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Firefox starting to remove tracking parameters from shared URLs
(blog.nightly.mozilla.org)
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this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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How does firefox determine which params are trackers and which params are required data?
https://github.com/mozilla/gecko-dev/blob/d677b10f3c3bd25840ba9707e77b9e25d8ccbbd3/toolkit/components/antitracking/data/StripOnShare.json
So how long before they start changing the param names? Lol
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
You mean this? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clearurls/
Changing those param names can actually be pretty complex, because they're used for all sorts of analytics. Whole ad campaigns revolve around those codes, behind the scenes.
I don't want to give these people any ideas, but you can just pseudo randomize parameter names and decode them server side before storing them for analytics, so this is a non issue.
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.