 22.

How to update or install the new version of Firefox 69?

For those who are interested in being able to install this new version of Firefox or to update to it, They can do so by following the instructions we share below.

It is important to mention that most Linux distributions have the Firefox package in their repositories, so the availability of this new version may take a few days.

However, it is possible to obtain this new version in a faster way. Such is the case for Ubuntu, Linux Mint or some other Ubuntu derivative users, They can install or update to this new version with the help of the browser's PPA.

This can be added to the system by opening a terminal and executing the following command in it:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa -y 
sudo apt-get update

Done this now they just have to install with:

sudo apt install firefox

In the case of Arch Linux users and derivatives, just run in a terminal:

sudo pacman -Syu

Or to install with:

sudo pacman -S firefox

For all other Linux distributions can download the binary packages from the following link.