Stop Letting Links Spy on You

We care about your privacy so much that we’re about to show you how to get rid of the very data we could use for marketing. (Yeah, marketers are going to hate us for this one.)

Here’s the thing: those tracking parameters on links aren’t just clutter. They’re how marketers measure whether a campaign “worked” — what email got you to click, what social platform delivered the most traffic, how far you wandered after you landed. Useful for them. Creepy for you.

And while we love good data as much as the next nerd, we don’t love it when it comes at the cost of your privacy. Which is why this week’s tip is all about chopping that stuff off at the knees.

A URL is just a website’s street address. Here’s the basic anatomy:

Tracking junk gets bolted on at the end with a ?. Everything after that question mark is baggage you don’t need.

For example:

That extra string is just handing marketers and data brokers a trail of breadcrumbs straight to you.

Boom. Clean link.

Sure, you could copy-paste every single link and manually chop off the ? and everything after it. But if that sounds like a full-time job you didn’t apply for, there’s a smarter option.

🦁 Brave browser automatically strips most tracking junk right out of your links. No fiddling, no copy-paste cleanup, just clean URLs by default. Their team explains it here: Brave privacy update.

That way, you can keep your links tidy and your data trail shorter without adding another chore to your digital life.

CybersecuriTea is a free, plain-English guide to digital safety, designed for families, friends, and the folks you love. Subscribe today and get weekly tips to help keep your digital life secure.

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