Neat URLs create addresses that track you

Do you notice the URLs before you click? If you do, you will notice that sometimes the link is very large and that the URL contains random or descriptive characters.

An example with a Google url. I searched for the term microsoft

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&ei=Ewx7X9PwD66bjLsPhY6WyAY&q=microsoft+&oq=microsoft+&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQDDIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzIECAAQQzoECAAQR1Ca2AdYmtgHYILhB2gAcAJ4AIAB1QGIAdUBkgEDMi0xmAEAoAEBqgEHZ3dzLXdpesgBCMABAQ&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwiTxoPotJ3sAhWuDWMBHQWHBWkQ4dUDCAw

While the required URL is the following:

https://www.google.com/search?q=microsoft

Why are there so many characters in the first link? They are watching us, they are spraying us… I do not know about the spraying, but I am sure about the monitoring.

All sites save in your browser to display the content on their websites, to help you log in and to show you advertisements from products that interest you. Cookies are one of the ways websites can track you, but they are not the only method used for this purpose.

A seemingly harmless URL can be used to track user activity. The most common example is a referral link that takes you to a specific site (landing page). The link states the page you are coming from:

For example https://iguru.gr/?ref=some_code_name

The link will take you to , but the last part of the link states coded (or not) where you come from.
Google, Twitter, Facebook do the same, but they collect a lot more data, as you can understand from the size of the link above.

Many such links are used in newsletters. When you click on them, the site will know if you opened the email, if you opened the page, but also how long you stayed on it. Below we will see how you can reduce URL tracking with the help of an add-on.

Extensions like uBlock Origin (and ad filters) help prevent most , but they do not clean tracking data from “normal” URLs. This is where the Neat URL plugin comes in.

Download the Neat URL extension for Firefox or him Chrome . After you will see the icon in the toolbar. You can click the button to disable the plugin at any time. The icon has a badge on it that represents the number of trackers that were cut from a URL.

How does it work;

All tracking URLs use specific patterns. For example, many URLs use a random string used for tracking.

Many times we see additions to the URL that state "utm_source" and "utm_medium". The first parameter refers to the site from which I visited the page. The second is useful for marketing purposes: to show the direction / origin of traffic (direct link, Google, etc.).

Neat URL uses a system based on the parameters commonly used to locate and remove unwanted content from links.

Nevertheless from the usual terms that indicate tracking in a link with Neat URL you can add others that may not be included in the plugin. That is, you can add custom parameters that only use a few domains.

Neat URL is an add-on open source and is based on the Lean URL.

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Written by giorgos

George still wonders what he's doing here ...

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