this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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Firefox

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Currently still in Nightly and only on 'Copy Link'. Still nice progress though.

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[–] DeathWearsANecktie@lemm.ee 223 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Great stuff. Firefox swinging the big dick about lately.

[–] SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 57 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just slappin the table with that fuckin toddler's leg.

[–] Hadriscus@lemm.ee 15 points 2 years ago (1 children)

brandishing that baby arm holding an apple

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[–] TheGiantKorean@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The John Holmes of browsers

[–] jackpot@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago (5 children)
[–] BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago

John Holmes.

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[–] Risk@feddit.uk 143 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] navi@lemmy.tespia.org 41 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] red@sopuli.xyz 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

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

[–] gkd@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 106 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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

[–] Far@lemmy.ml 17 points 2 years ago

Reading the chrome bit just made me disgusted lol

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[–] ZeroCool@feddit.ch 76 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Transcendant@lemmy.world 53 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Had no idea something existed for this, I'm forever deleted annoying tracking info from links. Mozilla continues to impress me with their privacy additions... latest update notified me about email masking which looks like it'll be a major boon once I work out how to use it.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 55 points 2 years ago (3 children)

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.

[–] Stumblinbear@pawb.social 53 points 2 years ago

There are common, well-known tracking parameters that Google uses such as the ones starting with "utm_"

[–] Orbituary@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago (2 children)

A uBlock style community sourced list would be a great way to address this. Once it's in prod, an addon would be next.

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[–] NounsAndWords@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Won’t this become an arms race to mask tracking elements as “legitimate” looking parameters?

Maybe, but only like 3% of people are using Firefox so, maybe not?

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[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 36 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Neat. Now we need a built-in AMPutator.

[–] Bosa@lemmy.world 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Firefox once again proving it’s the GOAT of browsers.

I’m sure this will come to mobile soon as well.

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[–] mrfbarros@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago

Would love to see this becoming a default !

[–] TheDarkKnight@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

Fucking fantastic, People’s browser gets better and better!

[–] Napain@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 years ago
[–] disconnectikacio@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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?

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[–] dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

How does firefox determine which params are trackers and which params are required data?

[–] unsaid0415@szmer.info 8 points 2 years ago (3 children)
[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

So how long before they start changing the param names? Lol

[–] unsaid0415@szmer.info 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Right now you have to go out of your way to select the "Copy without tracking params" from the context menu. It's not like it threatens Google's business model

If they do start changing them you'll need an uRemoveTheGoddamnTrackingParamsOrigin extension

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[–] iamzeN123@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago
[–] toastal@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

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

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 2 years ago

wonder if they would actually bake in something like actually legitimate url shortener tool

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 years ago (2 children)

It’s a shame they went for the additional option rather than a persistent setting that would always strip it from a URI.

[–] ChrisLicht@lemm.ee 8 points 2 years ago

Hoping that this is just testing for that to come.

[–] Nyfure@kbin.social 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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)

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[–] Fidelity9373@artemis.camp 9 points 2 years ago

Tried it yesterday. Not working on Amazon links quite yet, hopefully the feature improves. Would love the ability to toggle it for default.

[–] lazycouchpotato@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

🙏

Happy to see this.

[–] tomjuggler@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah ok but my affiliate links what happens to them?

[–] Linus_Torvalds@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

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.

[–] charles@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago

Will it work for Gmail's link hijackers where it routes you first to Google then forwards you to the actual site?

[–] arc@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago

Do it for affiliate links too.

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