Last month, Firefox launched Mozilla Firefox 102 with a new privacy feature that strips parameters from URLs that are used to track you around the web. With Firefox’s Query Parameter Stripping, your browser will remove the tracking parameters, so it protects your browsing activity. Firefox will do this no matter if you click the link or paste it into the address bar.
Numerous companies, including Facebook, Marketo, Olytics, and HubSpot, utilize custom URL query parameters to track clicks on links.
For example, Facebook appends a fbclid query parameter to outbound links to track clicks, with an example of one of these URLs shown below.
How to enable query parameter stripping
As mentioned, you need Firefox 102 for this feature to work. To quickly check which version of Firefox you’re using, open the browser’s menu and go to Help > About Firefox.
If you haven’t updated to the latest version, Firefox will check for available updates and install them automatically. Once the update is complete, restart your browser.
The new Query Parameter Stripping feature is part of Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection. To enable Query Parameter Stripping,
1. Go to Firefox.
2. Tap on the three-line menu in the top-right corner.
3. Select Settings.
4. Next, click Privacy and Security and set Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict. Strict will disable URL tracking from the websites that you visit.
When enabled, Firefox removes URL identifiers and trackers when you click a link. However, remember that Firefox only does this if you’re not browsing in a private window.
To also enable the feature in Private Mode, enter about:config in the address bar, search for strip, and set the ‘privacy.query_stripping.enabled.pbmode‘ option to true, as shown below.
It should be noted that setting Enhanced Tracking Protection to Strict could cause issues when using particular sites.
If you enable this feature and find that sites are not working correctly, just set it back to Standard (disables this feature) or the Custom setting, which will require some tweaking.