I’ve noticed a rise in people sharing links to YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and reddit that include tracking parameters in the URL.
It might largely be harmless for now, but it’s not good to let companies build a web of links between users of this site, and to link the usernames of users on this site to their off-site accounts, which may include sensitive info.
| SM | URL Part | Appearance in URL | Filtration technique |
|---|---|---|---|
| Youtube | Query | ?si=* | Remove query string |
| Query | ?igshid=* | Remove query string | |
| Query | ?t= | Remove query string | |
| Tiktok | Subdomain and path | (vm/vt).tiktok.com/(random_string) | Block |
| Path | /(sub_name)/s/(random_string) | Block |
This site should only allow canonical links to the content to limit the information exposed.
The ClearURLs extension is a great for this as it automatically removes the tracking bit from major sites. It doesn’t detect everything though so still good to be wary
Thanks for the rec, just added this to my browser