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  1. MusicBrainz Server
  2. MBS-10312

Remove tracking/analytics parameters from URLs

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    • Icon: Improvement Improvement
    • Resolution: Unresolved
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    • URL cleanup

      Nasty stuff. Worst offenders are Facebook and Google.

      Parameters example Docs & background information
      fbclid edit 63020000 https://fbclid.com/
      utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content edit 61350123 https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033863#parameters

      fbclid is known to break things:
      https://www.brain-appeal.com/blog/article/2018/10/18/facebook-parameter-fbclid-laesst-news-in-typo3-cms-verschwinden.html
      https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18277218

      There are more such parameters. I haven't seen them yet on MB:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click_identifier
       
      Neat URL is a browser extension which strips parameters client side and could serve as a potential source of more parameters to remove. ClearUrls is an interesting alternative which comes with an even larger list of removed parameters.
      There is also a uBlock Origin compatible filter list maintained by AdGuard.

      Firefox 102 released June 2022 has a built-in list of query parameters that are stripped when navigating sites in Enhanced Tracking Protection strict mode. It's planned/was forgotten to be also enabled in private browsing mode.

      Brave has had such a feature since v1.1.20 released December 2019.

      Safari 13 (12.1?) includes Intelligent Tracking Prevention 2.2 which restricts URL query tracking parameters called link decoration:

      Another extension that strips tracking query parameters is Tracking Token Stripper. It mentions the AdGuard list which can be used with uBlock Origin as well as the new Firefox feature as alternatives.

            Unassigned Unassigned
            chaban chaban
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              Created:
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