Firefox Launches an Extension to Isolate Facebook from the Rest of Your Data

If you are thinking about deleting Facebook in the wake of the recent Cambridge Analytica data breach scandal, you should probably hold on. Mozilla has developed an extension that lets you take control of your online activity and data on the social network.

The Facebook Container Extension (only in Firefox) makes it hard for it to keep track of your browsing activity on the third-party websites. The Container tab will keep Facebook from tracking you as you browse through different websites.

How it Works

Many of you might be unaware that Facebooks collects your data even if you aren’t logged on in the browser. The Container Extension will isolate the users’ Facebook profile from the rest of the web, limiting off-site tracking which is done in the background.


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Firstly, you would need to download and install the extension on your browser. After installation, the extension will delete all Facebook cookies from your browser and log you out of your account, in case you are logged in.

The next time you log in to Facebook, the site will open in a separate blue-colored tab. This is the Container tab that will stop Facebook from tracking your activity on other tabs or websites that you have opened up.


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Like, Comment and Share Buttons

Another thing needs to be mentioned here. Several external websites have link buttons to Facebook, for example, you might find share, like and comment buttons embedded into third-party websites.

If you are trying to use the like and comment buttons outside of the container tab, they won’t work. Plus if you are using the Facebook share button on another Firefox tab, it will load within the blue Container tab. If you open any external links from Facebook they will load outside of the Container tab.

mozilla firefox extension to avoid facebook data breach

Other Limitations

One last thing, you may also face some difficulty while logging into third-party websites using your Facebook account after enabling Container extension.

That said, you might feel a bit odd and your newsfeed might seem new to you but see you can’t have it all anyway. If you want to protect your privacy without deleting Facebook, the Facebook Container Extension seems to be a viable option.

Won’t Collect Data

Mozilla says that they won’t collect any Facebook user data from the container extension either. The only data that Mozilla will collect is the number of times that user has installed or removed the extension.

You can download the add-on to your Firefox browser from this link.

Via Mozilla


  • Just delete your Facebook account, and use “privacy badger” extension to get rid of any web/social media trackers.


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