Mozilla recently released Firefox 102, and its changelog is very bright and includes several new features, one of which is the ability to remove part of the URLs that various services and websites use to track you on the Internet. Mozilla started working on this feature about a year ago, and it’s now ready for public use.
Firefox 102 brings a new feature called “query parameter stripping”, which automatically strips a tracking URL parameter when you click a link. For example, Facebook uses the “fbclid=” query to find out if someone clicked on a specific URL. Firefox now removes this query, along with other trackers from Olytics, Vero, HubSpot, Marketo, and Drip.
Pictured are two windows of the Firefox browser showing URLs with and without query parameters stripped. This new feature is part of Strict Tracking Protection rules and is disabled by default. To enable it, navigate to Firefox Settings > Privacy & Security and turn on Strict in the Enhanced Tracking Protection settings.
Query parameter stripping is currently not available in privacy mode, but can be enforced using the privacy.query_stripping.enabled.pbmode configuration on the about:config page.
Also, it’s worth noting that enabling strict tracking prevention in the Firefox browser will break some websites or specific parts of the functionality. If you suspect that frequently visited websites are misbehaving, change the tracking prevention to standard or custom.
The ability to remove trackers from URLs will pair nicely with the recently introduced option to fully protect cookies. While the Firefox browser may not be the fastest and most compatible browser, it’s currently the best option for those who value data and privacy.
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