"Copy Link Without Site Tracking" now on @firefox ! ๐
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Personally, I have found this feature to be too limited. I still use the ClearURLs extension, which is more effective in my experience.
However, neither one is a silver bullet. Here's an example I just took from Amazon (I blocked out some values with X's):
Original URL:
https://www.amazon.com/Hydro-Flask-Around-Tumbler-Trillium/dp/B0C353845H/ref=XXXX?qid=XXXXXXXXXX&refinements=p_XXXXXXXXXXXXX&rps=1&s=sporting-goods&sr=XXXUsing Firefox's "copy link without site tracking" feature:
https://www.amazon.com/Hydro-Flask-Around-Tumbler-Trillium/dp/B0C353845H/ref=XXXX?qid=XXXXXXXXXX&refinements=p_XXXXXXXXXXXXX&rps=1&s=sporting-goodsUsing ClearURLs:
https://www.amazon.com/Hydro-Flask-Around-Tumbler-Trillium/dp/B0C353845H?refinements=p_XXXXXXXXXXXXX&rps=1The ideal, canonical URL, which no tools I'm familiar with will reliably generate:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C353845HLonger but still fully de-personalized URL:
https://www.amazon.com/Hydro-Flask-Around-Tumbler-Trillium/dp/B0C353845HIf anybody knows a better solution that works with a wide variety of sites, please share!
This will just push websites to change the orders and names of their query params (maybe regularly).
I don't think one can safely omit all query params from all sites and expect a decent experience across all websites.
You are fighting a good fight, I salute you, but query params (the part of the url where the identifiers are included) are a valid and core part of Internet addresses. Trying to strip them away universally will only work for so long.
I think that's why you haven't found a tool that meets all your needs yet, because many sites have legitimate uses for those params that don't include tracking. You'll probably need tools designed specifically for Amazon and other specific websites/services.
Oh yes, definitely. I think this is why Mozilla has not made this the default behavior in Firefox; there will always be the risk of false-positives breaking copied links, so it's important that people know that there's some kind of mutation happening.
ClearURLs uses a JSON file with site-specific regex patterns and rules. In theory I could customize this for myself, or better yet submit a pull request on their GitHub. If I have time I'll look into it.
uBlock Origin filter lists is what seems to work best. You get nothing but the raw URL.
To be honest it should not be that hard to write a browser extension that just strips away all query parameters. That's just a simple string match for the question mark and deleting everything after it.
The problems begin when sites start implementing other URL shenanigans like your /ref=XXXX? example.
The workable solution there would be to have the extension match user defined patterns for different sites.
The problem with a nuclear solution like that is that some sites use query parameters as actual query parameters. Like DuckDuckGo.
Yeah, though that should only be an issue if the link you're copying needs to show query results instead of a more permanent page such as a product listing or a video on YouTube.
In general, the conventions and standards are followed. But yeah, linking to search results without tracking bullshit is kind of challenging.