Please don't post links with tracking parameters (t=jQb...).

https://xcancel.com/cperciva/status/2029645027358495156

Haha. This was the second time in like a year that I’ve posted a Twitter link, and the second time someone complained. Okay, I’ll try to remove those before posting, and I’ll edit this one out.

Feels like a losing battle, but hey, the audience is usually right.

I'm sorry, but it's my pet peeve. If you're on iOS/macOS I built a 100% free and privacy-friendly app to get rid of tracking parameters from hundreds of different websites, not just X/Twitter.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/clean-links-qr-code-reader/id6...

This is great! I have been meaning to implement this sort of thing in my existing Shortcuts flow but I see you already support it in Shortcuts! Thank you for this!

Anywhere I can toss a Tip for this free app?

I'm glad you like it. :)

It works on iOS? That’s cool. I’ll give it a go.

So what is your motivation for doing this, incidentally? Can you be explicit about it? I am genuinely curious.

Especially when it’s to the point of, you know, nagging/policing people to do it the way you’d prefer, when you could just redirect your router requests from x.com to xcancel.com

Helpful type of nagging for me. Most here would agree they are not a positive aspect of the modern digital experience, calling it out gently without hostility is not bad. It might not be quite self policing but some of that with good reason is not bad for healthy communities IMO.

It's not particularly about x.com, hundreds of site like x, youtube, facebook, linkedin, tiktok etc surreptitious add tracking parameters to their links. The iOS Messages app even hides these tracking parameters. I don't like being surreptitiously tracked online and judging by the success of my free app, there are millions of people like me.

so, since these companies have to comply with removing PII, is the worst thing that could happen to me, that I get ads that are more likely to be interesting to me?

i’m not being facetious, honest question, especially considering ads are the only thing paying these people these days