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?
I 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.
I 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.
I 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.
I 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.
I don't get why they add them when posting on HN. It's a senstive crowd and they can still figure out that the traffic came from HN by logging/tracking the `Referrer` header.
of 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
I 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.
yes, 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.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadMany 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.
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.
I especially dislike URLs that don't fit on one line.
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.