Stripping URL's

[yogi]

We all know that one way to fish out phishing schemes is to hover over a link and check out (in the lower left corner of most browsers) the web address to which it is pointing, right? You know, getting something from "https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/" is probably ok but "https://www.microsort.com/en-us/" is probably bogus. Changing the 'f' to an 'r' is a deliberate attempt to fool the casual or unobservant web page surfer. You got to wonder why they did that, and it's probably because they are up to no good.

But then there is the spam that is neither good nor bad. It's sole purpose in life is to collect data about the people who click on the link. In some cases the data being collected is part of the URL (webpage address). If you are the kind of person who isn't fond of being tracked by data hungry robots, then there is a simple little trick you can use to not send data to anonymous servers.

I received the following link in an email today.
"http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... 1572354214"

Checking it out you will note there is a question mark right after the ".aspx" part of the address. The question mark and everything after it is the data being collected about you. Here is a breakdown of what they are collecting:
THE ACTUAL WEB PAGE ADDRESS IS:
"http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... osure.aspx"
THE QUESTION MARK TO SET OFF THE REST OF IT: ?
THE DATA:

• utm_source=wnl&
  utm_medium=email&
  utm_content=art1&
  utm_campaign=20160714Z1_CND&
  et_cid=DM113166&
  et_rid=1572354214

I'll admit that I don't know what those six bits of data mean, but they are very important to the person collecting them. They identify you as an unique web surfer and will be looking for you elsewhere. Harmless? Maybe, maybe not. Being the skeptical guy I am, if I want to view the link or send it on to others (such as posting it in this forum) I strip off everything from the question mark on to the end of the URL. Guess what! You end up at the same place but without giving away a lot of information you may not want to share.

Thus sending this:
"http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... osure.aspx"
instead of this:
"http://articles.mercola.com/sites/artic ... 1572354214"
will get you to the same place on the Internet. NOTE: The former does not make you anonymous, but it also does not give away information you were not consenting to provide.

[pilvikki]

very nice! thank you!

i'll go plat with that now.



and in case you wonder why I want to do that, it's because otherwise i'll instantly forget about it.

[Kellemora]

Interesting Yogi!

FWIW: Here is the URL shown for THIS PAGE

viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1252

I know, it's not aspx, even so, sometimes the info is useful to get where you are going.

[yogi]

Hi Gary - the link you post is to a particular topic in our forum. The URL data is the directions in our case. We are using the data for navigation, but the link in the example is not. Strip off the data from our link and you will end up on the index page, not at the topic. Strip off the data from the example link, and you end up with the original content. Thus their data is not being used for navigation. My question is, what is it used for

Now for the rest of the story (you know I can't resist technical detail, right?)
The data you see in URL links is an HTTP method that allows transmission of information between client and host. There are PUT and POST methods to send data and a GET method to read data. The data sent via POST is everything after the question mark in a URL. A cgi script on the server will read the information and know what to do with it - fill up a database most likely. Each bit of data is separated in the PUT string by an ampersand '&' and, of course, the question mark denotes the start of the data string. This is a really unsafe and unsecured way to send data because it's viewable by anyone just for the looking. Then again, when all you are doing is collecting data, it really doesn't matter who sees it in transit. If it mattered, it would be encrypted, which it often is.

Need to know more? http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_httpmethods.asp

[Kellemora]

I understand Yogi!
I often make use of things like page numbers after the question mark on some websites to save from having to scroll down to the right NEXT arrow, and just jump to where I want to go.
Some websites may have over a thousand pages in a single forum topic, and you can only move through the listings ten pages at a time. If their URL shows what page I'm on, and many do, I can just type in the page number I want and hit return and bang, there I am, right where I left off before. Provided I keep track of where I was before I left of course.
Now, some websites use cookies or whatever, so you can get back to where you were previously.
Sorta like here always takes me to where I left off reading, if I click the button for that purpose.
So I do know they are not reading my data, just keeping track of what page I'm on is all.

[Icey]

Well fancy that! Thank you Yogi.