Brave enhances bounce-tracking protection with new bounce removal feature

The Nightly version of the Brave desktop browser supports a new privacy feature that Brave calls Debouncing.

Bounce is designed to take apart a tracking method called bounce tracking or redirect tracking. Bounce tracking refers to methods of tracking Internet users through the use of intermediary domains that load when users click on links. It is based on the tracking of domains that are injected between a website and the destination of a link.

Site A and Site B may link to Destination Y and Destination Z. These sites act independently of each other. Add bounce tracking, and the Target Y and Target Z opening will drift when loading Bounce Q first, before redirecting the user to the target site.

With Q involved in the process, the bounce tracker operators can identify the user and create a tracking profile. Clearly, the larger the operator, the better the follow-up.

Internet users may sometimes notice that the links they clicked are redirected to other sites before the actual destination is opened.

Bounce in Brave Browser

Brave Browser protects users against bounce tracking with its new Debouncing feature. Brave maintains a list of known bounce tracking URLs, which it gets from various places, including extensions like Clear URL, URL Tracking Stripper, and Link Clearer. The list is available on GitHub; includes widely used bounce trackers such as linksynergy, out.reddit.com, instagram, facebook.com/1.php, youtube.com/redirect, and others.

The browser blocks access to the tracking sites on its block list and loads the destination immediately. Brave Browser applies the list to all links that users encounter while using the web browser.

The feature is already integrated and enabled in the Nightly version of Brave on the desktop. The company plans to bring it to the desktop version channel “shortly,” according to the announcement.

Closing words

Brave’s Debouncing feature enhances the privacy of desktop users. The next stable version of Brave for the desktop includes the protection feature, which is automatically enabled in the browser.

The company is not the only browser manufacturer that supports this feature. Mozilla integrated redirect tracking protection into Firefox 79 Stable, which released in mid-2020.

Now you: How do you handle Internet tracking?

advertising