Major web browsers and email clients are doing more to stop user tracking, effectively reducing or eliminating the conversion signals that many marketers depend on.
Advertisers love to associate ads with sales. This is how they measure return on ad spend, a key metric.
The same goes for online affiliate marketers, who need to know which affiliate partner made a specific sale, to pay the commission. Simple.
What is not simple is how individuals feel when they are being followed. For years, consumers, lawmakers, and software makers have prioritized privacy. These efforts resulted in the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, the California Consumer Privacy Act, Apple’s Mail Privacy Protection, and more.
Now the fight for tracking has shifted to advertising links in newsletters and websites.
Browsers
Initially launching in 2022 for Apple devices, the Arc browser has been dubbed the “Chrome killer.” This free web browser has many features that have led many reviewers to call it the best on the market. Arc is coming to Windows in 2024, bringing “clean” URL copying and tracking warnings that will disrupt some of the most basic marketing measures.
![](https://www.practicalecommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/012724-arc-home-page-570x343.jpg)
The Arc browser has little market share but has received positive reviews.
URL clean copy removes tracking parameters in a URL string when an Arc user copies it. Here is an example.
Imagine you were an Amazon affiliate. You write an article about the 10 best sci-fi TV shows and link to several box sets on the Amazon marketplace. The link would end something like this.
...&tag=affiliate-20&ref=affiliate_site
A consumer using the Arc browser could read the article, copy the URL and click on Amazon, thereby removing all tracking settings.
![Screenshot of an Arc browser showing the "copy" icon. Screenshot of an Arc browser showing the "copy" icon.](https://www.practicalecommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/012723-copy-link-in-arc-570x228.jpg)
The Arc Browser has an icon to copy the current URL.
Amazon could lose valuable conversion data if someone followed the clean link, and the affiliate wouldn’t get paid.
![Screenshot of an Arc browser displaying the message "Copied a clean link without trackers :)" Screenshot of an Arc browser displaying the message "Copied a clean link without trackers :)"](https://www.practicalecommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/012724-arc-clean-copy-570x158.jpg)
Arc Browser removes all URL tracking code once copied.
If browser review articles are to be believed, Arc users love clean URL copy. Arc makes this feature the default; it is available through extensions in other browsers.
Arc Browser, through the uBlock Origin extension, also warns users when links pass through known tracking servers, similar to how Chrome warns users of an invalid or missing SSL certificate.
For example, think again about affiliate marketing. ButcherBox is an e-commerce subscription service that uses Impact, a popular affiliate platform, for its links. Typical impact monitoring will look like the following:
https://butcherbox.pxf.io/c/3668901/1366393/16419
When you click this link in Arc, the browser notifies you, informing you that the domain (pxf.io) was found on Peter Lowe’s list of advertising and tracking servers, a popular collection of known tracking parameters.
![Screenshot of a uBlock Orgin warning regarding a ButcherBlock tracking setting. Screenshot of a uBlock Orgin warning regarding a ButcherBlock tracking setting.](https://www.practicalecommerce.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/012724-arc-butcherbox-570x410.jpg)
The uBlock Origin extension is installed by default in the Arc browser, causing warnings about many affiliate and advertising links.
A buyer using Arc can still click through to ButcherBox, but many won’t.
Arc uses several lists of tracking parameters. Even many advertisements displayed on websites generate this warning.
Email clients
Arc is not the only one responsible for tracking. Apple announced last year that it would remove link tracking settings in Messages and Mail, as did Proton Mail, a leading privacy-focused email client.
Proton Mail, like Arc, is not widely used, but it could reveal future privacy features in consumer email clients.
Proton’s feature works similarly to Arc’s clear URLs, removing parameters that tell marketers where a click is coming from.
Ecommerce Marketing
At first glance, consumers may like these new anti-tracking features. Yet the privacy they protect is minimal. An advertiser deploys URL parameters to track the performance of an channel – like email or Google Ads — not an individual consumer.
Additionally, an advertiser may still place cookies on visiting consumers’ browsers. So a consumer could delete tracking settings, land on an advertiser’s site and end up with a cookie.
Still, removing URL parameters means marketers will lose the signal, making it harder for them to know how a channel is performing.
Perhaps hardest hit would be affiliate marketers, who likely wouldn’t be able to tie a sale to a specific affiliate partner or even the entire channel.
In short, the actions of Arc, Proton Mail and others could portend a new era in which marketers rethink attribution to find new and better promotional channels.