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No need to remove the URL tracking parameters manually. 🥳

Firefox copy link without site tracking

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[-] YtA4QCam2A9j7EfTgHrH@infosec.pub 205 points 1 year ago

They should make this the default.

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 156 points 1 year ago

Or a setting that makes it the default.

I don't like any software I use to destroy data (even tracking data) without my say so.

[-] faintwhenfree@lemmus.org 48 points 1 year ago

Hmm, I agree with you 100%, but power of defaults is how big companies get average consumers. Maybe Firefox should make it default with a setting to turn it on?

A setting titled "allow copying of tracking data", a lot of people won't allow.

Fight fire with fire.

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This just:

  1. Encourages companies to try to work around it

  2. More importantly, possibly breaks important functionality

[-] uis@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's like saying GDPR encourages companies to try work around data protection, so it should not be implemented.

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

It's not like that at all.

Links support parameters for a reason, and I promise you that the main reason isn't tracking. They can convey important info like the language, search parameters, a specific comment, etc.

Removing them willy-nilly by default is going to cause issue sooner or later, and then people are going to blame Firefox for "not working" and are just gonna switch to Chrome because "it just works".

That's not what we want is it?

[-] uis@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

As I understand now it removes only limited set of query strings

[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Yeah but the list is hardcoded. Collisions can happen.

Also, since it's hardcoded, it's easily gameable, and it will be gamed if too many people start filtering them out.

It's a good start but a bad solution overall

[-] uis@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago
[-] LufyCZ@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

The trackers can be renamed to anything that's regularly used in other places.

Pushing to make this a default will only harm the small minority that might be enjoying the benefits right now.

At least with the current way it's set up.

[-] Contend6248@feddit.de 9 points 1 year ago

Opt-out then, the majority won't care

[-] theo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

If you wanted to do this and make it default, I believe you should be able to do so using userChrome.css. You won't be able to change the text, but you can remove the old menu item.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I'm unlikely to use the menu button, I generally use Ctrl+C/Cmd+C. I'll have to poke around and see if there's an option to set that shortcut.

[-] theo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think you would be able to do this as ctrl+c copies what is highlighted rather than the actual link.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I just want a shortcut for "copy without tracking" on the current tab instead of having to use the context menu. I'm fine with it not being "Ctrl+C," as long as it's reasonably easy to remember, like maybe "Ctrl+Shift+C" or even a sequence of commands (i.e. select address bar, then special copy command).

Likewise, there should be an easy way to open a link without trackers, like "Ctrl+shift+click" or something.

[-] hiramfromthechi@lemmy.world 31 points 1 year ago

Or at least the option to make it the default. I could see some situations where someone may want to test a link with non-identifying parameters (like identifying the campaign source), and not wanting to have that stripped from the URL by default.

But I get you, from a consumer perspective I'd also want it as my default.

In the meantime, there's ClearURLs or uBlock Origin with filter lists.

[-] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 7 points 1 year ago

Doesn’t it just clean up the link or does Firefox actually know which part of the link to remove?

[-] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 year ago
[-] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 4 points 1 year ago

How does it know what part of the link is the site tracking?

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago

Looks like it has a list of global and site specific parameters that it is safe to remove.

[-] bitwolf@lemmy.one 2 points 1 year ago

Generally, most are variables prefixed with utm_

They likely built an index from most of the Analytics services also.

[-] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago

I think it's a combination of things, a basic approach of removing the query string (after the question mark) with exceptions for different sites that might need some of the query string.

[-] corbin@infosec.pub 7 points 1 year ago

It’s not the default because it can break links sometimes, like links that have authentication details in the parameters.

[-] bitwolf@lemmy.one 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

There's an addon I use for the Android version that does this by default.

It does miss some queryparams though but it dramatically reduces the URL size for the big offending sites.

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

But default is putting your cursor in the address bar and hitting ctrl-c. How would Firefox clean it like that?

[-] Euphoma@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If it removes the tracking from the link before the page loads, it could work. So it would already be clean when you copy it.

[-] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

On android anyway, that's an interceptable action, and you can also monitor and alter the clipboard.

So they could either alter what gets copied before its copied, or scan the copied item after it'd copied and alter it.

[-] DogMuffins@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago

It doesn't.

If you think about it though, you've already visited that link so why clean it now.

[-] akilou@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago

So the person you send it to gets a clean link

this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
1283 points (99.4% liked)

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