Submitted via IRC for AnonymousLuser
Blocking Hyperlink Auditing Tracking Pings with Extensions
For those who are not familiar with hyperlink auditing, or Pings, it is an HTML feature that allows sites to track when a link is clicked. Creating hyperlink auditing URLs is very easy, as you can simply create a normal hyperlink HTML tag, but also include a ping="[url]" variable as shown below.
<a href="https://www.google.com/" ping="https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/pong.php">Ping Me</a>
[...] With most popular browsers now enabling this feature by default, with Firefox doing so in the future, the only way to disable hyperlink auditing is through the use of browser addons and extension. For those who want to retain control over whether this feature can be used, below are three extensions that allow you to disable hyperlink auditing pings in Chrome and Firefox.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @04:27AM (4 children)
Assuming firefox doesn't remove the about:config option, but just changes the defaults, add to your user.js (so firefox new default is overruled):
user_pref("browser.send_pings", false);
No extension needed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @04:42AM
Cool, thanks for the suggestion. Just looked at my FF 60.6.1esr and it is already set:
browser.send_pings;false
On the other hand, these look related--maybe they need to be changed to make sure?
browser.send_pings.max_per_link;1
browser.send_pings.require_same_host;false
And several others that include that ominous word, "telemetry"...
Since EFF Privacy Badger attempts to stop tracking, I wonder if they will add this to a future version of their extension?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @11:48AM (2 children)
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/mozilla-firefox-to-enable-hyperlink-ping-tracking-by-default/ [bleepingcomputer.com]
Isn't it nice to see the weaselspeak? It's for your own good, else they'll do it without the lube the next time.
This is what happens when politickers masquerading as programmers take over a FOSS project. Not just the other devs get screwed; users too.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Shire on Tuesday May 14 2019, @02:20PM
They said the only reason it hasn't been enabled is because they haven't finished the implementation. I have to wonder if they're working out ways to prevent extensions from blocking the functionality.
That would piss me off something fierce.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 14 2019, @06:28PM
Beside, even if it is enabled, there isn't anything stopping them from using hyperlink auditing and the other mechanisms they were already using.