you can anonymize the link by removing the part of the link after the “?”

(at least for youtube currently, this can be different on other platforms and may also change in the future)

if you’re on an Apple device, you can use this shortcut that does it automatically for most popular platforms:

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/ac969c798e1d4e78af488fea9530921a

i’m sure a similar thing exists on android but I don’t have a non-ancient android device.

@aesthr On android I can recommend url-checker to preview the url and control the parameters when opening an link on the client side. You can set it as your standard browser, then it will always display the url to open and has options to remove unwanted tracking parameters.

It is an extra step to open a link, so it can be inconvenient. But it can also save you from visiting sites you dislike before firing them up in a browser.

https://f-droid.org/packages/com.trianguloy.urlchecker

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.trianguloy.urlchecker

@barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr FB share embeds their "who sent it" ID into the codes with no easy "?..."

I paste my share link into a non-logged-in mobile browser, get rid of the "[Name] sent you this blah blah" pop over, and THEN you can copy the plain URL.

I don't share FB content much. It adds 2 steps but I don't really want them to know I shared with X and Y IRL friends.

I see more platforms adopting this more invasive method in the surveillance-heavy future.

@SlangC5326 @barryallen2023 @joknopp @aesthr

1. Don't use facebook
2. Don't log in on YouTube if sharing.