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No need to remove the URL tracking parameters manually. 🥳
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this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2023
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Here's an amazon link both without and with that feature being used, for comparison. (The tracking one was created in incognito mode, because I don't know what sort of things it might reveal about me otherwise)
https://www.amazon.com/Bentgo%C2%AE-Pop-Bento-Style-Compartments-Sustainable/dp/B0B3CLN8PX/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=2B470&content-id=amzn1.sym.87cc8b65-1eb6-4676-be85-d0235c8cc1b4&pf_rd_p=87cc8b65-1eb6-4676-be85-d0235c8cc1b4&pf_rd_r=Z6KPA93RVDCTHA2HFQM7&pd_rd_wg=o2LTo&pd_rd_r=fef55702-5392-47a4-a5d2-8a7951d1229b&ref_=pd_gw_dealz_cm&th=1
https://www.amazon.com/Bentgo%C2%AE-Pop-Bento-Style-Compartments-Sustainable/dp/B0B3CLN8PX/?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=pd_gw_dealz_cm&th=1
What do the parts it left on do? The encoding is innocuous enough but I don't know what it's doing with ref or th. I usually sanitize links myself and I'd have brought that one down to either
https://www.amazon.com/Bentgo%C2%AE-Pop-Bento-Style-Compartments-Sustainable/dp/B0B3CLN8PX
or
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B3CLN8PX
, depending on how much I cared at the time. I kind of expected firefox to bring it down to the first version.
Not sure what th is, but ref is the referrer's ID, which gives the referrer a referral / affiliate bonus if you purchase the item using that link. In theory it's not a bad way to support the referrer and it's not linked to you as an individual personally. You can remove it of course if you feel like they don't deserve the money for referring you to a deal. In the end ref or no ref the price of the item remains the same for you.
I think firefox leaves the ref in intentionally.
I opened amazon in incognito then clicked on a random item from their front page, which was advertising their cyber monday deals at the time. In that case would it just be letting amazon know that that's how I ended up on that page, without serving any other real purpose?
That's right!
The "ref" param is clearly a tracking breadcrumb, but not sure what the "th" param is. So this is "better" than nothing, but still has room for improvement. "_encoding" is fine, but UTF-8 should be a default for most users anyways.
Hm, copying the first link "without site tracking" still gives me this:
https://www.amazon.com/Bentgo%C2%AE-Pop-Bento-Style-Compartments-Sustainable/dp/B0B3CLN8PX/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=2B470&content-id=amzn1.sym.87cc8b65-1eb6-4676-be85-d0235c8cc1b4&pf_rd_p=87cc8b65-1eb6-4676-be85-d0235c8cc1b4&pf_rd_r=Z6KPA93RVDCTHA2HFQM7&pd_rd_wg=o2LTo&pd_rd_r=fef55702-5392-47a4-a5d2-8a7951d1229b&ref_=pd_gw_dealz_cm&th=1
I get the same when I copy from my comment - I guess it only works reliably from the address bar? Or maybe only if you're on the correct site?