shadysus@lemmy.ca to

You Should Know@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months ago

YSK: You might be unknowingly doxxing yourself by sharing links containing trackers

396

YSK: You might be unknowingly doxxing yourself by sharing links containing trackers

shadysus@lemmy.ca to

You Should Know@lemmy.worldEnglish · 2 months ago

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/31187638

Earlier today I came across a Reddit comment with a link to an Instagram post. The link had ?igsh= at the end.

When I clicked on the link, I got this popup. It had a name and profile photo that was different from that of the post being shared.

Join Firstname Lastname on Instagram

See photos, videos, and more from Firstname Lastname.

[ Open Instagram ]

not now

I avoid link trackers. However, I did not realize it was this bad.

To my knowledge, TikTok does the same thing and lists the name of the person that shared the link. Assuming this increases engagement, any website could enable such a feature, even on old links that you shared in the past.

You should manually remove any trackers before sharing, or use an app for it.

Chat

DillyDaily@lemmy.world
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2 months ago
Jesus, now that its terrifying!

What would even be the point of a link that allows you that? Like, why was it designed to do that!?

Props to that person who PM’d you the warning.
- chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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  2 months ago
  They were probably just lazy in their site design and the link itself contained the token for the login or whatever.

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