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URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

ylukem.com

141–150 of 213 posts

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#141
post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes cloudflare for speed and protection. Digitalocean for file storage. I may remove google analytics.

Using cloudflaire doesn't give me confidence this will in anyway not track me.

Presumably, that's a tradeoff the OP is willing to make.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems nice. I'm curious, how do you make money / stay in business? I couldn't find any paid options.

Thank you! The site and extension are free to use to shorten links. I do offer the ability to upgrade starting at $5 a month which allows custom domains, ability to customize links, expire links based on date or clicks, private stats, ability to shorten links using the API ( https://t.ly/docs/ ). I also recently release a new feature called OneLinks that are great for social media bios. Here is an example on a OneLin…

Just a heads-up, "OneLink" is trademarked by AppsFlyer: https://support.appsflyer.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005248543...

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#143
post #109

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.

> > We were testing an AI that could show some basic emotions about internet content, and turns out it was very precise at getting “annoyed” by ads and “unsolicited” third party connections… Holy shit that's such bullshit. They are basically claiming they invented a artificial general intelligence, with feelings, that happens to feel the same way about ads as us. It's basically sentient instead of publishing research…

It's just colorful language for the fact that ads and spyware score high on their model for bad websites.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#144
I had been using a personal URL shortener on & off since 2009. Bit.ly custom domain, goo.gl, yourls on a php server, bit.do, & many others. Even a static site Jekyll powered one at https://gitlab.com/davch/static-redirect

I could not use YOURLS because its too much maintenance demanding, like any other php script. Server vulnerabilities, versions, errors. Bitly custom domain because you can't customize the word after slash. Its still going to be random. Bit.do was/is fun, & good.

Then I got introduced to Firebase, at that time recently acquired by Google. Dynamic Links, with myWord.page.link subdomain. I got few, 5 max subdomains were allowed initially. I made two projects, & total have 8 subdomains with page.link ending. Now they even allow custom domains, & it is even default option. I am using that not from about 2-3 years.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You could just blacklist *.com and be done with it.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#146

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

Javascript JIT is a massive attack surface, and is disabled by many on higher-assurance machines.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use u-block origin on "medium" mode where you have it block 3rd party javascript by default and it behaves the same. Unblocking the cloudflare originating javascript fixes it. I'd guess my setup is more common than having javascript disabled entirely. Not a complaint, just another data point.

Is there some reason you want to block cloudflare JS? If not, wouldn't it be easier to add an exception to uBlock rather than try to get devs to change their site for you?

No reason, I always just add a cloudflare exception and will probably look into making it a global exception as it is pretty common. I was chiming in to help the site dev understand the issue.. giving another data point.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use u-block origin on "medium" mode where you have it block 3rd party javascript by default and it behaves the same. Unblocking the cloudflare originating javascript fixes it. I'd guess my setup is more common than having javascript disabled entirely. Not a complaint, just another data point.

Is there some reason you want to block cloudflare JS? If not, wouldn't it be easier to add an exception to uBlock rather than try to get devs to change their site for you?

There are some people who have JS disabled by default. See the NoScript extension. So the dev wouldn't just be changing it for eikenberry, but for all such people.

Re: URL shorteners set ad tracking cookies

#150

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!

Can you instead use the meta refresh tag?

samb1729 isn't talking about viewing shortened URLs. That works fine with javascript disabled. samb1729 is talking about viewing the the homepage of t.ly and creating shortened URLs.

Side note, I think a 301/302/303/307/308 redirect is better than meta refresh (t.ly happens to use a 301 redirect + meta refresh).

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