3 ms·

New Firefox privacy feature strips URLs of tracking parameters

43 points by mikece 4y ago

ezoe 4y ago
The article said, with this feature enabled, Firefox removes query parameter "fbclid" even on example.com domain. So if you happened to use the same query parameter the popular web sites are using for the tracking, you will have a problem. Also, web sites can counter react by changing the name of query parameter, or just generate random names and treats unknown query parameter as a tracking parameter. I don't understand the kind of people who, on the one hand, hate tracking parameter so much want to let browser remove it, but on the other hand, still continues to use such a web service. Just don't use such a web service. I don't.
- raxxorraxor 4y ago
  Because it sadly has become so normalized that almost any site tracks you to the best ability of the website creator. If people had done that from the beginning like it was heavily recommended we certainly would have less dragnet tracking.
ehPReth 4y ago
I wish everything did this, including utm_ parameters when sharing/copying links. They're so long and ugly otherwise!
steelbrain 4y ago
For people who want this feature but do not want to turn on internal flags, or are using a different browser, there's an extension that does this job. ClearURLs Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/clearurls/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/clearurls/ ClearURLs Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clearurls/lckanjgmijmafbedllaakclkaicjfmnk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clearurls/lckanjgm... The Firefox extension is also marked as a recommended extension, so presumably has gone through some policy scrutiny, if Mozilla docs are anything to go by: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-badges https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-badges
- nklmilojevic 4y ago
  If people are already using uBlock Origin, you can use https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/Legiti... and it works really good.
branon 4y ago
Hats off, this is a fantastic feature to include in the browser. If Mozilla can pull this off, I can _almost_ forgive Colorways. Almost. Stripping trackers manually has been second nature to me for years, but installing an extension to automate this process always seemed like overkill... makes a lot of sense for the browser to do this on its own.

43 points by mikece 4y ago

ezoe 4y ago

The article said, with this feature enabled, Firefox removes query parameter "fbclid" even on example.com domain. So if you happened to use the same query parameter the popular web sites are using for the tracking, you will have a problem. Also, web sites can counter react by changing the name of query parameter, or just generate random names and treats unknown query parameter as a tracking parameter. I don't understand the kind of people who, on the one hand, hate tracking parameter so much want to let browser remove it, but on the other hand, still continues to use such a web service. Just don't use such a web service. I don't.

raxxorraxor 4y ago
Because it sadly has become so normalized that almost any site tracks you to the best ability of the website creator. If people had done that from the beginning like it was heavily recommended we certainly would have less dragnet tracking.

ehPReth 4y ago

I wish everything did this, including utm_ parameters when sharing/copying links. They're so long and ugly otherwise!

steelbrain 4y ago

For people who want this feature but do not want to turn on internal flags, or are using a different browser, there's an extension that does this job. ClearURLs Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/clearurls/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/clearurls/ ClearURLs Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clearurls/lckanjgmijmafbedllaakclkaicjfmnk https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/clearurls/lckanjgm... The Firefox extension is also marked as a recommended extension, so presumably has gone through some policy scrutiny, if Mozilla docs are anything to go by: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-badges https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/add-on-badges

nklmilojevic 4y ago
If people are already using uBlock Origin, you can use https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/Legiti... and it works really good.

branon 4y ago

Hats off, this is a fantastic feature to include in the browser. If Mozilla can pull this off, I can _almost_ forgive Colorways. Almost. Stripping trackers manually has been second nature to me for years, but installing an extension to automate this process always seemed like overkill... makes a lot of sense for the browser to do this on its own.