I always try removing the shit after the ? and if it doesn't affect the destination of the link at all then I assume it's tracking bullshit and in my opinion you should too.

Game programmer, former technical artist, sometimes low-spec artist
I always try removing the shit after the ? and if it doesn't affect the destination of the link at all then I assume it's tracking bullshit and in my opinion you should too.
It's like someone read my timeline and put out a call for this. Wish more people would care to sanitise their links.
in some cases (like with tiktok links), i've noticed that it straight-up prevents you from accessing what you were linked to without making an account
I'm not smart enough at computers to know these things. 😢
they should've added "Copy Link With Site Tracking" and not copied it by default
fyi that only strips parameters that are explicitly for tracking, like the ones that start with utm_, it doesn't magically know which parameters are functional and which are just tracking you
Idk why YouTube still bothers using youtu.be now that they’re systematically shoving tracker parameters in the URL making it unwieldy either way