Please be careful what information is in links you post

[helvella]

We have seen several posts recently which have very long links in them.

For many of them, most of the link is used to track who saw the link, what page they saw it on, what advertising campaign it is part of, when it was displayed, even what computer it was seen on.

This information should all be private.

The big tech companies can link this data together and see that facebookmemberA of, say, Facebook, has posted a link on HealthUnlocked as healthunlockedmemberB, using the same computer. Therefore, they link facebookmemberA with healthunlockedmemberB and assume they are the same person.

This extra data can also be used so that the advertiser can reward facebookmemberA for re-posting the links. Or if anyone clicks on the link and buys something.

Affiliate links are NOT ALLOWED on the forum. And, for your own privacy and security, links which identify individuals are generally not allowed.

Further, because HealthUnlocked truncates what is displayed, members simply cannot see all the extra information in the long link (unless they click on it):

Extremely long link:

aaaaaaaaaaaa.com/page/name-...

First part of link only:

aaaaaaaaaaaa.com/page/name-...

Much of the time, you can reduce the post to just the first part - before the question mark. Doing this helps to avoid being tracked, avoids the link looking like an affiliate link and being removed, and simply being so unmanageably long!

This doesn’t always work. I know that it cannot be done on Dropbox links without breaking them. I suggest you try posting just the first part, as shown in the attached image, and see if it works. You can always edit your post if it doesn’t work!

[ All links used are entirely bogus/fake and are for illustration only. ]

NB: Admin would much prefer members remove this before they post. We cannot notice everything, all the time, and editing links is something we'd rather not have to do. But if we edit a link for these reasons, it does not mean that the linked site is a problem. Just the extra information in the link itself.

[Alanna012]

I'm not techy at all. Sometimes I notice you go to copy from a page (newspaper article for e.g.) and you sometimes end up with a long link. Other times you get a short one.

There's a way of ensuring you ever get the short one, but I can never remember how to do it unless by chance.

[helvella Administrator in reply to Alanna012]

I'm afraid that it is difficult for those who have no technical background. That is precisely why I have tried to show what can be done.

Lots of sites have no option to grab a short link. After all, the site desperately wants you to help them!

I also understand that it is especially difficult on phones with small screens, one one page visible, etc.

Most of time, you simply have to check the link when you paste it into a post or reply. And edit it if needed.

[RedApple Administrator in reply to Alanna012]

Look at the link you have copied before you hit the post button. If it has a question mark ? in it, delete everything including and after the ?

Then post it. If the link doesn't work when you've posted people will soon let you know

[helvella Administrator in reply to RedApple]

That's true! They do let you know.

[Alanna012 in reply to RedApple]

Thanks!

[greygoose]

Wow! I didn't know any of that! Thank you.

[Fruitandnutcase in reply to greygoose]

You have taken the words right out of my mouth. Wow! Is exactly what I was thinking.

Once again, thank you Helvella.

[HealthStarDust]

I actually clicked on those bogus links in the same way I call telephone numbers I see on favourite to shows, because, you never know 🤣

[helvella Administrator]

To help make it clearer, that very long link breaks down into lots of separate bits - and you can see "fb" and "Facebook" in there. The other bits identify the actual advertisement id and lots else that could mean anything! (Details are fake.)

?tw_source=fb&

tw_adid=999999999999999999&

fbclid=aBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaBaB&

utm_source=Facebook&

utm_medium=paid&

campaign_id=88888888888888&

ad_id=77777777777777&

utm_id=6666666666666666&

utm_content=55555555555555&

utm_term=4444444444444&

utm_campaign=33333333333333

[Pollypet]

Thank you - a very useful bit of information for us all. I didn’t know that!

[humanbean]

Further, because HealthUnlocked truncates what is displayed, members simply cannot see all the extra information in the long link (unless they click on it)

I don't know if this is relevant to everyone, but I use a desktop PC to use the internet, and I use Firefox.

When I put my cursor over a link (but without clicking) that I think I want to see, I can see the destination of the link in the bottom left of my browser window without actually going there.

It's a good safety habit to get into to do that check before any clicking.