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#collaboraoffice is excellent free alternative to Googles collaborative office technology, its based on Libre Office technology, #collabora is the largest contributor to #libreoffice and does a lot of other good for #freesoftware . You can install it super easy if you have a #nextcloud instance, or if you use a nice cloud host, or for no charge if you want to learn some systems administration and use your own hardware.

@Suiseiseki also mentioned Etherpad check it out https://etherpad.org/ #etherpad

For those unfamiliar with html: the href section, everything between href=" and "> is the real link, and the section between > and </a> is the display text

This html feature is useful so that a link can display as smething like "Read more", "Profile", "Wiki" etc, but in this case it is misused.

Google tracks people that are not using any of their products by adding hidden tracking links to exports without designer knowledge or end user consent.

@r3vilo @Joe_0237 I wish that there could be laws that say, "don't do this". Maybe the EU or the Canadian Privacy Commissioner could have a go at them? /c @pluralistic

@fratermus check the end of the link as well, there is a lot more added

@fratermus here is the <a> tag: <a class="c4" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wikimedia.org/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1696003997212491&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DXjy5IJ_7_vcyg0A9P8vC">https://www.wikimedia.org/</a>

the destination is https://www.wikimedia.org/
the infected href (tracking redirect) is: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.wikimedia.org/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1696003997212491&amp;usg=AOvVaw2DXjy5IJ_7_vcyg0A9P8vC

@dangoodin assuming you are able to create a google doc:

insert a link
file > download > webpage

you get a zip with an html file, you can find the tracking link by viewing the file as text or by opening the document in a browser and hovering over the link.

@Lep0le https://fosstodon.org/@Joe_0237/111149095315308332

@Joe_0237 thanks

@Joe_0237 just read through your posts and I suppose the question is, has your friend tried it haha

@ariadne He definitely has not. I also have not. Thanks for the tip tho, in the past ive used collabora office

@daviddd Well google is always tracking if you are using their products, how much and how is a well kept secret. Its all proprietary . The new shocking issue is them adding content to web exports to track people who are using sites that do not belong to them and without anyone's knowledge.

If you don't need the collaborative feature, you should install LibreOffice on your computer. Otherwise maybe look at https://www.onlyoffice.com/docspace.aspx

This only affects exports to html and ebub

@siguza @Joe_0237 I remember the time I thought it was cool that the Inbox app was taking stuff out of e-mails, like a button to the ticket pdf in the list of e-mails in my mailbox

@lil5 Interesting find. Perhaps they only officially track the google user who made the doc, so users unwittingly help the google collect stats on the author and their site, or only those that are signed with in google are tracked, and almost every person with a computer is usually signed into an account. But even so, this tactic shows that there no trust, so why shouldn't they track everyone, its not like they have to share the code they say only tracks legally.

@Joe_0237 @lil5 without a logged in account, the google domain gets the same data any other site would have. If they're not setting a cookie, and the link is taking you where it is intended, I don't see what they're doing wrong.

I'm up for being educated on this topic, as it affects my field of work. Thanks

@adg @lil5 I have not investigated that very deeply, but I don't think that the fact that any company can track makes it moral.

I don't know if they set a cookie or if not if they use a fingerprinter, but beyond any doubt they have your IP address and user agent which unless you are on a VPN or at a coffee shop or or share a network with your apartment building is probably enough to identify you.

But ...

@adg @lil5 ... even if they are not tracking the follower of the link, they are surely at least tracking link traffic on someone else's website or ebook, they know the source page because of the referer http header, they know the destination, and they know the document the link belongs to with the ID numbers the in the "ust" and "usg" url parameters.

@janc @adg @Joe_0237

In Google’s defense: the person clicking export already accepted the TOS

My concern is to any other person who hasn’t logged in, and hasn’t accepted Google’s TOS

I’d need to do some extra digging to what data is being collected and if it matters how much you have consent to.

@lil5 @adg @Joe_0237 It's impossible to know how much data they collect, and what other data they link it to (or what they will aggregate it with in the future).

@adg @Joe_0237 @lil5 In this case it's sending the IP address of e.g an ebook's reader to a third party. That's not something that person expects or agreed with.

Also, breaking the GDPR doesn't require that we have proof, we only need that to convict somebody, and just like most other criminals big data companies will try to hide their crimes.

(And Google got caught violating laws many times before, so I'm definitely not going to trust them...)