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Please accept this in the ethos of no stupid questions.
The only programming I do is to defy tracking by deleting hash lines after ? In the url.
Some popular sites I am embarrassed to admit to even viewing have found a way around this by offering me share links without the ?.
It’s Instagram I am ashamed to mention.
What do I do to get rid of the tracking now?
Don't use the share with shortened url. Copy the page url instead.
Otherwise (you'll have to) accept that you don't know what's included in the shortened link.
Chances are they are doing something similar to URL shortening where a reference to the destination and the tracking info is either hashed into the URL directly or stored elsewhere behind whatever ID is in the URL.
Unshortening tools can fetch the actual URL (with any tracking params) in a private context.
I have no idea if anything exists on iOS, but on Android there are tools like URL Check which replace your default browser and let you un-short or otherwise manipulate URLs before opening in a browser or sharing.
What do I do to get rid of the tracking now?
You stop using these services.
I'm a programmer, and if they generate page URLs that are unique to you with your tracking baked in, do not allow you to view the page non-logged in, then there's no way to get rid of it, short of hacking their servers/databases.
If you can view it without an account, then you just browse without an account, without using a browser that has a unique fingerprint. So basically use something like the Tor one. Unfortunately for Instagram, I think both is not possible.
Of course it might be like the other comment says, it's only the special share URL that is like this, and the one you browse around normally isn't. Then you just use that one.
it's similar with amazon/booking - if you use their share button, you get a neater shortened url but tracking is baked in. but you can still just copy the url from the browser search bar instead (which, acknowledged, might particularly not work well for IG)
Removing referral info from URL parameters does very little to defeat tracking. Facebook, and others, can track most of your browsing history with cookies alone.
If you’re literally signed into a Facebook account and using their services then you can’t realistically avoid tracking….
You should be able to visit the post via a web browser that’s not signed in and get a direct URL. Also just don’t link to IG when possible (I know you probably have your reasons but throwing that out there).
