Sometimes (often?) you may click on a link that looks simple but turns out to look like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/VOSKER-Cellular-Security-Camera-Weather-Resistant/dp/B08LZR2TTB/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=lOW3L
&content-id=amzn1.sym.2fd36d35-e0d1-4258-ba0c-e42eba5f6561%3Aamzn1.symc.e5c80209-769f-4ade-a325-2eaec14b8e0e
&pf_rd_p=2fd36d35-e0d1-4258-ba0c-e42eba5f6561&pf_rd_r=S9B09YMEK28XBFGYBVSM&pd_rd_wg=8KKOK
&pd_rd_r=46221dc7-ae08-48cd-895d-824c5bd975d2&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_mWhen you click that link, you’re giving big tech a bunch of information that will help them model you so they can target you with ads, which for Google, Facebook, et. al is their actual business - the web searches or addictive "likes" are just honey to lure you in to the web of ads.
Firefox, meanwhile, not funded by big tech, continues to add tools to protect your privacy.
Recently they added the ability to copy a link without all the tracking parameters appended.
The above link was added to this document by right clicking in the URL textfield and
using the straight Copy menu item.
To burn the tracking info, I just had to right click and choose - wait for it - Copy Without Site Tracking.
And the link now looks like this:
https://www.amazon.ca/VOSKER-Cellular-Security-Camera-Weather-Resistant/dp/B08LZR2TTB/?_encoding=UTF8
&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_mIf you know much about Amazon, you know that all they really need is the product ID, so you could manually shorten the link to this:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08LZR2TTB/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=pd_gw_ci_mcx_mr_hp_atf_mOr even this bare-minimum version:
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B08LZR2TTBThis will save room in your disk if you bookmark it, simplify if some poor soul has to type it in on a different computer (the ? and everything after it can actually be omitted), and of course, make the big ad companies work a bit harder to figure you out.
So remember, if you’re considering sharing a web link, get it from FireFox and remember to use
Copy Without Site Tracking.
Your privacy thanks you.