Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

ylukem.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 213 posts

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#121

Post by recursive »

TylerE wrote: post #78
recursive wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Aren't ALL websites ultimately advertisements? No. Some are just information, art, or what-have-you. Here's one I just found now. https://aaron.axvigs.com/

That could still be considered an advertisement of his existence and writing skills. If the goal is purely informational, why is the author's name attached? The site also advertises the CMS it runs on. That's my point, by a reasonable standard, ANY site that exists is an advertisement for something or other, thus a rule saying "no linking to advertisements" is worse than useless.

I guess you have a different understanding of what "advertising" is than the general understanding.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#122

Post by Merman_Mike »

llacb47 wrote: post #110
Merman_Mike wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that it's questionable. I commented the same in the thread I linked: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25513161 However, at least for Pi-Hole users, more is usually better, so I added the list to my Pi-Hole.

No, more is not usually better. Especially with a garbage ""AI-generated"" (not) list with untrustworthy maintainers like this one. It's better to add a low number of lists with trusted maintainers, who actively curate their lists and respond to false positives. That means no "mega-list" abominations like oisd.nl. I suggest: https://www.github.developerdan.com/hosts/ https://gitlab.com/curben/urlhaus-filter/raw/maste…

Can you explain why more is not usually better?

I added the 4 lists you recommended to my Pi-Hole, which added a net new 73,253 domains to my Pi-Hole. My total is now close to 2M.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#123

Post by TylerE »

recursive wrote: post #121
TylerE wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That could still be considered an advertisement of his existence and writing skills. If the goal is purely informational, why is the author's name attached? The site also advertises the CMS it runs on. That's my point, by a reasonable standard, ANY site that exists is an advertisement for something or other, thus a rule saying "no linking to advertisements" is worse than useless.

I guess you have a different understanding of what "advertising" is than the general understanding.

advertising or ad·ver·tiz·ing [ ad-ver-tahy-zing ] - noun - the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#124

Post by recursive »

TylerE wrote: post #123
recursive wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess you have a different understanding of what "advertising" is than the general understanding.

advertising or ad·ver·tiz·ing [ ad-ver-tahy-zing ] - noun - the act or practice of calling public attention to one's product, service, need, etc.

I believe it's possible for a website to exist without calling attention to anything.

Or perhaps you believe the mere existence of information is a call for attention.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#125

Post by CarVac »

TimLeland wrote: post #87
samb1729 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a shame that T.LY displays only the footer without JavaScript enabled instead of degrading gracefully. Surely a plain HTML form that POSTs should suffice? I'm not sure how much work it would require for you to support this, but it would help cement your place as a good web actor if you're so inclined!

Sorry about that. I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? We do offer a simple to use api that you could build on top of to shorten link. Also an extension that offers the ability to shorten a url in one click. API Docs: https://t.ly/docs/ Extension: https://t.ly/extension

At work I'm not allowed to have any extensions so I just turn Javascript off in lieu of ublock origin.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#126

Post by IG_Semmelweiss »

jmholla wrote: post #114
Icathian wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you mind offering a bit more detail about the "toggle"? Which browser, what's the name of the extension, etc. I would love something like that but don't really want to go through the effort of setting up a whitelist right now.

Not the person you asked, but, NoScript is a choice. uBlock Origin as well with the right settings. Should be on Chrome or Firefox. On mobile, only the latter I think. Kiwi too?

with noscript, I blocked everything and then when sites broke, I very much enjoyed figuring out what element was the culprit. I became very good at remembering what elements rescued what urls.

When i switched to Ublock origin, i didn't even realize how to do this. I just allowed all JS whenever i found broken sites.

Now, this very thread encouraged me to finally figure out Ublock origin settings, and now, finally enable specific JS elements instead of a blanket "allow".

Here is a gret userguide for Ublock origin toggle.

https://www.maketecheasier.com/ultimate-ublock-origin-superu...

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#129

Post by wolco2 »

oauea wrote: post #118
Baeocystin wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question- has that happened to you?

Yes! It also happens when I am not logged in, or use a VPN (though that is understandable). But simply disabling javascript and clicking next a few times is usually enough to set off their blockages. Even when not using a VPN. It happens less if you only ever look at the first page.

It makes sense the fingerprint you create with javascript can identify you easily. Without that google treats you as suspect.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#130

Post by phreack »

TimLeland wrote: post #87
samb1729 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a shame that T.LY displays only the footer without JavaScript enabled instead of degrading gracefully. Surely a plain HTML form that POSTs should suffice? I'm not sure how much work it would require for you to support this, but it would help cement your place as a good web actor if you're so inclined!

Sorry about that. I honestly didn't think anyone browsed the web without javascript enabled. How common is that? We do offer a simple to use api that you could build on top of to shorten link. Also an extension that offers the ability to shorten a url in one click. API Docs: https://t.ly/docs/ Extension: https://t.ly/extension

I wouldn't say it's common, but this is the one forum where a considerable amount of people disable JS when browsing (and likely only whitelist few if any sites). It's always a good thing to support nonetheless, so please go for it!
Post reply on HN