uBlock has an option to remove these…

Here it is on mobile.

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

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.

I use urlchecker from triangulous for this

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.

Sharing a tracked link is a netizens equivalent of sneezing without covering your face. Unhygienic

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

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:

The Clear URLs extension is also available on Firefox for Android - cool stuff

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