TechLifeWeb

Keeping your information private in the Internet is getting harder and harder. Last weeks episode of the Security Now! podcast outlined how even Paypal is getting a little shady and redirecting links through doubleclick.net. It’s really crazy. Just about all their links contain redirection.

The whole topic is a little complex but to show you what I am talking about, this image is from before you even log in to PayPal (click to enlarge):

You’ll see the first part of the URL sends you through doubleclick.net (everything to the left of the ‘?’ in the URL).

Fortunately, as mentioned during the podcast, Firefox users have the wonderful Greasemonkey extension. I’ve created a script called Doubleclick Relinker. This script takes all those links and strips off the redirection and rewrites them so they only contain the real link.

nodclick.user.js

The script is designed to work on any page with doubleclick redirection links, not just PayPal. Give it a go. I have tested it but not extensively. If you modify it, let me know.