Privacy

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Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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How to prevent link hijacking on sites like Facebook, Reddit and Twitter? (feddit.nl)

submitted 8 months ago by helenslunch@feddit.nl to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

38 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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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[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 8 months ago (3 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.

[–] Limitless_screaming@kbin.social 12 points 8 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.

[–] Nyfure@kbin.social 6 points 8 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.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 months ago

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.

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Links from Twitter shouldn't have any Facebook tracking info

That's not what I'm saying.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

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 :)

[–] helenslunch@feddit.nl 1 points 8 months ago

No it's not, you misread my statement. It's regarding the type of link and not the site itself.

[–] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 1 points 8 months ago

no, links from Twitter are instead automatically converted to a t.co URL.