How to detect if a user is using tracking protection in Firefox 42+

Question

Firefox has launched a feature called Tracking protection in v42.0. It blocks several tracking scripts such as Google Analytics, Marketo, LinkedIn, etc.

I was trying to detect it through navigator.DoNotTrack, but it returns unspecified in both cases – browsing in regular mode, and browsing in private mode – using Firefox 42.0 on Mac.

How can I detect in JavaScript whether a user is viewing the website with the Tracking protection on, since navigator.DoNotTrack fails?

Answer 1

navigator.donottrack only shows the setting of the "Do not track" preference. It does not tell if tracking protection, which is a different feature, is enabled. Tracking protection is enabled automatically when in private browsing mode, but users can change a setting in about:config to have it enabled full time.

While you can't tell directly if the feature is enabled, you can check for its effects with something like this:

var canreach = false;
$(function() {
    $('<img/>')
        .attr("src", "//apps.facebook.com/favicon.ico")
        .load(function(){canreach = true;})
        .css("display", "none")
        .appendTo(document.body);
});

Firefox uses a list obtained from Disconnect for its tracking protection; just use a domain that you know is on that list, and an image that you know will exist.

Of course, this could flag any number of causes for the image not to load, including network connectivity problems, ad blocking software, filtering proxies, etc.

Answer 2

Here is slightly improved version of miken32's answer using Deferred:

function whenNoTrackingProtection() {
    if (!whenNoTrackingProtection.promise) {
        var dfd = new $.Deferred();
        whenNoTrackingProtection.promise = dfd.promise();

        var time = Date.now();
        $('<img/>')
            .attr('src', '//apps.facebook.com/favicon.ico')
            .on('load', dfd.resolve)
            .on('error', function() {
                if ((Date.now() - time) < 50) {
                    dfd.reject();
                } else {
                    // The request took to long, it seems this is a network error.
                    dfd.resolve();
                }
            });
    }

    return whenNoTrackingProtection.promise;
}

or without jQuery, using Promise:

function whenNoTrackingProtection() {
    if (!whenNoTrackingProtection.promise) {
        whenNoTrackingProtection.promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
            var time = Date.now();
            var img = new Image();
            img.onload = resolve;
            img.onerror = function() {
                if ((Date.now() - time) < 50) {
                    reject();
                } else {
                    // The request took to long, it seems this is a network error.
                    resolve();
                }
            };
            img.src = '//apps.facebook.com/favicon.ico';
        });
    }

    return whenNoTrackingProtection.promise;
}

Answer 3

Here is an updated solution without using jQuery, using Promise. Thanks @miken32 and @sleepwalker.

Why do I preferer this solution instead of a navigator.doNotTrack based one? In Firefox, navigator.doNotTrack returns 1 on strict Enhanced Tracking Protection but in Google Chrome user needs to enable Send a "Do Not Track" request with your browsing traffic.

function whenNoTrackingProtection() {
    if (!whenNoTrackingProtection.promise) {
        whenNoTrackingProtection.promise = new Promise(function(resolve, reject) {
            var time = Date.now();
            var img = new Image();
            img.onload = resolve;
            img.onerror = function() {
                if ((Date.now() - time) < 50) {
                    reject(new Error("Rejected."));
                } else {
                    resolve(new Error("Takes too long."));
                }
            };
            img.src = '//www.facebook.com/tr/';
        }).then((result) => {
          console.log("Tracking OK");
        }).catch(e => {
          console.log("Tracking KAO");
          console.log(e)
        });
    }
}
whenNoTrackingProtection()