Say Goodbye to Internet Spies: Learn How to Automatically Erase Sneaky Trackers from Your Firefox URLs Today!
The internet has made our lives a whole lot easier, but it also poses a significant threat to our privacy. You will be surprised to know that whenever you browse the internet, your activities are being tracked by various websites, services, and applications. These tracking mechanisms can include cookies, web beacons, and other types of trackers embedded within certain URLs.
If you’re concerned about your online privacy, then you should start taking steps to prevent trackers from following you online. Fortunately, Firefox has a built-in tracker blocker that can automatically prevent trackers from loading when you visit a site. However, blocking trackers isn’t always enough to protect your online privacy. You need to take a step further and remove any trackers that might be hiding in the URLs of the sites you visit.
This article will show you how to automatically erase sneaky trackers from your Firefox URLs, as well as inform you about the potential risks of not removing trackers.
What Are Trackers and Why They Are Dangerous?
Trackers are small digital files used by website owners, advertisers, and other web services to track your online activity. Some of the most common types of trackers include cookies, web beacons, and pixel tags.
Cookies are small text files that are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are used to remember your preferences, login information, and browsing history. Web beacons, on the other hand, are small images or pieces of code embedded within web pages. They are often used by advertisers to track your online activity and serve you targeted ads.
In essence, trackers are dangerous because they allow third-party entities to monitor your every move online. They can gain access to your personal information, browsing history, and even your login credentials. This information can be used to generate targeted ads, steal your identity or sell your data to third parties.
How to Automatically Remove Trackers from Your Firefox URLs
Firefox has a built-in feature called Tracking Protection that blocks trackers from loading on websites. This feature can be accessed by clicking on the shield icon located in the URL bar. However, this doesn’t help you remove any trackers that might already be embedded within the site’s URL.
The good news is that you can easily use a browser extension like ClearURLs to automatically remove any trackers that might be hiding in the URLs of the sites you visit. ClearURLs is an open-source extension that analyzes the URLs of the websites you visit and removes any trackers it detects.
Here’s how to install and use ClearURLs:
Step 1: Install ClearURLs from the Firefox Add-ons store.
Step 2: Click on the ClearURLs icon located in the Firefox toolbar.
Step 3: From here, you can enable or disable ClearURLs, and configure other settings such as custom redirect URLs, user-defined rules, and more.
Step 4: Once enabled, ClearURLs will automatically remove any trackers that it detects from the URLs of the websites you visit.
Conclusion
In conclusion, online privacy should be taken seriously. Browsing the internet without protecting your privacy is like leaving your front door unlocked when leaving your house. Fortunately, Firefox’s Tracking Protection feature, coupled with the ClearURLs extension, offer an excellent solution to shielding you from online trackers. With these tools, you can automatically remove sneaky trackers from your Firefox URLs and browse the internet without having to worry about who’s watching!
A few days ago, Mozilla released Firefox 102, which has a feature known as ‘Query Parameter Stripping’. The feature automatically removes the tracking URL parameter when you click on a web address. For example, Facebook adds its tracking ID to track clicks by adding ‘fbclid’ query at the end of the URL. Similarly, Twitter, Instagram, and every other social networking site you use adds its query parameter to outbound links to track clicks. Also Read: How to Import Bookmarks from Chrome to Firefox
Steps Automatically Remove Trackers from URLs in Firefox
The latest version of Firefox browser for PC removes that query to prevent data tracking. The Query Parameter Stripping is already a part of the Strict tracking protection rule of Firefox, but you should enable it manually. Below, we have shared a step-by-step guide on automatically removing trackers from URLs in Firefox. Let’s check out.
First of all, download & install the latest version of Firefox browser on your Windows 11. If it’s already installed, make sure to update it.
After the update, relaunch the Firefox browser and tap on the hamburger menu at the top-right corner.
From the list of options, click on Settings.
On the Settings page, switch to the Privacy & Security tab on the left.
On the right side, enable the ‘Strict’ and click on the Reload All Tabs button.
That’s it! This will force the Firefox browser to remove trackers from URLs.
2 How to Enable Strict Tracking Protection in Private Mode
You can also force Firefox to automatically remove trackers from web addresses on a Private Window. Here’s how you can enable strict mode in Firefox’s Private mode.
First of all, open the Firefox browser on your PC. On the address bar, type in about:config and hit the Enter button.
Now, you will see a warning screen. Click on the Accept the Risk and Continue button.
This will open the Advanced Preferences page of the Firefox browser.
Now type in privacy.query in the Search box.
On the search results, double click on the privacy.query_stripping.enabled.pbmode and set its value to True.
Once done, restart your Firefox web browser on Windows 11. After the restart, the Firefox browser will also automatically remove trackers in Private Mode. Also read: How to Take Screenshots using Firefox Screenshot Tool On Windows 10 & 11 So, this guide is about enabling the Query Parameter Stripping on the Firefox browser for Windows 11. If you care for your privacy, you should immediately allow this feature. If you need more help related to Query Parameter Stripping, let us know in the comments below.
