Firefox recently announced that it’s giving users the ability to include or not include tracking information from copied URLs, which comes after iOS 17 blocked user tracking via URLs. The push to remove tracking information from URLs seems to be gaining momentum. Where is this all going and should marketers be concerned?
Could blocking URL tracking settings in the name of privacy become an industry-wide trend?
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Firefox recently announced that starting with version 120.0 of the Firefox browser, users will be able to select whether or not they want the URLs they’ve copied to contain tracking parameters.
When users select a link to copy and click to expand the context menu, Firefox now gives users the option to copy the URL with or without URL tracking parameters that can be attached to the URL.
Screenshot of Firefox 120 context menu
According to the Firefox 120 announcement:
“Firefox supports a new ‘Copy link without site tracking’ feature in the context menu that ensures copied links no longer contain tracking information.”
Browser trends for privacy
All browsers, including Chrome and Google’s Chrome variants, are adding new features that make it harder for websites to track users online using referral information embedded in a URL when a user clicks from a site and exit through this click to visit another site.
This privacy trend has been around for many years, but became more noticeable in 2020 when Chrome made changes to the way referral information was sent when users clicked on links to visit other sites. Firefox and Safari followed with similar benchmark behavior.
Whether the current Firefox implementation would be disruptive or the impact is exaggerated is a bit more important.
The question is whether what Firefox and Apple did to protect privacy is a trend, and whether that trend will extend to more blocking of URL parameters that are stronger than what Firefox recently implemented.
I asked Kenny Hyder, CEO of online marketing agency Pixel Main, what his thoughts are on the potentially disruptive aspect of what Firefox is doing, and whether it’s a trend.
Kenny replied:
“It’s not only harmful to Firefox, which only has a 3% market share. If other popular browsers follow suit, it could start to be disruptive to a limited degree, but it can be easily solved from a potential marketer .
If it got more intrusive and they blocked UTM tags, it would take a while for everyone to catch on if you had to bypass UTM tags by simply tagging things in a series of subdirectories..ie. site.com/landing/
Additionally, most marketing experts are already integrating future-proof workarounds for these exact scenarios.
A lot can be done with pixel-based integrations instead of cookie-based or UTM tracking. When configured correctly, they can provide better and more accurate tracking and attribution. Hence the name of my agency, Pixel Main.”
I think most marketers are aware that privacy is the trend. Bonds have already taken steps to prevent this from becoming a problem while respecting users’ privacy.”
Some URL parameters are already affected
For those on the periphery of what’s happening with browsers and privacy, it may come as a surprise that some tracking settings are already affected by actions aimed at protecting user privacy.
Jonathan Cairo, Principal Solutions Engineer at Elevar, shared that there is already a limited amount of tracking-related information removed from URLs.
But he also explained that there are limits to the amount of information that can be extracted from URLs because the resulting negative effects will cause important web browsing functionality to fail.
Jonathan explained:
“So far, we’re seeing a selective trend where some URL parameters, like ‘fbclid’ in Safari’s private browsing, are disappearing, while others, like TikTok’s ‘ttclid’, are staying.
UTM parameters are expected to remain as they focus on user segmentation rather than individual tracking, as long as they are used as intended.
The idea of completely removing all URL parameters seems unlikely, as it would disrupt key functionalities of many websites, including banking services and search capabilities.
Such a drastic move could lead users to switch to alternative browsers.
On the other hand, if only some parameters are removed, there is a possibility that the remaining parameters will be exploited by the marketers for tracking purposes.
This raises the question of whether companies like Apple will take it upon themselves to prevent such use.
Regardless, even in a scenario where all parameters are lost, there are still alternative ways to transmit click IDs and UTM information to websites.”
Elevar’s Brad Redding agreed with the disruptive effect of going too far with removing URL tracking information:
“There is still too much basic Internet functionality that relies on query parameters, such as login, password reset, etc., which are effectively the same as URL parameters in a URL path complete
Therefore, we believe that the crackdown on privacy will continue with known trackers blocking their tracking scripts, the cookies they generate, and their ability to monitor user activity through the browser.
As this grows, the reliance on brands to own their first-party data collection and reduce consent preferences to the user level (versus session-based) will be critical to filling the gaps in conversion data to their advertising partners outside of the browser or device.”
The future of tracking, privacy and what marketers should expect
Elevar makes good points about how far browsers can go in terms of how much blocking they can do. Their answer is that it’s up to brands to own their personal data collection and other strategies to perform analytics without compromising users’ privacy.
Considering all the laws governing privacy and internet tracking that have been enacted around the world, it seems that privacy will continue to be a trend.
However, at this point, the advice is to keep monitoring where browsers are going, but don’t expect things to get out of hand.
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