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
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 route1 would be to use privacy-respecting frontends, but if you don’t, simply deleting everything after the ampersand goes a long way.
1The 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.
What if you modify the tracker, like change some letters? Could that mess up their system if many did it?
I like the way you think
“In computer science, garbage in, garbage out (GIGO) is the concept that flawed, or nonsense (garbage) input data produces nonsense output”
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
A few years ago, I came across a tool that did exactly this. It might’ve been a browser extension… When you clicked a link that had trackers, rather than providing a clean URL, it sent incorrect/invalid parameters to the tracking link.
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.
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.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=rzmQCXsZkblahblah
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Bad bot you included the trackerz
Really don’t wanna be that guy but I think si stands for - source identifier, correct me if I’m wrong though.
Yeah that seems plausible.
Thank you senpai next lesson ?
i bet the letterz boys LOVE THIS
deleted by creator
Apps should just strip these for us?
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
I search up this link that helps spread to word about getting rid of trackers:
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/pmmG6z4wqO4?si=64BWjT8Slv5u3f1L
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Your link has tracking in it tho. You dont need the ?si= part
Yup. I caught that after I clicked send. Oops
You are allowed to edit comments on lemmy
Fixed. Thanks.
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”.
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
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.
simply use this on android: https://f-droid.org/de/packages/com.svenjacobs.app.leon/
Amazon does it as well when you share an article.
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.
How do we know which links would have this? What is the connection Amazon has to an article? I’m confused, I thought this meant only if you are sharing a link from a social media site.
Some random article from the Amazon Android App:
Share button: https://amzn.eu/d/2Ok2Czn
Clicking the link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BZ5RRT1B?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_F70NMAH6BZPA74X38C31&language=de-DE
Cleaned link: https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0BZ5RRT1B
Tldr, anything after a ‘?’ In a url is unnecessary.
Not always, but it’s a good rule of thumb.
I searched up this and am pasting it in again to get rid of the tracking:
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.
Thank you!