On 16/5/14 13:02, L. David Baron wrote:
On Friday 2014-05-16 12:49 +0100, Jonathan Kew wrote:
When I click a Google search result (for example), I can see --
thanks to the status overlay that shows the URLs being requested --
that it's redirecting me via a Google URL that is presumably being
used to track me.
You actually don't, since Google doesn't add the tracking stuff to
the link until you click it. But it adds it early enough in click
handling so that it affects what happens when you click the link.
To see this:
1. search for something on Google
2. hover over the link in a result; you see a normal link
3. right-click to get the link's context menu
4. hover over the link again
In step (2) you see the link on its own; in step (4) you see the
version with the tracking redirect added.
Yes; but even if I simply click the link at step (2), I see (via the
status overlay) that it actually sends me via a Google tracking URL
instead of directly to the destination. I remember noticing (and
disapproving) when this behavior was first introduced to their search
results.
At that point, of course, it's too late to decide I didn't want Google
to know that I clicked that link -- but in the process, I've learned
something: that Google search results are not simply links for my
browser to follow, but "booby-traps" that will report back to Google
before taking me to the target page. And if I don't like that, I might
decide to look for a different search engine, or to be more careful what
I do with results in future.
Replacing the redirects with <a ping> will completely hide this from me;
in that case, I might never have noticed that clicking those links was
anything more than a simple "go to this page".
Maybe that's OK, but I do think this changes things in a significant
way, and we should give some priority to addressing the concerns. Maybe
the send-ping preference should be exposed at a similar level to Do Not
Track?
For comparison, I really like the fact that when an email comes with
return receipt request, Thunderbird will ask me something like "the
sender asked to be notified when you open this message..." and let me
choose whether or not to respond. While I guess <a ping> will probably
become so widespread that I wouldn't want to be prompted every time
("Google asked to be notified when you click this link..."), some kind
of user notification and UI to opt in/out of tracking does seem needed here.
JK
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