Definition

Parameter stripping

Parameter stripping is the loss of query parameters as a URL passes through redirects or client-side URL cleanup — merchants' https/www/locale rewrites and history.replaceState calls routinely remove tracking parameters from the visible URL.

Whether stripping matters depends on when it happens: after the network registered the click (harmless, cosmetic) versus before a parameter-dependent script could read it (fatal for on-domain programs like Refersion's rfsn or FirstPromoter's fpr, which have no network hop as a safety net).