Lately I’ve noticed some mainstream sites injection tracking links into literally every link on their site.
When I hover over it, it shows the correct link at the bottom of my browser, but if I click it or copy it, it takes me to a hijacked tracker link.
Then I can’t even get the original link without having my activity tracked.
How do I get the original link that appears at the bottom of my browser?
There’s an extension for Firefox and maybe Chrome that should help. I think it’s called ClearURL, or something similar. It removes the trackers from the ends of URLs
EDIT: That’s assuming that it’s a legitimate tracking URL, and not something that’s been added by malware.
It removes the trackers from the ends of URLs
These are not tracking links in the conventional sense where they append tracking data to the legitimate link. They just hijack the link that someone else posts and replace it with an entirely new tracking link with a l.facebook.com domain.
No link cleaning software I have found works because of this.
That sounds more like malware then. Links from Twitter shouldn’t have any Facebook tracking info.
Check your browser for any extensions that you don’t recognise, and if you’re on Windows, download and run the free version of Malwarebytes.
The site itself; Facebook, Reddit, or Twitter sends you to a subdomain that then redirects you to the link you clicked. Sometimes used to check the url and warn you if it’s malicious or if it’s linking to another website, but it’s usually used for tracking as well.
try SkipRedirect, can break some things though, but rare.
Only works for hijacked links where the extension can grab the original link somehow of course.For general Ad Links, there is FastForward, though i feel it hasnt been on the same level of maintenance since UniversalBypass closed down and they forked it.
They just hijack the link that someone else posts and replace it with an entirely new tracking link with a l.facebook.com domain
This bit confused me. I thought OP meant that it was the same link every time. The downside of text based forums like this - it removes a lot of nuance and leaves room for misunderstanding.
Links from Twitter shouldn’t have any Facebook tracking info
That’s not what I’m saying.
They just hijack the link that someone else posts and replace it with an entirely new tracking link with a l.facebook.com domain
So this isn’t Facebook on every occasion then, it’s related to the site you’re visiting? If so, the extension will hopefully fix it :)
No it’s not, you misread my statement. It’s regarding the type of link and not the site itself.
no, links from Twitter are instead automatically converted to a t.co URL.
I don’t have an extention on FF but whenever I copy a link there’s an option to also copy clean link. I’m not home, but I believe this is associated with my search engine being SearXNG.
This is actually a rather new feature in the firefox browser unrelated to searx.
Is that feature default for vanilla firefox? Or do you need to go fiddle in settings to turn that on
Vanilla.
The only reason I didn’t mention it is because it’s for copying links, whereas the extension should do it while opening, without needing to copy it first.
Thats a level of convenience that will probably get me to grab the extension, but Im glad firefox has that as a feature anyway
Firefox can do it without an extension now
Long live the Fox
I believe Skip Redirect does this, it’s available for both Firefox and Chrome
Disable JavaScript.
Maybe try https://linkcleaner.app/
I use LibreWolf and maximum protection just for FB and similar web pages, and Firefox for normal browsing or other safe sites and my problem is solved.
Well. That doesn’t solve this problem. But thank you.
blocking the intermediate domain works for me with twitter, it fails the first time and gives up trying to rewrite.
This should help: https://filterlists.com/lists/clearurls-for-ublock-origin
NextDNS, Brave Browser, and I believe uBlock Origin has features to clean up the trackers and redirects from links.
Looks like it’s straight up through Firefox now a days: https://lemmy.world/post/8834978
Looks like its only for copy, not left-clicking to open it.
Also doesnt stop click-hijacking. If the Site encodes a url you cannot decode, you have to go through the site or, if the link is also visible as text, grab that.
Tried that. They don’t work for this.
uBlock requires you to enable an additional filter list I think (Privacy > AdGuard URL Tracking Protection)
My understanding is the only thing uBlock does it prevent you from visiting prohibited domains, but you’re telling me it can modify the links from webpages on my clipboard?
If it’s showing at the bottom of the browser, then the browser thinks the link is a regular link, but clicking or copying it may invoke some JavaScript that either manipulates the link or simply redirects to the tracker site after an onClick event. I’d like to see this for my own curiosity. If my thought is correct, then there should be some way to disable that specific method call with uBlock or some other mechanism. I’m curious what happens with a text based browser or screen reader type browser. You could also trace the JavaScript and see what’s happening. If this is really happening with the big social media sites, it’s just a matter of time until a plugin is developed to correct the behavior.
I’m gonna sound like a dick who didn’t really address the intended question, but why use those sites? Not being on corporate social media solves the problem. I know that doesn’t work for a lot of people, so apologies to those folks.
