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.
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