Firefox I believe does. If you right click on a link, it says something like “copy link without tracking”. It should do away with queries in the URL, but I’m not completely sure.
This is definitely what it’s supposed to do (and a great feature) but unfortunately it doesn’t work that well. Have tried this many times, especially with Amazon links, and it seems to be a bit inconsistent in its effectiveness.
Yeah, I cannot imagine any reason they wouldn’t use cookies to track this. The moment you arrive via an affiliate link they’re going to know that that’s how you got to the site for that session.
Oh nice, that is pretty new, but will have to see if it works on those gumroad links. I have an offline script (not a browser extension, I haven’t bothered figuring out how to write those) that edits urls to remove tracking and it’s quite a pain, since there are dozens of sites and tracking schemes it has to know about. Also, rather than creating a pasteable url, a suitable browser extension should just rewrite the link automatically before navitation when you click on it.
For those of you with Apple devices, I’m pretty sure current versions of Mac OS and iOS remove tracking arguments from URLs when you use cut/copy/paste/share.
Thanks, I have that too I think. It’s great for sharing from my phone. On my laptop I have a python script that is a lot fancier that I’d like to rewrite as a browser extension someday.
These are called query parameters. The standard part of the HTTP spec.
A huge part of the internet uses these simply as a way to instruct a page to display certain data or to display a particular view or layout of that data.
Calling for an extension to get rid of these it’s like calling for an extension to get rid of headers because websites use them to pass metadata in the same manner.
There are in fact many extensions designed to suppress or rewrite headers, most notably cookies, but also proxy headers and other things like that. Stripping out privacy invading (or in this case revenue redirecting) query parameters is another thing that extensions can do, and there are various extensions for that too, including apparently ublock origin (UBO).
UBO is not able to rewrite urls completely (a deliberate decision to protect users from accidental or intentional security breaking rules appearing in rule lists) but there are other extensions that do that too, like changing www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com, or bypassing google redirects and link shorteners that snoop on user activity. The web is a predator-prey ecosystem (users are mostly prey) and it is necessary to respond to new hazards as they appear.
These things are very privacy invading, many of them have information that can identify the users. I don’t think douglasg14b knows what he is talking about. Yes they are query parameters, but they are used for many things such as advertisment for example or referrals, I think it is fine to remove query parameters that are not necessary.
We need browser extensions to kill those tags automatically.
Firefox I believe does. If you right click on a link, it says something like “copy link without tracking”. It should do away with queries in the URL, but I’m not completely sure.
https://www.trishtech.com/2024/10/how-to-disable-copy-link-without-site-tracking-in-firefox/
This is definitely what it’s supposed to do (and a great feature) but unfortunately it doesn’t work that well. Have tried this many times, especially with Amazon links, and it seems to be a bit inconsistent in its effectiveness.
Good to know.
You probably also need to clear your cookies as well. I can’t really see this being done only via GET
Yeah, I cannot imagine any reason they wouldn’t use cookies to track this. The moment you arrive via an affiliate link they’re going to know that that’s how you got to the site for that session.
That’s not going to work for links sent by text or whatever.
If a platform gets traction and is good at removing them, then links will be more obfuscated to deal with it.
Oh nice, that is pretty new, but will have to see if it works on those gumroad links. I have an offline script (not a browser extension, I haven’t bothered figuring out how to write those) that edits urls to remove tracking and it’s quite a pain, since there are dozens of sites and tracking schemes it has to know about. Also, rather than creating a pasteable url, a suitable browser extension should just rewrite the link automatically before navitation when you click on it.
uBlock Origin filter or ClearURLs for example.
In the case of uBO, just search for “url” in the filter list and you should find it.
For those of you with Apple devices, I’m pretty sure current versions of Mac OS and iOS remove tracking arguments from URLs when you use cut/copy/paste/share.
https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/08/ios-17-link-tracking-protection/
Also this only applies in private browsing mode, which people usually aren’t in
In general I use this app before I share or follow any links:
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.svenjacobs.app.leon/
Thanks, I have that too I think. It’s great for sharing from my phone. On my laptop I have a python script that is a lot fancier that I’d like to rewrite as a browser extension someday.
For your desktop, you can use https://linkcleaner.app/
This the most tech illiterate take…
These are called query parameters. The standard part of the HTTP spec.
A huge part of the internet uses these simply as a way to instruct a page to display certain data or to display a particular view or layout of that data.
Calling for an extension to get rid of these it’s like calling for an extension to get rid of headers because websites use them to pass metadata in the same manner.
Edit: that was harsh my apologies.
There are in fact many extensions designed to suppress or rewrite headers, most notably cookies, but also proxy headers and other things like that. Stripping out privacy invading (or in this case revenue redirecting) query parameters is another thing that extensions can do, and there are various extensions for that too, including apparently ublock origin (UBO).
UBO is not able to rewrite urls completely (a deliberate decision to protect users from accidental or intentional security breaking rules appearing in rule lists) but there are other extensions that do that too, like changing www.reddit.com to old.reddit.com, or bypassing google redirects and link shorteners that snoop on user activity. The web is a predator-prey ecosystem (users are mostly prey) and it is necessary to respond to new hazards as they appear.
You were so, so much more polite than I would have been
I use this filter in ublock to remove them: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt.
These things are very privacy invading, many of them have information that can identify the users. I don’t think douglasg14b knows what he is talking about. Yes they are query parameters, but they are used for many things such as advertisment for example or referrals, I think it is fine to remove query parameters that are not necessary.
https://www.ieee-security.org/TC/W2SP/2014/papers/privacy_query_strings.pdf
Sometimes the website sends sensitive data through query strings which is a common security issue.
https://owasp.org/www-community/vulnerabilities/Information_exposure_through_query_strings_in_url