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Comment by ilammy | Hacker News Reader

> On the one hand we have some companies trying to block things like tracker pixels and other static images for tracking purposes.

Speaking of which, when you access Gmail via IMAP, Google replaces every URL in HTML email with a tracking link, having you go through their servers first before being redirected to where you actually want to go.

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I've noticed that almost all links in emails I receive in Gmail for Android, redirect through a Google link first.

I just checked and though click-and-hold shows the real link, if I tap to open, it actually opens "https://www.google.com/url?q=<original link>" in my browser.

EDIT: This happens for both Workspace and normal "free" accounts.

Is that redirect to avoid sending a referer header to server though? In other words, doesn't it actually prevent tracking?

Native apps don't produce referer headers when opening a link in a browser.

But that wouldn't prevent tracking anyway. It would just mean all the tracking is done by Google.

But that could be done by other, less obvious means, if desired. Does this redirect add any new tracking abilities?

Yeah, it only prevents taking for non Google and gives them all of the tracking instead.

This is a huge annoyance. If you long press and select "Open in browser", this redirect doesn't seem to happen.

I'd love for a Firefox Android extension to remove this, alas it doesn't seem to have been 'blessed by Mozilla' to be available on mobile.

This shouldn't even be necessary. I get that Google already has the link cause it's in Gmail.

They do, but there's a different level of importance in tracking for just any link and a link you click.

I just checked for the two Gmail Workspace accounts I am reading using IMAP, and in both cases links are not altered.

Does this replacement occurs for free Gmail accounts ?

Just checked my private one. No, nothing like that happens.

This definitely sometimes happens and sometimes not, but I'm not sure when. I remember this happening recently on my private email (that I can't access atm), but I can't find any examples in my work email.

Yes, this has been a concern, but so far we have only witnessed the link rewriting for clients using the gmail web application, not IMAP access.

I'm counting on Google Workspace customers much larger than me to keep gmail in line.

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