Removing URL Parameters

General Guides & Tutorials
21

OK, I’ve looked into your method of cleaning URLs just a little bit. For me, it is outside of my current ability to zero in on the perfect level of blocking the URL tracking data the way you do it. I definitely need a curated (open source) list of URL tracking to be cleaned for me. At least for now, that is best for me.

I do use youtube and sometimes i use google search, ebay, amazon, and even twitter just a very small amount of the time. I actually mostly only use FreeTube over RiseupVPN for my youtube consumption. I also use Odysee and Bitchute also over VPN for other video content.

My thinking about these sites is that I am already logged in, and if ClearURLs blocks some, or most of their URL tracking, then it works good enough for me. I don’t use social media at all, unless you count the once a week I click on twitter. I don’t post on twitter, and I hardly ever comment on twitter. I only singned up after Elon took over twitter. I’m no fanboy of Elon, and I don’t trust him, or twitter, it’s just the only social media that I even use at all.

I found another URL cleaner…

It is also open source so I added the extension next to CleanURLs as a second level of cleaning.

Until I learn more, these two cleaners will be better than me trying to clean by myself.

One thing I considered was to copy their definitions, modify them and post on my own domain and link to them instead. Maybe I could remove their opinions for my own, but at least have a starting point that at least works.

1 Like
22

I came across this: The “Copy Link Without Site Tracking” is smarter in Firefox 126. It’s now able to strip tracking parameters from nested URLs as well as a further 300 smaller elements within tracking URLs, including ones from major shopping websites.
(Enhanced Tracking Protection in Firefox for desktop | Firefox Help). Is that more or less useful or private? Maybe their filters are available somewhere…

2 Likes
23

@arkenfox makes arguments against ClearURLs and Neat URL in their user.js wiki:

Instead, they suggest enabling AdGuard URL Tracking Protection, which can be found in uBlock Origin’s dashboard → Filter lists → Privacy. The rules themselves can be found here:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdguardTeam/FiltersRegistry/master/filters/filter_17_TrackParam/filter.txt

Here is more general information about AdGuard’s filters:

Reasonably easy to parse:

{
    "categories": [
        { "name": "Action Map", "params": ["action_object_map", "action_ref_map", "action_type_map"]},
        { "name": "AliExpress.com", "params": ["aff_platform", "aff_trace_key", "algo_expid@*.aliexpress.*", "algo_pvid@*.aliexpress.com", "btsid@*.aliexpress.com", "expid@*.aliexpress.com", "initiative_id@*.aliexpress.com", "scm_id@*.aliexpress.com", "spm@*.aliexpress.com", "ws_ab_test*.aliexpress.com"]},
        { "name": "Amazon", "params": ["_encoding@amazon.*", "ascsubtag@amazon.*", "pd_rd_*@amazon.*", "pf@amazon.*", "pf_rd_*@amazon.*", "psc@amazon.*", "ref_@amazon.*", "tag@amazon.*"]},
        { "name": "Bilibili.com", "params": ["callback@bilibili.com"]},
        { "name": "Bing", "params": ["cvid@bing.com", "form@bing.com", "pq@bing.com", "qs@bing.com", "sc@bing.com", "sk@bing.com", "sp@bing.com"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Adobe Analytics)", "params": ["sc_cid"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Adobe Marketo)", "params": ["mkt_tok"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Amazon Kendra)", "params": ["trk", "trkCampaign"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (at)", "params": ["at_campaign", "at_custom*", "at_medium"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Change.org)", "params": ["guest@change.org", "recruited_by_id@change.org", "recruiter@change.org", "short_display_name@change.org", "source_location@change.org"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (DPG Media)", "params": ["dpg_*"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Google Analytics, ga)", "params": ["ga_*", "gclid", "gclsrc"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Humble Bundle)", "params": ["hmb_campaign", "hmb_medium", "hmb_source"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (IBM Acoustic Campaign)", "params": ["spJobID", "spMailingID", "spReportId", "spUserID"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (itm)", "params": ["itm_*"], "docs": "https://www.parse.ly/help/post/4843/campaign-data-tracking/"},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Omniture)", "params": ["s_cid"], "docs": "https://moz.com/community/q/omniture-tracking-code-urls-creating-duplicate-content"},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Oracle Eloqua)", "params": ["assetId", "assetType", "campaignId", "elqTrack", "elqTrackId", "recipientId", "siteId"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (MailChimp)", "params": ["mc_cid", "mc_eid"], "docs": "https://www.learndigitaladvertising.com/solved-why-how-to-remove-mc_cid-and-mc_eid-from-google-analytics/"},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Matomo/Piwik)", "params": ["mtm_*", "pk_*"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (ns)", "params": ["ns_*"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (sc)", "params": ["sc_campaign", "sc_channel", "sc_content", "sc_country", "sc_geo", "sc_medium", "sc_outcome"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (stm)", "params": ["stm_*"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (utm)", "params": ["nr_email_referer", "utm_*"]},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Vero)", "params": ["vero_conv", "vero_id"], "docs": "https://help.getvero.com/articles/conversion-tracking.html"},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (Yandex)", "params": ["_openstat", "yclid"], "docs": "https://yandex.com/support/direct/statistics/url-tags.html"},
        { "name": "Campaign tracking (others)", "params": ["c_id", "campaign_id", "Campaign", "cmpid", "mbid", "ncid"], "docs": "https://www.parse.ly/help/post/4843/campaign-data-tracking/"},
        { "name": "Caseking.de", "params": ["campaign@caseking.de", "sPartner@caseking.de"]},
        { "name": "Ebay", "params": ["hash@ebay.*", "_trkparms@ebay.*", "_trksid@ebay.*", "amdata@ebay.*", "epid@ebay.*", "hash@ebay.*", "var@ebay.*"]},
        { "name": "Etsy", "params": ["click_key@etsy.com", "click_sum@etsy.com", "organic_search_click@etsy.com", "ref@etsy.com"]},
        { "name": "Facebook", "params": ["fb_action_ids", "fb_action_types", "fb_ref", "fb_source", "fbclid", "hrc@facebook.com", "refsrc@facebook.com"]},
        { "name": "Google", "params": ["ei@google.*", "gs_gbg@google.*", "gs_l", "gs_lcp@google.*", "gs_mss@google.*", "gs_rn@google.*", "gws_rd@google.*", "sei@google.*", "ved@google.*"]},
        { "name": "Hubspot", "params": ["_hsenc", "_hsmi", "__hssc", "__hstc", "hsCtaTracking"]},
        { "name": "IMDb", "params": ["pf_rd_*@imdb.com", "ref_@imdb.com"]},
        { "name": "LinkedIn", "params": ["eBP@linkedin.com", "lgCta@linkedin.com", "lgTemp@linkedin.com", "lipi@linkedin.com", "midSig@linkedin.com", "midToken@linkedin.com", "recommendedFlavor@linkedin.com", "refId@linkedin.com", "trackingId@linkedin.com", "trk@linkedin.com", "trkEmail@linkedin.com"]},
        { "name": "Medium", "params": ["_branch_match_id@medium.com", "source@medium.com"]},
        { "name": "SourceForge.net", "params": ["position@sourceforge.net", "source@sourceforge.net"]},
        { "name": "Spotify", "params": ["context@open.spotify.com", "si@open.spotify.com"]},
        { "name": "TikTok", "params": ["_d@tiktok.com", "checksum@tiktok.com", "is_copy_url@tiktok.com", "is_from_webapp@tiktok.com", "language@tiktok.com", "preview_pb@tiktok.com", "sec_user_id@tiktok.com", "sender_device@tiktok.com", "sender_web_id@tiktok.com", "share_app_id@tiktok.com", "share_link_id@tiktok.com", "share_item_id@tiktok.com", "source@tiktok.com", "timestamp@tiktok.com", "tt_from@tiktok.com", "u_code@tiktok.com", "user_id@tiktok.com"]},
        { "name": "Twitch.tv", "params": ["tt_content", "tt_medium"]},
        { "name": "Twitter", "params": ["cxt@*.twitter.com", "ref_*@*.twitter.com", "s@*.twitter.com", "t@*.twitter.com", "twclid"]},
        { "name": "Yahoo", "params": ["guccounter@*.yahoo.com", "soc_src", "soc_trk"]},
        { "name": "Yandex", "params": ["lr@yandex.*", "redircnt@yandex.*"]},
        { "name": "YouTube.com", "params": ["feature@youtube.com", "kw@youtube.com"]},
        { "name": "Zeit.de", "params": ["wt_mc", "wt_zmc"]}
    ]
}

A total of 44 entries, not updated since August 14th, 2022:

Here is a simple comparison between Neat URL and AdGuard for eBay static filter rules:

Neat URL:

        { "name": "Ebay", "params": ["hash@ebay.*", "_trkparms@ebay.*", "_trksid@ebay.*", "amdata@ebay.*", "epid@ebay.*", "hash@ebay.*", "var@ebay.*"]},

AdGuard:

! eBay tracking parameters
||www.ebay.$removeparam=ssspo
||www.ebay.$removeparam=sssrc
||www.ebay.$removeparam=ssuid
||www.ebay.$removeparam=mkevt
||www.ebay.$removeparam=mkcid
||www.ebay.$removeparam=_trkparms
||www.ebay.$removeparam=_trksid
||www.ebay.$removeparam=amdata
||www.ebay.$removeparam=mkrid
||www.ebay.$removeparam=campid

Conclusion:

  • Neat URL redundantly repeats hash twice, but has epid and var as unique rules.
  • AdGuard covers the rest of Neat URL’s rules, whle also adding sssrc, ssuid, mkevt, mkcid, mkrid, and campid.
  • Both use blocklists.

For reference, compare it to my original post when I was just starting to learn about static filter rule syntax:

Then compare that to the present, where I use an allowlist:

Here you go:

ETP is unrelated to removing URL parameters, but it is very relevant for blocking trackers.

https://searchfox.org/mozilla-release/source/toolkit/components/antitracking/StripOnShareLists/LGPL/StripOnShareLGPL.json

Their eBay static filter rules:

  "ebay": {
    "queryParams": [
      "_trkparms",
      "mkcid",
      "_trksid",
      "mkevt",
      "amdata",
      "ssuid",
      "mkrid",
      "campid",
      "sssrc",
      "ssspo",
      "_from",
      "hash"
    ],
2 Likes
24

This has been a very interesting “Removing URL Parameters” read from top to bottom."

Would it be useful enough that people could cut & paste updates from a step-x-step guide? Much like the steps to flashing the L5?

~s

1 Like
25

Sure, although these progressive updates are still just for removing URL parameters. By the end of this guide, I started using uBlock Origin’s logger to clearly see every network request:

This allowed me to refine static filter rules for TELUS in an intimate manner, although I have not updated them recently due to other competing priorities:

In addition, I have been interested in blocking network requests, so I learned about HTML and CSS filters:

This ultimately lead me to create an advanced topic showcasing the amount of progress and work I have done with uBlock Origin since the beginning of this guide: