The title should be "TinyURL sets ad tracking cookies" as this is the only one proven to do in this article.
There are tons of URL shorteners, and not all of them do this.
URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
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Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#42I currently host https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regards to tracking cookies or other dark patterns. It just redirects you using a 302 redirect.
What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#43Wasn't the primary use of URL shorteners to compress a given URL in order to reduce the character count? Given today's Twitter, what are they still used for besides visual convenience? Do youtu.be, t.co, fb.me and dlvr.it next!
> Given today's Twitter, what are they still used for besides visual convenience? Data analytics - basically you spread out different shortened links on your campaigns / media, so you can track effectiveness while at the same time the user does not have to manually type in cryptic characters.
Yeah, what I mean is that I don't think URL shorteners do anything for users aside from being slightly better to look at
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
What harm have they "already caused"? Is link rot such a damaging phenomenon that it warrants attacking hobbyists and their not-for-profit public service? Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes?
> What harm have they "already caused"? They have already inserted themselves as a middleman by shortening URLs, creating an additional point of failure which will inevitably break sooner or later. > Will you help financially compensate their time setting up these fail-safes? How about: Blow it out your ass. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up.
> [Unnecessary crude remark]. He made the mess, so if he has any integrity he'll foot the bill for cleaning it up.
He [set up a server with a link shortening service pro bono, eating the cost of server maintenance for 11 years], so if he has any integrity he'll [do more free work].
I'd argue it's the user's fault if they decide to trust a small hobby site to last until the end of time. How many link shortening services have you used which promptly died, causing you to find this ridiculous hill to die on?
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wow never heard of that, thanks! This is one of the thousand reasons that I don't think capitalism will be viable beyond 10-20 years from now. The endgame will be perfect monopoly - one global player in every niche of our daily existence. Slowly force-feeding us a diet of whatever is most profitable (whatever service encompasses the most dysfunction in exchange for money). Off the top of my head, a better system migh…
> This is one of the thousand reasons that I don't think capitalism will be viable beyond 10-20 years from now. Hmm. You posted this from your phone or computer that was created by capitalism, from an OS created by capitalism, using a browser created by capitalism, to a message board for an organization who literally specializes in capitalism. While the original incarnation of the internet wasn’t created by capitalis…
> You posted this from your phone or computer that was created by capitalism, from an OS created by capitalism, using a browser created by capitalism, to a message board for an organization who literally specializes in capitalism.
... that all base on centuries of research, science and technological development that happened before capitalism was even first proposed. Your point being?
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#46The title should be "TinyURL sets ad tracking cookies" as this is the only one proven to do in this article. There are tons of URL shorteners, and not all of them do this.
bit.ly and t.co both do, and they're hugely popular. I just left the HTTP responses out of the post for brevity. From the post:
>While neither redirect you to an advertising company like TinyURL, Twitter’s primary business model is advertising, and bit.ly’s privacy policy says they share data with third parties to “…provide advertising products and services…”
Both services set long-lived tracking cookies:
curl -v 'http://bit.ly/aFzVh0'
...
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#47I currently host https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regards to tracking cookies or other dark patterns. It just redirects you using a 302 redirect.
FYI that your site is blocked by this list: https://gitlab.com/The_Quantum_Alpha/the-quantum-ad-list HN post for that list here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25512273
Hm, well I've got to work out how to get off that list! Thanks for giving me the heads up.
EDIT: I'm not sure quite how to deal with being put on ad lists. Sure, people can upload any file to our host so it's plausible that someone, at some point, has uploaded an advert. Someone could also redirect to an advert domain and we'd have no way to really deal with that unless it was reported. Ideas are welcome for solutions.
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#48I currently host https://femto.pw/ - A URL shortener I've kept up for ~4 years and intend to indefinitely. It doesn't do anything with regards to tracking cookies or other dark patterns. It just redirects you using a 302 redirect.
What happens to it when you die? Do you have a contingency plan to export this data somewhere for archival purposes?
I've worked with the Internet Archive to ensure continuity if I get hit by a bus or anything. A list of all items that have been uploaded to the site will be provided to them if anything happens to me.
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#49Don't want to be mean, but just to inform you, guidelines says "Please don't delete and repost. Deletion is for things that shouldn't have been submitted in the first place." and I know you have posted and then deleted the same post yesterday. It is fine to repost if you didn't get notice no worries
Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies
#50Not particularly surprising. I was building a url shortner some 12-13 years ago but eventually abandoned it. But this was exactly how I planned to monetize it.