4 ms·

Firefox 115, Nightly supports a new “copy clean” link context menu action

52 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

nielsbot 3y ago
Looks like Safari in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma will also added tracking removal for copied URLs. According to this article it will only do so in private mode tho. (Why not always?) https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/17/safari-link-tracking-protection/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/17/safari-link-tracking-pr...
lofaszvanitt 3y ago
A bit too late isn't it?
0x073 3y ago
I have mixed feelings, that's the same as edge that enabled dnt header by default killed dnt. Same goes for utm parameter, because of this removal it's just getting more hidden instead some standard parameter that are easily guessable.
- manfre 3y ago
  This will probably kill the utm_source as a standard. Companies that want this will blob encode all the fields or rename when generating links and remap back on their reverse proxies.
firstlink 3y ago
Preventing such stripping as a website operator would be trivial. Just sign the combined URL and tracking parameters and refuse to serve the unauthenticated version. This is very well understood technology with a barely novel application. (Please cite this comment as prior art!)
- 5e92cb50239222b 3y ago
  From what I heard, Facebook already does this, and it was supposedly introduced as a response to a similar anti-tracking measure by Mozilla. Not by signing the URL, but by encrypting everything into an opaque blob. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32117541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32117541
- javier2 3y ago
  Fairly certain facebook do this
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  Cache the content by retrieving it and serve the cached version to clients?
adhesive_wombat 3y ago
And still not a "copy link text" function (unless you faff about installing an extension).
cosmic_ape 3y ago
This is funny, because I recently descided to try Pocket, owned by Mozilla, and it adds >?utm_source=pocket_saves to all saved links.
- footlose_3815 3y ago
  I never understood that feature and just hide it. We already have bookmarks right?
  - cosmic_ape 3y ago
    you mean Pocket? I was wondering how well the search there works. Turns out it is possible to search the pages themselves, but only with paid subscription. In the free version it only searches the titles and urls, like the Bookmarks.
cf100clunk 3y ago
As seen in the Brave browser for over half a year: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/9982188779405-What-does-Copy-clean-link-mean- https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/9982188779405-Wh... with mixed results early on: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/26013 https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/26013
aaomidi 3y ago
This is going to lead to so much tiktokificafion of links where it ties it back to the original user. Although, honestly I don’t think there’s a lot of social media left where this would be a problem.

52 points by sohkamyung 3y ago

Looks like Safari in iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma will also added tracking removal for copied URLs. According to this article it will only do so in private mode tho. (Why not always?) https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/17/safari-link-tracking-protection/ https://www.macrumors.com/2023/06/17/safari-link-tracking-pr...

lofaszvanitt 3y ago

A bit too late isn't it?

0x073 3y ago

I have mixed feelings, that's the same as edge that enabled dnt header by default killed dnt. Same goes for utm parameter, because of this removal it's just getting more hidden instead some standard parameter that are easily guessable.

manfre 3y ago
This will probably kill the utm_source as a standard. Companies that want this will blob encode all the fields or rename when generating links and remap back on their reverse proxies.

firstlink 3y ago

Preventing such stripping as a website operator would be trivial. Just sign the combined URL and tracking parameters and refuse to serve the unauthenticated version. This is very well understood technology with a barely novel application. (Please cite this comment as prior art!)

5e92cb50239222b 3y ago
From what I heard, Facebook already does this, and it was supposedly introduced as a response to a similar anti-tracking measure by Mozilla. Not by signing the URL, but by encrypting everything into an opaque blob. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32117541 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32117541
javier2 3y ago
Fairly certain facebook do this
toomuchtodo 3y ago
Cache the content by retrieving it and serve the cached version to clients?

adhesive_wombat 3y ago

And still not a "copy link text" function (unless you faff about installing an extension).

cosmic_ape 3y ago

This is funny, because I recently descided to try Pocket, owned by Mozilla, and it adds >?utm_source=pocket_saves to all saved links.

footlose_3815 3y ago
I never understood that feature and just hide it. We already have bookmarks right?
- cosmic_ape 3y ago
  you mean Pocket? I was wondering how well the search there works. Turns out it is possible to search the pages themselves, but only with paid subscription. In the free version it only searches the titles and urls, like the Bookmarks.

cf100clunk 3y ago

As seen in the Brave browser for over half a year: https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/9982188779405-What-does-Copy-clean-link-mean- https://support.brave.com/hc/en-us/articles/9982188779405-Wh... with mixed results early on: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/26013 https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/26013

aaomidi 3y ago

This is going to lead to so much tiktokificafion of links where it ties it back to the original user. Although, honestly I don’t think there’s a lot of social media left where this would be a problem.