The ? part (parameters) sometimes do play a role. But by removing parts like ?maxheight=300, you can sometimes get higher quality images.

Then there's the # part (section). If you're referencing a section in a long document, check if there's a ToC linking to headings, or a # link next to them. For PDFs, #page=X usually works. BTW it is mostly harmless: just identify the HTML element ID to scroll into view and most browsers don't send it to the server (but JavaScript can access it).

Save this in your bookmarks:

https://linkcleaner.app/

I leave it depending on whats contained. Like if it's clear that it communicates the link came from the Fediverse or an RSS feed I want them to know to keep using those things. Other wise I take em out

this has not many users so pretty trackable, so more of us should use it to make it work better

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/refer-deez-nuts/

its like clear urls but sets the string to deez_nuts

Does Peertube also try to spy on me, or do I only have to do this for google?

uBlock has an option to remove these..

Here it is on mobile.

Some websites do have required information after the ? which is needed for linking to the correct page/section.

If you're not sure, try deleting it and pasting the modified link in a new tab. If it doesn't work, try again with one additional argument (the text separated by ? or &) at a time until the link works.

Thanks for the tip, I'll do that from now on

I've been seeing youtube links with an &is=, is that the same thing or something else?

Instead of using a whole new extension (which increase your attack surface), just

• Add this filterlist to uBlock Origin: https://gitlab.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt/-/raw/master/LegitimateURLShortener.txt
• Enable "AdGuard/uBO - URL Tracking Protection" filterlist

ClearURLs extensiom needs the ability to read and modify every link you visit, which is very dangerous. Highly recommend just using uBlock Origin because it can do the same thing.

Another useful rule:
If you are on a gargantuan site with millions of unique content items, and the link is unreasonably short, it is likely a personalized link tied to your account.
Facebook does this, I think TikTok too, which might even show the viewer which account generated the link, hence doxing your real identity.

Always try to get the content link from the web url through a private browser window, instead of clicking dedicated "Share" buttons on pages.

Examples (from memory, so inaccurate) :
facebook.com/share/GPQR221
instead of
facebook.com/video/10000021928282/...

YouTube is an exception to this rule.

On this regard, Reddit also no longer lets you sort by top/all without getting TONS of trackers.

assholes. good thing i left for lemmy

A little something for those of you on iOS:

If you are on android here is my favorite piece of software:

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

Every time I get a link from friends, it goes trough that tool and it also supports regex, so you can automate some shit :D

Also for the love of god please stop sending/pasting/using those "www.google.com/ (insert like 200 characters of random bullshit) google tracking links to an image you saw"

I’ve been deleting these tags for ages, it takes just a few seconds, and it is useful.

I call these "tainted links" when I'm calling them out.

On iOS the GNATCleaner app works for most websites. Just install and when you go to share, select the app as where to share to first, and then it gives you a clean url to share.

Only issue is very recently it stopped working for YouTube. Hopefully soon they update it.