uBlock Origin and Nature

[Lucio Chiappetti]

Since a few months I am using uBlock Origin 1.16.6.0 as ad-blocker.
I receive via e-mail a weekly digest for the scientific journal Nature. Recently, when I try to access some of the articles in the digest I get a message of the sort

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uBlock Origin has prevented the following page from loading:
Because of the following filter
||awstrack.me^
Found in: Peter Lowe’s Ad and tracking server list 
Disable temporarily | permanently

So far I click on the "temporarily" button to read the article.
Will a more permanent action be considered "safe" ?

[BenFenner]

If you are okay with Amazon Web Services tracking you, then you can permanently remove that filter. The protection will be lost everywhere, not just for links in e-mails.

There might be ways to handle th3se types of tracking URLs typically found in e-mails. Perhaps the Pure URL extension or eMatrix would be enough (but probably not)...

Edit: Thinking about it more, you'd be able to manually avoid the privacy implications by using some sort of "track me not" URL following service (I assume they exist) or in a pinch could use something like https://browser.lol for the same purpose.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

Hmm ... thanks. I did not know what awstrack.me is.
I have to say I am greatly disappointed, I'd never expected a primary science journal like Nature doing something like that. I do not know whether this is a recent thing or simply my move from ABL to uBO "uncloaked" it.

By the way, I have a "default" Pure URL but it seems not to do anything (could it be customized ?).
To clarify the context (and my reference to "e-mail") I receive once per week a mail message with an HTML attachment. I receive it to my work e-mail for institutional reasons. Then I save the HTML file to local disk, and access it via the browser (from home).

Now I looked to the source file of such HTML file and I see that almost all links are of the form (is this called "onion URLs" ?) like this

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https://5wpv90wm.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2Fsmc-link.s4hana.ondemand.com%2Feu%2Fdata-buffer%2Fsap%2Fpublic%2Fcuan%2Flink%2F100%2FA5851E9E389EA6AE3F093484E3D18F8C2ACD2BA0%3F_V_=2%26_K11_=F42BF43B57F86B041ABE84DEE094F880B60F09F4%26_L54AD1F204_=c2NlbmFyaW89TUxDUEcmdGVuYW50PW15MzA0NDI0LnM0aGFuYS5vbmRlbWFuZC5jb20mdGFyZ2V0PWh0dHBzOi8vbmF0dXJlLmNvbS9hcnRpY2xlcy9kNDE1ODYtMDI1LTAwOTU0LXk%252FV1QuZWNfaWQ9TkFUVVJFLTIwMjUwNDAzJnV0bV9zb3VyY2U9bmF0dXJlX2V0b2MmdXRtX21lZGl1bT1lbWFpbCZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249Q09OUl80MTU4Nl9BV0ExX0dMX0RURUNfMDU0Q0lfVE9DLTI1MDQwMyZzYXAtb3V0Ym91bmQtaWQ9QTU4NTFFOUUzODlFQTZBRTNGMDkzNDg0RTNEMThGOEMyQUNEMkJBMCZ1dG1fc291cmNlPXN0YW5kYXJkJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09ZW1haWwmdXRtX2NhbXBhaWduPTAwMF9TS042NTYzXzAwMDAwMzkyMTRfNDE1ODYtTmF0dXJlLTIwMjUwNDAzLUVBbGVydCZ1dG1fY29udGVudD1FTl83MzY1OF8yMDI1MDQwMyZta3Qta2V5PTQyMDEwQTA1NTdFQjFFRUE5QkE0MDc3MjAxNjg1QUI2%26_K13_=604%26_K14_=b5e9626e6161b0275034bc61c9a149cb0b920e09b7a95914217226c7c106e9b6/1/01020195fb1dcf33-b2b136d1-7ceb-474e-a02d-7f7104cd9f6f-000000/fgXqCpXxVVdRVwYb9xd-TmSHvF8=420

which, if I accept temporarily the thing, redirects to

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https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00954-y?WT.ec_id=NATURE-20250403&sap-outbound-id=A5851E9E389EA6AE3F093484E3D18F8C2ACD2BA0&mkt-key=42010A0557EB1EEA9BA4077201685AB6

There is no obvious cue about the way this is encoded.

The browser.lol seems to require a login, so I am not inclined to use it.

Concerning the actual tracking, which "personal private" information would be actually disclosed (and to whom) ? Just that an anonymous user (I am not logged in to anything) on a dynamic IP address (CGNAT from home) has accessed a given Nature article ? Or the encoded URL some how keeps track of the e-mail address to which the weekly alert was sent ?

[back2themoon]

I have to say I am greatly disappointed, I'd never expected a primary science journal like Nature doing something like that.

Email tracking is unavoidable, and I think it's a problem with essentially all newsletters "by design". Even from the most privacy-oriented companies. Check the AdGuard newsletter!

I would assume URL-cleaning extensions would be widely available for email clients too (not just browsers), but it seems that is not the case.

Fear not, though. Keep the newsletters if you like, just don't click on their links. You can subscribe to the relevant RSS feeds (I see Nature offers one) and visit the articles from there. Or just locate the articles yourself if there's no quick RSS option.

update: if you've already clicked on the email link, I don't think a browser extension can help.

[Moonchild]

To be frank, I absolutely hate link obfuscation in e-mails I get (and Epyrus dutifully always flags them as a potential hazard) because you can't tell if you're being sent to the actual company website or not just looking at the link which will be some hashed blob at the mailing list service.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

I would assume URL-cleaning extensions would be widely available for email clients too (not just browsers), but it seems that is not the case.

Fear not, though. Keep the newsletters if you like, just don't click on their links. You can subscribe to the relevant RSS feeds

I use a terminal-mode mail client (Alpine). HTML stuff if not filtered out by custom filters, is manually saved to disk and handled via the browser. I never used RSS so far. I have placed a complaint to Nature support asking what data do they save (first time mentiomning GDPR not as a nuisance). If they just store that somebody anonymous accessed such article, or even that I did it, it could be accepted. Some quick search about AWS tracking seems to indicate it is something about 6-month old, and concerns access to document stored on AWS cloud (so at the end not so different from the apache log of a browser).

I tried feeding the link to https://untrack.link/ but this strips just the awstrack part leaving the s4hana.ondemand.com (it does not resolve the nature.com URL) in a form of an unusable URL. Apparently duckduckgo is told to do tracker stripping but the URL is too long !

[BenFenner]

The browser.lol seems to require a login

That is not the case. It requires no login.

This might help?
https://browser.lol/create

Although, it would be an admittedly clunky solution to your problem.

To be frank, I absolutely hate link obfuscation in e-mails

It is, of course, complete enshitification. But I can't say I've clicked on a link in an e-mail in 15+ years. So I kind of forget how obnoxious they are.

I tried feeding the link to https://untrack.link/ but this strips just the awstrack part leaving the s4hana.ondemand.com (it does not resolve the nature.com URL) in a form of an unusable URL. Apparently duckduckgo is told to do tracker stripping but the URL is too long !

This almost gives me enough motivation to improve my own URL resolver and release it to the public...

[adoxa]

I use "Enlarge your link!" Unfortunately, I don't remember where I got it from (doesn't seem to be in CAA), so I've attached it. Install it, right-click the link, select "Enlarge this link" and after a bit the URL will be replaced with the Nature URL. Of course, it still goes through the motions (albeit HEAD instead of GET), so perhaps not much better than just clicking the link, anyway.

[Lucio Chiappetti]

This might help?
https://browser.lol/create

Sorry, no ... if I paste the long URL the browser freezes and I habe to kill it.

I use "Enlarge your link!" ... so I've attached it. Install it, right-click the link, select "Enlarge this link"

Not sure if it is the right thing. Seems oriented to expand things like tinyurl not to ... compress or resolve long encoded URLs. Anyhow I installed it (it is flagged orange not blue in the Addon page) but I do not see any "Enlarge this link" when right-clicking.
But curiously enough right-clicking shows a "Search Duckduckgo for ..." which I had never noticed before (could it be a side effect of the new add on ? or was it present also before ?) which works and finds the article.

So thanks adoxa and Duckduckgo in whatever order

Edit: disabling the new addon shows "Search Duckduckgo for ..." is/was still there

[back2themoon]

I never used RSS so far.

You can use Pale Moon directly. No other software or extension needed. Subscribing to the RSS feed will create a "Live Bookmark" which you can put e.g. in your Bookmarks Toolbar for immediate access to all recent articles. From as many sources as you like.

[Moonchild]

But curiously enough right-clicking shows a "Search Duckduckgo for ..." which I had never noticed before

That is part of Pale Moon. if you select text, your right-click menu will have the option to search the web using your currently selected search engine.