From a99d97ad3ad81072c95cf258ada77a2722dfdca1 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Yuchen Pei Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2023 00:27:26 +1100 Subject: Cosmetic changes to the readme --- README.org | 50 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------- 1 file changed, 27 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.org b/README.org index a26be98..84be873 100644 --- a/README.org +++ b/README.org @@ -3,29 +3,31 @@ * Introduction :PROPERTIES: - :UPDATED: [2023-10-30 Mon 00:02] + :UPDATED: [2023-10-30 Mon 00:27] :END: -Click trackers are recipient-specific links in email newsletters which -when clicked, registers the click with the sender's server and gets a -the real link through http redirect (301/302). On top of the info that -a server gains from a GET request like IP address and time of the -request, the sender's server can also identify the email recipient who -clicked the link because each recipient receives a unique link, and -there are few ways to defend against such identification. +A click tracker is a recipient-specific link in email newsletters +which when clicked, registers the click with the sender's server and +gets the real link through HTTP redirect (301/302). On top of the info +that a server gains from a GET request like IP address and time of the +request, the email sender's server can also identify the email +recipient who clicked the link because each recipient receives a +unique link, and there are few ways to defend against such +identification. Click trackers are a violation of privacy regardless of how the sender -of the email tries to justify it. This program aims to mitigate the -privacy risk for email recipients, by automatically sending a HEAD -request to all links and collecting the real urls, and at the time -when the recipient actually reads the mails, showing the real urls. +of the email tries to justify it. This project, ~traclicker~ is a +program that aims to mitigate the privacy risk from click trackers, by +automatically sending a HEAD request to all links and collecting the +real urls, and at the time when the recipient actually reads the +mails, showing the real urls. * Usage :PROPERTIES: - :UPDATED: [2023-10-30 Mon 00:20] + :UPDATED: [2023-10-30 Mon 00:26] :END: -Add to load path and require. +Add to ~load-path~ and ~require~. #+begin_src emacs-lisp (add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/lisp/traclicker") @@ -45,7 +47,8 @@ click trackers with real links: You are ready for an initial scan now. To do an initial scan of all mails in these maildirs by these senders, do ~M-x tracli-scan~. -To do an initial scan of emails from say the past 30 days, eval +To do an initial scan of emails from say the past 30 days, do the +following #+begin_src emacs-lisp (tracli-scan @@ -54,8 +57,8 @@ To do an initial scan of emails from say the past 30 days, eval (* 60 60 24 30)))) #+end_src -Or to do a symbolic scan of emails, i.e. just initialise an empty -database with the current time stamp for future scans, do +Alternatively, to do a symbolic scan of emails that just initialises +an empty database with the current time stamp for future scans, do #+begin_src emacs-lisp (tracli-scan (format-time-string "%s" (current-time))) @@ -77,14 +80,15 @@ or as a hook after running say ~gnus-group-get-new-news~ (add-hook 'gnus-after-getting-new-news-hook #'tracli-scan) #+end_src -Whenever you view a mail containing click trackers in the traclicker -database, run ~M-x tracli-wash-gnus-article~ (by default bound to ~v -t~ in gnus-summary-mode or gnus-article-mode), and all the click -tracker urls are replaced by the real urls! +Whenever you view a mail containing click trackers recorded in +traclicker database, run ~M-x tracli-wash-gnus-article~ (by default +bound to ~v t~ in gnus-summary-mode or gnus-article-mode), and all the +click tracker urls are replaced by the real urls! Note that the real urls may still contain tracking query parts like -utm parameters, but the cleaning of these urls by hand is feasible, -and a package that does so belongs to a separate project :D +utm parameters, but the cleaning of these urls is feasible by hand, +and a package that does so automatically belongs to a separate project +:D * Copyright and contact :PROPERTIES: -- cgit v1.2.3