Mozilla Introduces Firefox Focus, A Private Web Browser For Iphone

Firefox are introducing a new mobile web browser for iOS users that puts private browsing at the forefront of the user experience. Called Firefox Focus, the mobile browser by default blocks ad trackers, and erases your browsing history, including your passwords and cookies.

The product is a simplified browser that may load web pages more quickly as the company claims, given that ads and other web trackers can bog down pages and impact performance. Almost a year ago, the app was originally launched on the App Store, but at the time it was designed as an ad-blocking utility that could remove ads and trackers from iPhone's Safari browser. Said feature is still available in the revamped app.

Please take note that there are no tabs, no list of favorite sites, or numerous other configuration options. Instead, a trip to the Settings section only lets you toggle on or off the data you want to block, like ad trackers, analytics trackers, social trackers, other content trackers and web fonts, according to TechCrunch.

Firefox Focus has opted to use Yahoo Search as its default search engine even with the widespread privacy issues of the search engine. It seems that there is no way to change this in the current version.

After the user completed a web search, said activity can be erased with a simple press of an "erase" button. Users have commented that Firefoz should have made this feature with an automatic option.

However, there are a number of third-parties that have made private browsing a focus for years, like Tor. The App Store, too, is filled with utilities for private browsing, including a number of startups like Ghostery, Dolphin, Brave and others.

The new Firefox Focus is a free download on the Apple App Store. No word on if or when an Android version will be ready.