Firefox can now automatically remove query parameters from links

A new version of Firefox arrives, the Mozilla Foundation’s web browser, taking another step forward in protecting users’ privacy, incorporating the new function of automatic removal of tracking parameters in web addresses, which users must previously activate.

These tracking parameters are added by companies such as Facebook, HubSpot, Olytics, among others, to the links by entering them at the end to know how many times they are opened either by clicking on links or by pasting them in the browser’s address bar.

As Bleeping Computer points out as an example, Facebook adds the fbclid query parameter to outgoing links to track how many times they are opened via the methods described in the previous paragraph.

New privacy protection

Once enabled, Firefox automatically removes the tracking parameters of many, but not all, trackers, with Brave Browser, a privacy-focused web browser, blocking the largest number of trackers, according to the aforementioned media.

New feature is part of Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protectionso for its activation, users have to go to the Settings options, click on the Privacy and Security option, and in Enhanced Tracking Protection raise the level to Strict.

This setting will not work for private mode, so you will need to enable the feature independently by typing about:config in the address bar, searching for strip, and selecting privacy.query_stripping.enabled.pbmode to change its value to true.

Users should be aware that activating this feature may cause problems on some websitesso the only solution for these cases is to deactivate the function again to be able to use those websites.

In addition to this important novelty, there is also the possibility of disabling the automatic opening of the download panel each time a new download is started, avoiding the numerous windows on the screen if several elements are being downloaded simultaneously.

Also fixes a bug on Windows when using a screen reader.

Via: Bleeping Computer
More information: Release Notes
Link: Firefox Official Website