this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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Privacy

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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?

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (8 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (7 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

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.

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