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Why do websites still include those buttons to share articles in 2025? does anyone even still use them? (reddthat.com)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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[–] 192 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Tracking. The links themselves will likely have unique referrer IDs so the platform knows where a click comes from.

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  • [–] 141 points 1 year ago (4 children)

    Also, they track website visitors without them even clicking the button. Just loading the "share" icon from the social media website allows them to see that you are reading that specific article, and if they recognise your IP or can fingerprint your browser then they can tie it to your social media account (advertising profile).

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  • [–] 30 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Just loading the "share" icon from the social media website allows them to see that you are reading that specific article

    The buttons aren't necessary for this though. They can do that with a tag, or a hidden 1x1 pixel

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  • [–] 47 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Yes, but Facebook can't just place that script on other people's pages.

    That's the point of the buttons. Website designers place that shit themselves.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago* (1 child)

    The buttons don't do any tracking just from existing. They only exist to encourage a miniscule number of people to repost your content on social media, and in the event a share comes from that, they may include affiliate info

    All the useful information comes from the tracking scripts, which developers are also placing themselves because they are infinitely more useful. They tell you where visitors are coming from, how/if they are converting, everything they are viewing/interacting with on your site, and what the ROI of your ad spend is. In addition to telling you if someone clicked the share button.

    Tracking pixels have been decoupled from the "share" buttons for at least 10-15 years

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  • [–] 5 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I hear you say that. But umatrix consistently show facebook twitter google and friends failing to load on the majority of pages i visit. Is that something else?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 year ago

    It's Google analytics, and the meta/twitter/etc tracking pixels. Almost every site uses them because they provide useful data to the site owner and they are free.

    the images in OPs post appear to be designed to match their site theme, meaning umatrix wouldn't even block them, because they are being served from the sites actual domain/CDN and not from Facebook/Google's tracking domain.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 year ago

    That's not really a thing anymore since the GDPR went into force. These days, websites integrate these buttons directly into the webpage rather than loading them dynamically. The buttons in the screenshot are custom designs, too, so they didn't get loaded from the social media companies.

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  • [–] 4 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    I use a combination of things like Librewolf, uBlock Origin, and Pihole w/ maintained adlists. I wonder if any or all of that blocks this type of tracking. I know Librewolf has pretty good fingerprinting protections.

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