mozilla-firefox
A man is seen next to a Firefox logo at a Mozilla stand during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 28, 2013. The GSMA Mobile World Congress, representing the interests of the worldwide mobile communications industry, will take place from February 25 to 28 in Barcelona. REUTERS/Albert Gea (SPAIN - Tags: BUSINESS TELECOMS)

Firefox Quantum 59 is up and running. Mozilla has released the latest version of Firefox, which promises faster page loading, less memory usage and upgraded privacy settings.

The new update comes with improved speed by means of loading from the networked cache or from the user hard drive’s cache, according to the release notes. Other features include improvements for Firefox Screenshots like recropping and easier highlighting of screenshots.

For privacy, Firefox 59 made several improvements to Private Browsing Mode. Now, the browser “will remove path information from referrers to prevent cross-site tracking.”

Perhaps the most interesting update involves the browser’s privacy settings. The browser can now prevent websites from requesting the user to display notifications that can prove distracting. It can also prevent websites from using the device’s camera without the user’s permission.

According to the update notes, new settings in about:preferences are now able “to stop websites from asking to send notifications or access your device's camera, microphone, and location, while still allowing trusted websites to use these features.”

This feature can be considered vital in this day and age, considering the imminent risks of cyber snooping around the world. Even casual users would find it a blessing; plenty of websites normally ask users for permission to overrun the browser with links to web pages. Of course, the users may add exceptions and allow notifications from websites they trust. Without doing so, Firefox 59 will block such requests from ruining the overall browsing experience.

To enable this feature, simply go to Options (Windows) or Preferences (Mac), then head to Privacy & Security. Search for the permissions, where you can manage settings for locations, camera, mic and other types of notifications.

Mozilla’s new Firefox 59 is now available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android devices.