[jkartchner]

The problem is sites don't need ping to do their tracking. In the past, search engines would just force a redirect to gather all the metrics they want for which link you go to. Most browsers put ping in as default because it improves responsiveness by not forcing the redirect. Firefox simply hasn't changed that yet. It hardly changes their privacy position, IMO.

Check out the latest episode of Security Now, which talks about this. https://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm