Do you check for trackers and remove them before sharing links?
Do you check for trackers and remove them before sharing links?
Yes
No
Time for a post that doesn't comply with the gimmick...
So, companies are tracking you no matter what you do, but this specifically is something I care about deeply.
Essentially, when you share a link, sometimes it has extra data that tracks where it comes from and goes.
Opening Spotify, clicking the first item, and using the share button, I get something like open.spotify.com/track/4P0f1HTaA2UwtLJGryNgJZ?si=DBvbfihOSweU1KHj9Mib8w
That ?si=...........…. is the tracker. It tells Spotify who clicks on the link and ties it to you, meaning Spotify knows who your friends are even if you never follow them.
Similarly, if on Amazon or EBay in the browser, I get something like www.ebay.com/itm/146493392451?_skw=lenovo&itmmeta=............&hash=item................&itmprp=enc..............
And, similarly, everything after the question mark is tracking you. I had to blank it out because it was so long!
There is an exception for a few things (I.E. the v=..... on YouTube, but not the si=..... on YouTube)
The general rule is delete everything after the ? and if it breaks, add something back.
You should do this.
Firefox users, when you right-click to copy a URL, it will give you the option to "copy clean link" which does what prev describes for you automatically. 10/10.
found this post in my old reblogs and this post changed my life. corbin davenport developed a website for this called link cleaner and there’s tons of other similar websites too but it takes 2 seconds and i don’t gotta guess
Link Cleaner is a web app for removing tracking code, search parameters, and other junk from URL links.
