Firefox Strict ETP & AudioEye

Firefox has a feature called Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) which allows users to set various modes of website tracking protection. 

When Firefox is set to “Strict” ETP, AudioEye services are blocked from loading. This is for two reasons with how AudioEye works, and what Strict ETP is looking for:

1. Cookie Setting

AudioEye’s JavaScript (JS) sets a cookie. This cookie is intended to retain end-user Personalization Tool preferences between various websites. For example, if AudioEye’s JS is on audioeye.com, and google.com, when an end-user uses AudioEye’s Personalization Tools to set the text size larger on google.com, that same preference will be retained and apply to audioeye.com.

The fact that AudioEye sets that party cookie setting triggers Firefox ETP in Strict mode because it is not the host site.

We are working to remove the need for 3rd party cookies at all in AudioEye’s JS.

2. Reporting

AudioEye’s JS has an endpoint it sends accessibility reporting information to so that we can provide features that show you how accessible the various pages on your sites are. This reporting endpoint, where we send data to a domain name that is not the domain name the end user is visiting, looks suspicious to FireFox Strict ETP. 

We collect absolutely no personally identifiable information in this reporting, and this information is purely related to the web page’s accessibility and accessibility fix findings.

We are working with Mozilla to be removed from their block list due to this reporting, and will update this article when that has happened.

Workaround

There are two ways Mozilla provides for working around unintended breakage when using ETP. 

1. You can disable ETP for a specific website, as documented in Mozilla’s “What to do if a site seems broken” documentation.
2. You may adjust your ETP settings to ones like “Standard” which allow AudioEye to function.