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TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

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Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#31

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

jaytaylor wrote: post #13
C-x_C-f wrote: post #2

The ClearURLs addon [1] also gives you the in-browser option to copy "clean link location," as they call it. [1] https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon

I tried this recently and promptly uninstalled after discovering Google search result links were still hijacked to go through a tracker redirect.

This "TrackerZapper" seems to only address the end of the URL not the beginning, suffix versus prefix, right versus left. Tracking can of course be accomplished by prefixing or "shortening" URLs, too. Thats what Google, Facebook, Twitter, even DuckDuckGo, routinely do. These websites, and many more, are wont to claim that they do prefixing or shortening for the users benefit, e.g., to remove the Referer header, or to screen external URLs for "safety", however there is no enforceable agreement with users where the website agrees it will limit the use of this data to any purpose. These third party websites have freedom to use it however they wish.

URL sanitisation is easy using a local proxy. This way we can have rules that are site-specific. Not every site needs it, but for those that do, we can write specific rules. The proxy also allows us to log HTTP traffic and to limit redirection through a variety of methods, so its easier to discover when attempted redirects are occuring.

Every redirect is an opportunity for data collection, whether its used for that purpose or not. If "data is the new oil" then it contributes to greenhouse gases.

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#33

Post by matheusmoreira »

reginold wrote: post #17

As much as I like TrackerZapper or ClearURLs for pasting links, it sets a precedent of tools that modify clipboards, which is bad for crypto addresses.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. It's a legitimate concern.

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#34

Post by leppr »

JadeNB wrote: post #23
webwielder2 wrote: post #6

Does it really need to sit in my menubar?

I've never understood why apps get the final say on what goes in my menubar in macOS. Skype says I need a menubar icon; I say I don't. Why does Skype's opinion trump mine?

I don't understand how you can be surprised at a lack of customization options on an Apple OS. It's literally one of their selling points.

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#35

Post by kall »

sneak wrote: post #4

Shame that this couldn't exist on iOS, where I do the majority of copying and pasting of links. Thanks, Apple.

There are apps[0] that do this via the share sheet. Share is basically the same effort as Copy on iOS so that seems pretty good.

In some cases, like AMP pages, simply using the share button in safari to copy it will get you the canonical URL, but I don‘t think that works everywhere.

If you actually use a keyboard with iOS, you could find a shortcut that does this and assign it a global keyboard shortcut via Full Keyboard Access settings.

[0] https://apps.apple.com/de/app/resolver-share-clean-urls/id14...

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#36

Post by toomuchtodo »

no_wizard wrote: post #22

Nice app! Have to say it’s pretty clean. For those who may be looking at similar functionality in presxisting software, I bet you could build this with Hammerspoon[0] and their clipboard[1][2] apis too using lua if one was inclined [0]: https://www.hammerspoon.org/ [1]: https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.pasteboard.html [2]: https://www.hammerspoon.org/docs/hs.pasteboard.watcher.html

Could also be a PopClip extension: https://pilotmoon.com/popclip/extensions/

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#37

Post by reginold »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #33
reginold wrote: post #17

As much as I like TrackerZapper or ClearURLs for pasting links, it sets a precedent of tools that modify clipboards, which is bad for crypto addresses.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. It's a legitimate concern.

crypto something something HN

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#38

Post by bobbyi »

re wrote: post #27

It's unusual to see the word "silently" used as a selling point these days. In headlines, it's almost always used in the context of some bad behavior and as such has taken on negative connotations for me. https://hn.algolia.com/?q=silently I plugged the title of this post into a few online sentiment analysis tools and they both rated it as having negative sentiment. If the author sees this, you might want to swap it…

"Transparently" is a conceptually similar word that had positive connotations

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#39

Post by halostatue »

This can also be done with Finicky and some configuration, and doesn’t require anything that observes the pasteboard.

Here’s the section of the config (~/.finicky.js) that sets it up; the actual tracker cleaning is the last item in that list and is based on the above.

https://github.com/halostatue/dotfiles/blob/main/private_dot...

https://github.com/johnste/finicky

Re: TrackerZapper Mac app silently removes tracking parameters from links you copy

#40

Post by JadeNB »

leppr wrote: post #34
JadeNB wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never understood why apps get the final say on what goes in my menubar in macOS. Skype says I need a menubar icon; I say I don't. Why does Skype's opinion trump mine?

I don't understand how you can be surprised at a lack of customization options on an Apple OS. It's literally one of their selling points.

Yes, exactly—Apple decides what's best for me. I know they'll fiddle with my menubar as they please. But it's very much outside their usual mode of operations to let random other apps decide what's best for me.
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