How To Change Website Permissions In Firefox – Part 1

Firefox offers a variety of ways to change website permissions – you can customize permissions on a per site basis or set default permissions for all websites you visit.

There are two main ways to change website permissions: Page Info Permissions – change permissions for the website that you are currently viewing.

Permissions Manager – change permissions for an individual website that is in your web history OR set default permissions for all sites.

In addition, many of these settings are replicated within different sections of the standard Firefox Options menu – but it is much quicker and easier to configure them all in one place. I’ll note the equivalent Firefox Options menu settings where applicable.

Part 1 of this article reviews Page Info Permissions. In Part 2 we review the Permissions Manager.

To view or change Page Info Permissions, first browse to the website you want to manage. Now right click on an empty space within the webpage and select ‘View Page Info’ to open the Page Info window.

Select the ‘Permissions’ tab to view the permissions for the current website – these Permissions relate to the primary domain name e.g. techlogon.com and apply to all pages within that website e.g. this article and techlogon.com/contact etc.

For all options – untick the selected default/ask tickbox if you want to set a specific Allow/Block option:

page info permissions

Load Images
Replicates the functionality of Firefox Options \ Content \ Load images automatically \ Exceptions.

Allow or block images for this website. It may be useful if a site has so many images that it is slow/problematic to load or if you only ever want to view the text on it.

Open Pop-up Windows
Replicates the functionality of Firefox Options \ Content \ Block pop-up windows \ Exceptions.

Allow or block pop-up windows. It may be useful if you want to block pop-up windows generally but need to allow them for a particular site. To apply the action for all websites – see part 2.

Set Cookies
Replicates the functionality of Firefox Options \ Privacy \ Accept cookies from sites \ Exceptions and ‘Keep until:’

Allow/block or set cookies for the current session for the current website. Bear in mind that some websites may not function correctly if cookies are blocked. To apply the action for all websites – see part 2.

Install Extensions or Themes
Replicates the functionality of Firefox Options \ Security \ Warn me when sites try to install add-ons \ Exceptions.

Allow or block the current website from installing extensions – for best security it is advisable to only let the official Mozilla add-ons site (here) install extensions in Firefox as they are checked by Mozilla for malicious intent.

Share Location
Default is ‘always ask’ – when you visit a page that requests your information, you’ll be asked before any information is shared with the requesting website.

Allow or block sharing of your location for the current website. To apply the action for all websites – see part 2.

Tip: to disable the Share Location feature completely, in the address bar type about:config then type geo.enabled in the Search box. The geo.enabled entry is set to True by default – double click it to change it to False. Location-aware browsing is now disabled.

Maintain Offline Storage
Replicates the functionality of Options \ Advanced \ Network \ Tell me when a website asks to store… \ Exceptions.

Default is ‘always ask’. Allow/block the current website from storing information on your computer for use when you are offline. To apply the action for all websites – see part 2.

Enter Fullscreen
Allow/block the current website from putting Firefox into full screen mode (the equivalent of pressing F11).

If you find yourself in full screen mode by mistake, press F11 again to come back into normal windowed mode. To apply the action for all websites – see part 2.

Conclusion

Page Info Permissions in Firefox let you set permissions for the current website only. It can be useful to set exceptions for a specific website and is a lot quicker than setting an equivalent exception within Firefox Options.

Note that some of these settings are unique to Page Info Permissions – they are not (yet) available in the Permissions Manager reviewed in Part 2.