Firefox Enables URL Parameter Removal

In the nightly assemblies of Firefox, which serve as the foundation for the release of Firefox 121, a new option has been added to the contextual menu. This option allows users to copy a selected link to the clipboard while removing tracking parameters used to monitor website transitions. For example, when copying a link from Facebook, parameters like MC_EID and FBCLID will be removed.

Removing tracking parameters from URLs has been possible since Firefox 102. Users can enable this feature through the Privacy.Query_striping.enabled setting in ABOUT:Config. It can be activated when browsing a site in private mode or when choosing enhanced mode protection (ETP, Enhanced Tracking Protection). Tracking parameters are removed when navigating the link within the page and when opening the link in the address bar. A blacklist is used to determine which parameters to remove, including well-known tracking parameters used for website transitions.

Among other changes in the nightly builds of Firefox, improvements have been made to the built-in JavaScript debugger. The performance of analyzing large files has been increased by approximately 10%. Additionally, the JavaScript tracer (JSTRACER in Devtools) now displays DOM Creatures and Calls Setinterval, Settimeout, and RequestanimationFrame.

Developers from Mozilla have also analyzed the performance changes in Firefox. Since the beginning of the year, the time from launch to the first rendering (FCP – First Contentful Paint) has been reduced by 15%, from 250 ms to 215 ms. The average time the browser spends executing JavaScript while loading pages has decreased by 20%, from 1560 ms to 1260 ms. The latency in key presses has also improved by 10%, from 65 ms to 59 ms.

/Reports, release notes, official announcements.