Mozilla Says Will Not Turn Controversial DoH Web Privacy Tool On By Default In UK- Reports

(@FahadShabbir)

Mozilla Says Will Not Turn Controversial DoH Web Privacy Tool On by Default in UK- Reports

The US non-profit organization, Mozilla Foundation, told the UK government that it did not plan on turning the new controversial DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) web privacy tool on by default on its Firefox web browser, despite plans to do so in the United States, media reported

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th September, 2019) The US non-profit organization, Mozilla Foundation, told the UK government that it did not plan on turning the new controversial DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) web privacy tool on by default on its Firefox web browser, despite plans to do so in the United States, media reported.

On September 6, Mozilla announced that it was close to releasing its DoH protocol, which it had been working on since June 2018. The company said that it would enable DoH by default on its Firefox Release edition web browser in the United States, as it considered the protocol to be beneficial to users for providing greater protection of encrypted DNS traffic.

"[Mozilla] has no plans to turn on our DoH feature by default in the United Kingdom and will not do so without further engagement with public and private stakeholders," a letter sent by Mozilla's Vice President of Global Policy, Trust and Security Alan Davidson to UK Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan, as cited by the Guardian news outlet, read.

The DoH protocol has been seen to be controversial because it bypasses governmental and web provider filters, which access people's unencrypted searches and DNS requests, and block content if they discover IP addresses to contain sensitive material such as child abuse images.

In June, the internet Watch Foundation, a UK-based advocacy organization that seeks to eliminate child abuse images online, expressed concern over DoH encryption methods, as it claimed that they could cause millions of inappropriate images of children to surface.