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Ask HN: Do you remove UTM parameters from links when including them in messages?
I always remove UTM parameters from links before including them in messages/emails. I was wondering if anyone else on HN does that and whether you think it is ethical?
- throwaway_009 6y agoI do too. And I don't understand why you think it is unethical to strip off the url params. I feel like it is unethical on the companies part instead to abuse the tech illiteracy among general populace.
- crones 6y agoI am anti-tracking in general, although it feels like that is a losing (or already lost) battle. Many on here make their living directly or indirectly through being able to track traffic, so I was curious to hear if there were any arguments (ethical or otherwise) against my approach.
- sp332 6y agoI don't think it's unethical of companies to include them. But I do remove them in places where you can see the URL, like an email, because I think it looks messy. I like reading URLs before I click on them and extraneous parameters make that more difficult.
- godot 6y agoI do it for this reason too. I use IM apps with my friends, and links that take up an entire screen are difficult to read for the recipient.
- mtmail 6y agoI even strip 'www.' if it automatically redirects. Marketing tracking parameters add no value for me or my readers. On HN I've seen a marketer or two who added tracking parameter in comments. It was something like &utm=hackernews&&utcampaign=betalaunch&utsource=comment. That's a bit much IMHO.
- treeface9000 6y agoof course... I do it out of respect for the receiver though. I would much rather see: www.something.com/stuff over www.something.com/stuff?itrackyou=123&moretracking=absolutely&utm=facebook123&garbageparam=moregarbage&howlongisthis=superlong&inolongertrustthislink=true
- tony-allan 6y agoI remove as much as possible (not just the utm bits) from any URL that I am planning to store or send to someone else. I especially dislike URLs that don't fit on one line.
- khannavid 6y agoI remove the UTM too and I don't think it's unethical. Digital marketers try their best to segment people properly, to measure everything accurately, etc but in the end there's NO WAY to do these things perfectly! There's a lot of measurement inaccuracies after all and it's a normal part of their job... They find other ways to achieve their goals.
- noahhh 6y agoyes, I usually remove them. And I don't feel bad about it. Rather the other way around, I feel bad if I send someone a message or email with a link incl. the UTM parameters.