Path: ...!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Gary McGath <garym@mcgath.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom
Subject: Re: Ansible 444 -- July 2024
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2024 14:49:12 -0400
Organization: Mad Scientists' Union
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On 7/1/24 12:02 PM, David Langford wrote:
> EDITORIAL. Being routinely paranoid about links that don't go where
> claimed, I was a little slow to vote in 2026 Worldcon site selection. The
> email from the voting subcontractor ElectionBuddy Inc shows the URL as
> 'secure.electionbuddy.com/' followed by the promised 19-character voter ID
> -- but hovering over the link reveals it as 'go.electionbuddy.com/' plus
> some 200 characters of alphanumerical gibberish. No doubt there are vitally
> important security reasons for this....

This is a universal problem with mailing list services these days. They 
include an image element just so the sender will be pinged every time 
someone opens a message. The links all contain personalized tracking 
information. In many cases they don't even go to the alleged 
destination, but to a URL that may, if it feels like it, redirect you 
there after sucking out all the personalized information, or could take 
you somewhere else for all you know.

-- 
Gary McGath    http://www.mcgath.com