That’s the intention. The trackers serve as a signature that is used to track the flow of information and build up a shadow profile on you and whoever clicked the link. If you didn’t use a VPN, Google now knows you personally are the sort of person to share this information, and will use that to feed you more seductive propaganda.
UTM tracking are basicly just used to know the origin of the link, however they do not store personal data in it at all. So Google does not know, if I or you shared that link.
The tracking mainly works by just having Google Analytics in pretty much every website and Google reading out browser fingerprints.
“[…] used by marketers to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns across traffic sources and publishing media. They were introduced by Google Analytics’ predecessor Urchin […]” —Wikipedia
Please edit the UTM trackers out of the link to: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/31/2336178/-Japan-s-Quiet-Rebellion-Against-Growth-Instead-of-striving-for-more-Japan-simply-chose-less
Done, but who cares. It is the wrong origin anyway.
That’s the intention. The trackers serve as a signature that is used to track the flow of information and build up a shadow profile on you and whoever clicked the link. If you didn’t use a VPN, Google now knows you personally are the sort of person to share this information, and will use that to feed you more seductive propaganda.
UTM tracking are basicly just used to know the origin of the link, however they do not store personal data in it at all. So Google does not know, if I or you shared that link.
The tracking mainly works by just having Google Analytics in pretty much every website and Google reading out browser fingerprints.
Until yesterday, I knew some stuff about tracking (mainly that my ad-blocker was taking care of it), but never heard about the UTM one.
From the articles I read since, it’s this UTM tracking for dummies that clarified things for me, and I think it cofirms what you say.
“[…] used by marketers to track the effectiveness of online marketing campaigns across traffic sources and publishing media. They were introduced by Google Analytics’ predecessor Urchin […]” —Wikipedia
Screw marketing.