Firefox update stops certain URLs from tracking your Internet movement

#Facebook #Hubspot #Internet

The new feature can be enabled under the Privacy and Security settings
The new update isn't able to strip certain trackers which identify which site you came from
Brave, another Internet browser was an option but used to provide affiliate links to Binance

Written By:Rwit

Updated: June 30 2022 08:41:02 PM ET New Delhi, Delhi, India

Mozilla’s latest version of its Firefox, its internet browser, should help its users prevent being tracked when they click on links off other websites. The change was spotted earlier this week by Bleeping Computer, a tech website.

The new privacy feature is part of the new Firefox update, version 102, which released on Tuesday. The new update disables tracking parameters from websites like Facebook, Olytics, Marketo and HubSpot. Tracking parameters are a piece of code at the end of a URL address that alerts the website which you clicked the link on, letting companies add to their data stores that they collect on each user, letting them make better targeted ads.

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The end of a link you click off a website like Facebook might look like this:

https://www.wetrackyourdata.net/example/

followed by a question mark “?” at the end and code that might look like:

?fbclid=IwAT3B79DD1S

With its latest update, the bit above is what Firefox will automatically remove before it can be applied to any link you click on. To enable this, go into your Settings, and under the Privacy and Security settings you should be able to turn on the “strict” option under Enchanced Tracking Protection. However, the flip side of enabling this protection protocol, according to Firefox, is that some websites might function incorrectly.

According to Gizmodo, who tested the feature, it does remove the tracking link at the end. However, Firefox still isn’t able to strip certain trackers like urchin trackers or UTMs – these track where a person loading the current site is coming from, and is used to determine how well an ad is doing.

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Brave, another internet browser, is able to bypass most like parameters, but the browser has a host of other issues that make it problematic and was found to be using an affiliate link whenever users accessed cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The affiliate link let Brave get “up to 50%” in commission for each trade a user might make on the Binance website.