Pro tip: clean YouTube links. When you get a link from YT, it includes an ID tracking back to YOU. It's a "query string" on the end of the URL like this:
...?si=[tracker_ID_here]
This ID allows YouTube (and their owner, Google, and *their* owner, Alphabet, and ALL of their associates) to track the people who click on the link, and the apps they used, back to you, building a network of none-of-their-business.
Good news: DELETE the "?si=..." part & the link works just fine without the tracking.
... run by google themselves...
https://dustinwhisman.com/writing/youtube-nocookie-com-will-still-track-user-data/
[edited to fix overly broad proclamations]
Not just YouTube! That ? in a URL often means “the rest of this is not essential”. You may need it for, say, keeping your browser aware that your shopping cart has 4 items in it, or for TicketBastard to know you are 8,762nd in the queue, but if you are sending an e-commerce site link to a friend as a gift idea in the middle of browsing? They don’t need any of that stuff. The ? usually signals the start of the spyware, on YT, Amazon, EBay, most e-commerce sites, you name it.
@dwenius This is perhaps a *little* overstated. I'm a retired software architect here, so believe me there are many good and unharmful uses for query strings, so let's not go overboard. But you're quite right that in many cases they are not absolutely necessary for a given site or page.
To test what is needed and what is not, I will often paste a URL into the Address bar of the browser, try removing a chunk of a suspicious query string, hit Enter and see if it takes me where I want to be.
Yup. Webdev here and it seems OP is confusing cookies and url parameters. Most of those "?" are used for QoL or either necessary stuff like the time in Youtube's link so you can link a video to your friend at an exact time code ;)
In our tool I often use those to keep track of the selected tab (on website not the browser ones)
Edit: sorry for the confusion, by OP I meant Dwenius, the op of this comment thread, not op of the top post^^'
@Beldarak @dwenius I am the OP on this thread and I am not confusing query string parameters with cookies.
The si parameter in the query string on YouTube links is used to track to the user who copied the share URL. And that has nothing to do with cookies.
I have repeatedly stated here that not all query string parameters are superfluous or harmful, so maybe you could clarify your statement?
@dwenius @VisualStuart Oh yeah, sorry, I meant OP in the context of the comment thread but that was super confusing and a bad usage of the term :D
I'll edit my post
@gdinwiddie
I suggest putting in a random string of emojis, or, to mess with someone, some classics like “[object Object]”, “undefined”, or just an empty string.
@gdinwiddie @VisualStuart I replace the tracking ID like this:
?si=pooh
It is a bit annoying that many apps fetch the social cards from the respective site when I share a link before I get to edit it. I know, I could disable the fetching (e.g. Signal supports this), but I like the cards. A delay would help.
ClearURLs extension for Firefox and Chrome.
Update: "Copy Clean Link Location" from the context menu does no longer work. Clicking thru does.
And while we're talking link cleanup, I find Don't Track Me Google useful too.
This is also true of Facebook links. There's a short string that's important, but everything after the ? is unnecessary and presumably tracking.
I think the "si" is for "share intent" but thinking of it as "spyware identifier" may be more apt.
Thanks for the info! I thought that was playlist related or some such - good to know.
@VisualStuart There are a couple of add-ons for Firefox, called Chameleon and ClearURLs. The former spoofs your browser profile, the latter automatically strips links of tracking data.
Some might also appreciate the impish fuckery of Privacy Possum, which "monkey wrenches" (to use the developers' term!) commercial tracking methods by falsifying the data.
@VisualStuart Even better: Don't use Youtube at all.
#deleteGoogle
#deleteFacebook
#deleteX
#deleteAllAdSpamNetworks
Not only applicable to YT!
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