Kitz Forum
Chat => Tech Chat => Topic started by: sevenlayermuddle on November 27, 2016, 12:42:14 PM
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It is the time of year when I am invited to dispatch letters to Santa, in the form of emails that might include an amazon link.
I've noticed that if I just copy & paste the address from the browser, it includes a long random-looking string. I also notice that it is a different string when viewed on a different computer, so I assume amazon are using it for tracking - i.e., if the recipient clicks on the link, amazon can conclude that myself and the recipient are in some way associated with one another.
Same thing if I hit the button for share by email, it generates a much shorter random string, but the string generated on my iPad is different to that generated on my PC, so again I suspect amazon are using it to track my social life, and build up a database of the people I communicate with.
'Share by email' also tries to coerce me to login to amazon even though I can see no need for it other than, once again, so amazon can get to know who I'm talking to.
Or... is there a less paranoid explanation? :D
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Hi sevenlayermuddle
Could it just be the session identifier, as I would think the page is been pulled from a database and hence, why it changed
Many thanks
John
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Hi sevenlayermuddle
Could it just be the session identifier, as I would think the page is been pulled from a database and hence, why it changed
Many thanks
John
Perhaps so, and that could be an innocent explanation. But why would the session ID be included in the link generated by the 'share' button?
In fact I have just noticed, a different string is generated every time I generate one by the 'share' button, even consecutively on the same device.
My suspicion is that this is probably harmless, but I'd still like to understand why. ???