20 KiB
20 KiB
- you should be removing tracking information from all of your links.
parts of a url:
https://www.example.com:443/products/shoes?utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=summer_sale&fbclid=abc123#reviews
Protocol
How to communicate with the server (https is encrypted, http is not)
Subdomain
A subdivision of the main domain, often used for different services
Domain
The human-readable name that identifies the website
TLD
Top-Level Domain, the suffix like .com, .org, or .net
Port
Network port number (443 is default for HTTPS, 80 for HTTP)
Path
The specific page or resource location on the server
Query Params
Key-value pairs that pass data to the page often used for tracking
Fragment
Links to a specific section within the page (not sent to server)
Understanding Query Parameters
Query parameters are the part of a URL that comes after the ?. They consist of key-value pairs that pass data to the page. Let's break down how they work:
?size=medium&color=light%20blue&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=abc123xyz
Structure
? Delimiter
Marks the start of query parameters in a URL
Key
The name of the data being passed
= Assignment
Connects each key to its value
Value
The actual data being passed
& Separator
Separates multiple key-value pairs
Parameters in this example
size=medium
Useful parameter — tells the page which size to select
color=light%20blue
Useful parameter — tells the page which color variant to show
utm_source=facebook
⚠️ Tracking parameter — tells the site you came from Facebook
fbclid=abc123xyz
⚠️ Tracking parameter — Facebook's click ID to track your activity
explain what each part does
explain why a website would want to use query parameters
teach that tech companies then started to use that information to track how users use their websites
explain why that is a bad thing for privacy, and personal life
give example of tracking links and how to protect against them