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Why YSK: Trackers don't do good for anyone except the platform, and they're not necessary to view the content in the URL.


It's courteous to not subject the recipient (most likely your friends and family) to this tracking. You're already sending them to the platform, which is tracking them in other ways. But you can help reduce that tracking by removing everything after the ampersand in the URL. Here are some examples.

Twitter example

URL: https://x.com/CookieSlayers/status/1623712884902567937?s=20

The s=20 is a Twitter-specific parameter to show that the tweet was copied from the web app. s=46 is iOS, and I can't remember what Android's code is. This is a relatively clean link, but there are some links that'll concatenate unique identifiers, like: https://x.com/CookieSlayers/status/1623712884902567937?s=20&t=Fn47fnSDJUD74bd9.

In this case, you'll notice there's also a &t= parameter, which is a unique identifier to the person who shared it.

The only part of the URL you need is https://x.com/CookieSlayers/status/1623712884902567937.

Instagram example:

URL: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzP877du2EB/?igshid=MzRlODCFWFlZA==

The only part of the URL you need is https://www.instagram.com/reel/CzP877du2EB.

TikTok example

URL: https://www.tiktok.com/@inthepaintcrew/video/7301348328602717482?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7302915057791436331

You'll notice TikTok's is a lot more readable in terms of what the URL contains.

The is_from_webapp parameter is self-explanatory, as is the sender_device, and then there's the identifier that's unique to you. In this case, 7302915057791436331.

The only part of the URL you need is https://www.tiktok.com/@inthepaintcrew/video/7301348328602717482.


The best route^1^ would be to use privacy-respecting frontends, but if you don't, simply deleting everything after the ampersand goes a long way.

^1^The best route would actually be to not use/reward platforms that are literally destroying humanity, but we're not there yet, so... in the meantime, let's just try to decrease the tracking and stop subjecting our friends and family to it as much as possible.

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[-] ArmoredCavalry@lemmy.world 26 points 1 year ago

I use this installable web app for cleaning extra parameters from links - https://linkcleaner.app/

Adds a share target to Android once you install it as well, makes it easy to send links to. Open source too!

[-] livus@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

That sounds useful. Although I always fix them, I do get tired of squinting at urls looking for the &.

[-] ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Anyone have an Android version of this?

[-] root@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago
[-] KingJalopy@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hmmm. I see a ? In that link ... Tracking me much??

Jk thanks though

Downloaded btw thanks again

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[-] Lemmyvisitor@lemmy.dbzer0.com 16 points 1 year ago

I've found the android app URLCheck to be useful for this. You set it as your default Web browser and it lets you check for redirects before you open the link

[-] Salix@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, I also recommend URLCheck on Android. You make it your default web browser and you can manually or automatically have the query string removed. It can do other stuff such as resolving redirects before sending it to a web browser.

Or you can use it to clean the URL before sharing it.

[-] Adalast@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

I will add to this that UTM tracking is a little less invasive. I have gotten my boss to use UTM codes instead of full-blown tracking so we can at least capture which ads people clicked on and on which platform without capturing any personal data. As long as you pay attention to the other tags, UTM are reasonable from what I have seen in my research. Gives enough info to let the business know what is going on without letting them know who is doing it.

[-] Adalast@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

That said, I use ScriptSafe on Chrome and a similar one on Firefox to ban the tracking code on websites entirely (along with anything that is not 100% necessary to view the page), so even if there are codes in the URLs I open, they are never logged by the analytics services that capture it.

I suggest it to everyone. Block the scripts. It is a pain in the ass whenever you go to a new page, but you have the opportunity to see what off-domain script sources are attempting to execute and you can research the sources, then decide if you want to allow them to execute or not, and decide if you want to associate with a page before you give them much of anything. Overall, distrust google tag manager, Google Analytics, and literally anything that has "ad" in it and you get about 60% of the nasty out of the way.

Fuck cutting the snake off at the head, I for his damn balls. Seems to work too as what advertising I do see, usually while casting streams, is all over the map. I get ads for video games next to ads for hip replacements, and I smile knowing that I have ghosted them as effectively as I can without going off grid.

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[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

Just to add, the part of the URL that goes like “/foo/bar/123/article/whatever_blah_blah” is called the “path” and the part that looks like “?foo=bar&t=12345&flavor=chocolate&priceInCents=350&etc=etc” is called the “query string”.

[-] reksas 12 points 1 year ago

What if you modify the tracker, like change some letters? Could that mess up their system if many did it?

[-] yoz@aussie.zone 4 points 1 year ago
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[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

If you go that route, start collecting real ids of loads of random people and then randomly add those. If you add invalid ones, they'll just get ignored, but with real random ones it really will fuck with their systems

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[-] wowwoweowza@lemmy.ml 11 points 1 year ago

I searched up this and am pasting it in again to get rid of the tracking:

https://youtu.be/pmmG6z4wqO4

[-] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 10 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/pmmG6z4wqO4

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[-] wowwoweowza@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago
[-] EmoBean@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago
[-] Frellwit@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

If you want to remove parameters from urls you can use the removeparam filter in uBlock Origin. Documentation: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Static-filter-syntax#removeparam

For example: /?igshid=$removeparam=igshid,domain=instagram.com

For the best performance it's recommended to make sure the parameter is included in the filter as seen above with /?igshid, and with the domain it originated from.

Filters for the examples in OPs post:

/?igshid=$removeparam=igshid,domain=instagram.com
?is_from_webapp$removeparam=is_from_webapp,domain=tiktok.com
&t=$removeparam=/^amp;/,domain=x.com

There's also a filter that removes a lot of known params: https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/blob/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt

[-] Xander72@lemmy.one 9 points 1 year ago

I personally use an app called URLCheck on Android (link)

Replaces your default browser handles and lets you manipulate the URL before it goes to your actual browser.

[-] lntl@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Apps should just strip these for us?

[-] Vash63@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Firefox does exactly that, in beta at least. When you copy a URL one of the options is to copy without trackers.

[-] lemann@lemmy.one 4 points 1 year ago

That's exactly what URLCheck does on Android, acts like a middleman for links and allows you to strip tracking parameters etc, before forwarding you to another app to view the link's contents

[-] gogosempai@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

YouTube has also started attaching a Share ID of sorts:

https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=rzmQCXsZkblahblah

The "si" query parameter is the tracker in question.

Presumably, it has your user ID embedded in it so all your efforts to concele your identity by using anon IDs on Lemmy/Reddit/Twitter etc routing through VPNs Tor whatnot can be shattered with a single share of a YouTube video. Plus, they can track and associate users with each other based on who all opened your link.

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[-] awnery@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

does anybody bother with blocking javascript anymore, like with noscript.net on firefox?

[-] AceSLS@ani.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Im using uBlock (Medium Mode) and JShelter (Strict Mode). It's an awesome combination, mixed with Firefoxs already existing anti tracking and resist fingerprint setting (default on Librewolf)

NoScript isn't very popular anymore since it breaks many Webpages. Only exception is Tor, which comes with NoScript by default. Also there's uBlock, uMatrix, LibreJS and many more to block scripts nowadays

[-] awnery@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

noscript breaks webpages on purpose, because it blocks javascript

[-] AceSLS@ani.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Obviously. That's why not many poeple use it, they just don't care enough to handle not being able to use those websites/fix them by configuring their NoScript

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[-] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

Amazon does it as well when you share an article.

[-] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 year ago

The op is about social media sites, but almost every site does it. Amazon, news sites, just about anything Google, Facebook.

Shopping sites all do so they can track you across their platform even if you are not signed in. 'You looked at (premium) Widget, then (bargain) Widget'. They will probably show (mid-priced) Widget somewhere on that page then. If you click an external link on that page it will have tracking parameters along with it.

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this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2023
684 points (98.6% liked)

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