Firefox will start blocking Flash content next month

Following in the footsteps of the other major browser, Firefox is taking steps to drastically reduce Adobe Flash usage in the near future.

Mozilla recently announced that Firefox will “block certain Flash content that is not essential to the user experience”—in other words, ads and any behind the scenes operations using Flash. Mozilla says that blocking non-essential Flash should reduce crashes and browser hang-ups by as much as 10 percent. The initial blocked content will be restricted to a specific list that Mozilla has put up on GitHub, with plans to add more block targets to the list over time.

In 2017, Firefox will make all Flash content click-to-play by default. In other words, no Flash content will automatically start playing when you load a tab, including video and games. You'll have to manually authorize Flash content to start.

Why this matters: Flash was a crucial element to the web in its early days. Now, however, most if not all of its functionality can be replaced by native web technologies such as HTML5. Plus, NPAPI plugins like Flash are known to cause problems with browser stability, performance, and security. Even Adobe is moving away from Flash on the web. In late 2015, the company released a statement to “encourage content creators to build with new web standards,” which would inevitably lead developers away from Flash.

RIP Flash

Firefox was the last major browser to give Flash a serious kick to the curb.

Google Chrome started pausing non-essential Flash content more than a year ago. Google also plans to make HTML5 the primary option for Chrome by the end of 2016, with only 10 sites white-listed to use Flash.

Microsoft followed Chrome’s lead with Edge in April. Apple, meanwhile, added click-to-play functionality to Safari 7 in 2013, and the upcoming Safari 10 on macOS Sierra will take a much harsher stand, telling websites that Flash isn’t installed on the user’s machine at all. This will force websites with an HTML5 option to use that instead—though Flash will still be available to users as a click-to-play option.

While Firefox is seriously reducing Flash's importance, Adobe's technology will remain as a plugin option for the foreseeable future. Similar to Chrome, Firefox will discontinue support for NPAPI plugins such as Java and Silverlight in March 2017, after pushing back original plans to end plugin support in late 2016. The only exception? Flash.

Iris Scans to Replace Fingerprints

FBI officials have scanned the irises of nearly 460,000 people in a pilot program that may soon replace fingerprints. While iris-scanning technology has been around for more than 25 years, it's just now getting to where it's fast, easy and relatively bug-free.

"It's a powerful bio-metric," said Patrick Grother, a computer scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md., who has been developing algorithms and software for iris scanning. "It's fast to process, it has discriminative power -- my iris doesn't look like your iris, and it has reasonable permanence."

Iris scanning has replaced retinal scans, a method that has been pretty much abandoned since it turned out to be uncomfortable for people to endure, Grother explained. Iris scan technology was featured recently in the AMC mini-series " The Night Manager," based on a John LeCarre spy novel. The lead character used an iris scan camera on his smartphone to access his Swiss bank account (just before a big truck blew up).

Grother says that kind of quick reading ability isn't far away, and several banks are looking at using it. Windows' Lumia Nokia and Fujitsu both have iris scanners to unlock their phones, (similar to the iPhone fingerprint pad) but it's not ready to authenticate other sorts of apps or accounts.

Iris scanning cameras can be hand-held or attached to a wall. They are effective from three to six feet away from the subject's eyes. Soldiers in Iraq have been using them to authenticate Iraqi civilians who are authorized to work inside U.S. military facilities.

The iris is a part of the eye outside of the pupil that is made of collagen in a three-dimensional arrangement. This pattern can be imaged with light at certain wavelengths.

"It's like taking picture of sand dunes from space," he said. "It's a 3-D object."

The FBI's Iris Pilot program is being deployed by law enforcement officials in California, Texas and Missouri during the booking process. The U.S. Border Patrol and Department of Defense are also using iris scans, according to Stephen Fischer, an FBI spokesman.

The next step is collecting iris scans from photographs of people's eyes.

"Iris images enrolled in the FBI Iris Pilot are primarily captured during the booking process in a controlled setting with a camera designed to capture the iris image," Fischer said in an email to DNews. "These cameras capture the iris image in near-infrared light. Research is currently being conducted on the extraction of iris images from high-resolution photographs."

People with brown eyes have more pigment than those with blue eyes, said Grother. That makes it tougher to capture iris information from photographs of brown-eyed folks.

Of course, anyone who blinks, squints or scrunches up their eyes will make it difficult for law enforcement to get a good scan.

Grother and other experts now are developing software to recognize iris patterns from several different camera angles, making it easier to use a hand-held device or smartphone.