this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023

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Privacy

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I wish more people clean URLs before sharing it to others. (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by narwhal@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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I see a lot of people, including friends and family, sharing URLs rife with tracking parameters.

I feel alone in making sure that I'm sharing the cleanest possible URLs to others. For example, checking if the URLs are shortened to hide plenty of tracking params.

Just need to vent, thanks for reading.

Edit: adding some context for future references.

By using url tracking params, tech companies can track who shares the content and who clicks on that specific shared urls. A simple but effective tracking method.

Try sharing Instagram post or YouTube video from the apps.

Instagram adds 'igshid=' . YouTube adds 'si='.

If you share the same IG or YouTube content from different accounts. The 'igshid', 'si' value will be different.

This can be used to tag who shares it, and who clicks on that specific url param value.

TikTok hides a ton of such params behind shortened url. Try expanding tiktok shared urls.

If you use android, use this app to expand, analyze and clean up urls https://github.com/TrianguloY/UrlChecker

If you use Firefox (you should), install ublock origin and add this url tracking filter maintained by adguard: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AdguardTeam/FiltersRegistry/master/filters/filter_17_TrackParam/filter.txt

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[–] reddig33@lemmy.world 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

iOS 17 is supposed to do this automatically now.

https://9to5mac.com/2023/06/08/ios-17-link-tracking-protection/

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[–] HughJanus@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Every website these days will just hijack any link posted on their service and there's not a whole lot you can do other than just physically typing in the intended address character by character. No one wants to do that. No one cares. And these platforms know that. That's why they do it 🖕

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[–] CeeBee@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I care about this also. I used to clean them up, but what I've started doing is adding and replacing parts of the share id. And I'll usually put something stupid in there like "booger", just to screw up their tracking data.

[–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 2 years ago

https://github.com/TrianguloY/UrlChecker

[–] wilberfan@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

A personal gripe of mine. I can't get any of my friends/family to care...

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[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago

Amen.

[–] mvirts@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I'm with you!!

[–] Fades@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

I feel the same, I actually feel weird when someone shares with me a url with tracking or source tags, like bro you’re telling on yourself… do you not care?!

[–] Zerush@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

I shall do it, because i hate this URL ads, even more the fucking link shortener, because they disguised it and avoid to see the destination. Because of this i use 2 extension, a Link unshortener, which reveal the real URL, when i click on a shorten link also the Adguardfilter in the Vivaldi's own trackerblocker, You can find more filters here:

https://filterlists.com

[–] Gsus4@feddit.nl 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Good reminder, I'd never considered that 😅 So why did lots of reddit subs discourage the use of URL shorteners? Was this just standard Reddit badness?

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