Mozilla Looking To Block Cookies, Should You Be Afraid?

Is it a real a possibility that Mozilla is pushing forward with a “Do Not Track” browser that’s set to block cookies(by default settings) from a users browsers? This can’t be real can it? At the moment, there’s many questions that appear to need to be answered(release date, will it block analytics cookies, etc.) and a buzz in the air about what this could mean to the advertising and analytical tracking abilities to a website.

This also isn’t real news by Mozilla either. This was announced back in February, however at the time Mozilla decided not to move forward with this feature.

What about Google Analytics?

This is where the change scares me the most, especially if they decided to go ahead and block the Google Analytics tracking cookie at a default setting. Default means that most people won’t know how, much less attempt to enable cookies from the moment they open the browser to the end. If Mozilla does end up making the transition or making this browser the default solution, while deciding to block the analytics cookie, well then that’s just bad news. 20% of potential traffic will not be seen in your Google Analytics account. How in the world can you explain that to a client who’s demanding to see the most accurate numbers possible? 

This doom speak however doesn’t automatically assume that Google Analytics because I personally have a hard time justifying how a company could cut off the most standard analytics tracking package in the world. They’d be stupid to limit the amount of information anyone can see as a default setting, and I’m actually interested in just how large the number is that people don’t want to see things tailored to their search habits. 

In the end, I think it annoys me more than other people. Being an SEO and someone who’s tuned into the industry, I see the potential damage and chaos of a popular browser removing a functionality of something else. I just can’t believe that something like this would even be a logical thought, and I’m highly interested in reading more about this kind of news.