Facebook Has Started Encrypting Links to Counter Browser Privacy Efforts ⇥ ghacks.net

Martin Brinkmann, Ghacks:

Facebook has started to use a different URL scheme for site links to combat URL stripping technologies that browsers such as Firefox or Brave use to improve privacy and prevent user tracking.

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Since it is no longer possible to identify the tracking part of the web address, it is no longer possible to remove it from the address automatically. In other words: Facebook has the upper hand in regards to URL-based tracking at the time, and there is little that can be done about it short of finding a way to decrypt the information.

This reminds me of how Google was fined by the FTC for ignoring Safari users’ preferences to avoid tracking because it felt entitled to tracking by default. Criteo and AdRoll later did something similar but were not investigated or penalized. This adversarial relationship between users and privacy-destroying businesses will continue so long as the latter are permitted to exploit the former. Scumbag companies are finding new and creative ways to keep being scumbags instead of trying to be ethical.