Great stuff. Firefox swinging the big dick about lately.
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
1030 points (99.7% liked)
Firefox
17899 readers
53 users here now
A place to discuss the news and latest developments on the open-source browser Firefox
founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
firefox removes tracking data
chrome wants to make it possible for websites to refuse to serve you data if you run unapproved software
there is, in fact, a good guy in the browser wars
Reading the chrome bit just made me disgusted lol
load more comments
(2 replies)
Ooh. I hope this can be set as the default for 'Copy Link' and then I can just have the tracking when I actually want it.
have the tracking when I actually want it.
So never? I agree defaulting it would be great as long as it doesn't falsely remove anything.
Not all queryparameters are tracking, so the option to copy the actual href of the hyperlink is useful.
Most of the time I appreciate a feature that strips them automatically
Yea, existing extensions get things wrong sometimes. I’m sure this will be the same - especially if sites start changing things to temporarily circumvent. Needs to be an easy way to grab the real URL just in case.
Another fine addition would be a cut of redirecting trash. If you post some link in some soc network, it would sometimes replace it with it's own link going through an outbound clicks tracker, safety pages 'Do you really want to follow it?' or just block you saying the link seems malicious.
If I'm a 3%er, can I choose not to have it?
There is an Extension called FastForward which skips ad-link redirectors.
Not sure if thats what you mean.
Gonna try it, thanks.
Found what you need, not sure if it works for specifically Gmail though: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/skip-redirect/
Might break a few things when set to act in blacklist mode.. had that happen, but was rare
I think Gmail on Android does this. Any link you click on in the app Firefox shows you the initial Google address before you go to the link you clicked on.
If you copy and paste the URL this doesn't happen.
Neat. Now we need a built-in AMPutator.
Is AMP still a thing? I haven't seen it in ages.
I don't use Google so maybe that's why, but I hadn't even seen it on Reddit or Lemmy in more than a year I believe.
Oh man. I see it all the time. People share amp links on social too often.
I see it pretty often. But most of the time, if an "AMPutator" bot doesn't reply, someone usually mentions it and says to stop sharing AMP links and provides links to information about it. It's good to see, but most people still aren't aware of it, and most of those people wouldn't care much. We all need to keep a lookout and always be ready to inform and teach others about it. It's good to have articles about how AMP is bad for everyone (except google) saved so we can quickly share them every time we see someone share an AMP link.
Firefox once again proving it’s the GOAT of browsers.
I’m sure this will come to mobile soon as well.
load more comments
(1 replies)
This may be difficult to maintain as some query parameters might be necessary. How will they be sure they’re not stripping essential elements? Won’t this become an arms race to mask tracking elements as “legitimate” looking parameters?
Awesome if they can pull it off, though.
There are common, well-known tracking parameters that Google uses such as the ones starting with "utm_"
most of the time sharing utm links isn't helpful to the origin as if you copy a link from your email it'll have medium=email, but actually should now be medium=direct
load more comments
(1 replies)
That’s awesome! I use the Clear URLs extension and it does a great job but it’ll be nice to have this capability baked in.
This should be default, or at least a switch, that if enabled, all links copied without tracking. BTW i was thinking, isnt there a simple app or service, that does only this: listen for links in clipboard, if a link added, automatically removes tracking params, and replaces with that on clipboard?
load more comments
(1 replies)
BASED
How does firefox determine which params are trackers and which params are required data?
So just a set of strings determined to be used for tracking among a set of hosts? It's not like I have a better solution, but I feel like making this anti-tracking method encourages more complex tracking params. At some point, I wouldn't be surprised to see randomly generated query parameter keys which are resolved server side, making this approach impossible.
I completely agree with you, but this is always the problem isn't it? It's a cat and mouse game. If the mouse learns techniques to hide from the cat the cat develops better techniques to find the mouse. It's not a reason for the mouse to stop hiding.
Good move
🙏
Happy to see this.
Based Firefox
I think I’m against this. Not because it’s the wrong thing to do, but it’s just going to swing marketers & such to obscure their tracking URLs to something like /my-slug/hashed-uid-for-tracking-without-query-param/post & it maybe unsafe or impossible to replace that part of the URL is some cases (think how not all credit cards numbers work, it has a built-in algorithm). The corpos can do this already now but query params are easier & less fiddly. Despite the large number of add-ons that could combat this already (including a uBlock Origin filter list), there wasn’t enough incentive to start another ad/tracking arms race… but you introduce it as a default feature in a major (🤞) browser, & now the corpos take notice instead of being able to wave it off as something a minority of users are doing.
…And I say this as the guy that reminds $WORK chat poster to remove their tracking URLs for the privacy of the group
Yeah ok but my affiliate links what happens to them?
Valid question. Im short: They will stop working.
You are getting downvoted for the question because most people here think that you shouldn't use them. And they might be right.
It’s a shame they went for the additional option rather than a persistent setting that would always strip it from a URI.
Hoping that this is just testing for that to come.
Ublock can strip it from the URL automatically, though if the website checkw this it might block stuff :/
Would need some deeper integration to be able to separate the URL bar the Website sees and the one you see. (like the current separation of the DOM)
If Apple can do it, Mozilla can do it: https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-remove-tracking-info-from-links-in-macos-safari-and-reclaim-your-privacy/
I like the ':has' pun in the title too. Supporting that is a real game changer!
At first, I thought this was a joke about privacy until I realized that this is real and sadly this is something we need.
It would be nice if it also available in android.
Won't take long, I'm sure. The mobile features are usually following the desktop implementation closely, for anything but the addon functionality.
view more: next ›