Attempt to parse out destination URLs when preventing cross-site tracking


I would like to see Brave attempt to extract a destination URL from blocked cross-site tracking URLs.

One site I visit regularly uses several tracking services on its outbound links, and most of the time it has the destination in the url (see below for example)

When I get the “This site may attempt to track you across other sites” warning, I can either proceed, defeating the purpose, and going through several more ‘blocked’ tracking sites OR I can manually parse out the URL to get to the page I want, bypassing the tracking completely.

It would be helpful have a “Brave has detected a possible destination URL - (https://example.site.com/plus/more-of-the-url) - Click to proceed.” option/message added to the " This site may attempt to track you…" page allowing users to get to the destination while bypassing the tracking.

An example would be taking a URL like this real example (final URL has been anonymized):

https://www.kqzyfj.com/click-####-########?URL=https%3A%2F%example.site.com%2Fplus%2Fmore-of-the-url&sid=EDKoHTa8TGN32YNnd5U2

and parsing out the final destination - https://example.site.com/plus/more-of-the-url

Brave already supports this.

it is called removeparam and there is a hardcoded way Brave is doing it as well ’ Query String Filter’, you will have to report it and set up websites that use the parameter URL to track you. ||kqzyfj.com^$removeparam=URL

Adblockers should do only do what they are told to do, they shouldn’t do something automatically just because they block something. What I mean is obviously removing the URL to ALL URLs parameters is a bad idea, so it can’t be a generic rule, it has to be done one by one, and only because something is getting blocked doesn’t mean it is exactly a tracker or a malicious site, it can be for anything.

a simple ||google.com^ or a$document will cause the interstitial page to appear, so why should Browser remove any parameter if it is not a sure thing why it was blocked?

Adblockers don’t have a brain, they are not sentient beings, they will not know what they are blocking is good, bad, fine, false positive, a mistake… they are only doing what they are told.

The thing is, ‘blocking interstitial page’ is displayed because the URL either matched ||^ or has the $document on it. When you get the interstitial page, you haven’t connected to that page yet, so if people don’t continue, when they see a weird URL, then by then, they will not be giving information to potential trackers done through the parameter.

removeparam and query string filtering, is meant for sites that aren’t being blocked, it would be useless to do it for the ones blocked, when it is people’s choice if they want to connect to those sites and give them information etc.