The Hidden Dangers of URL Shorteners
You use them every day: short links in tweets, emails, or WhatsApp messages. Convenient, right? A long, messy URL becomes a neat, short link. But what actually happens when you click one?
Spoiler: more than you think. And not always in your favor.
Free? Then You're the Product
Those handy free URL shorteners need to make money somehow. And they often do that by selling your data. Sounds dramatic, but it's the harsh reality.
What They Know About You
Every time you click a shortened link, a lot gets tracked:
- Your IP address (and therefore location)
- What device you're using
- Which browser you're running
- Where you came from (referrer)
- What time you clicked
- Your browsing behavior
72% of people have no idea this is happening. You think you're just clicking a link, but behind the scenes, there's a whole data collection operation running.
Your Data for Sale
About 38% of free URL shorteners share your click data with third parties. Sure, they say it's "anonymized," but here's the thing: when you combine enough anonymous data, you can often figure out who someone is.
The worst part? Almost nobody reads the privacy policy. Only 9% of people actually check what happens with their data before clicking. The rest just click and hope for the best.
Security Nightmares Hidden Behind Short Links
The feature that makes URL shorteners useful—hiding the destination—is exactly what makes them dangerous.
Phishing Paradise
65% of phishing attacks now use URL shorteners. Why? Because you can't see where you're actually going until you click. A link from bit.ly or tinyurl looks trustworthy, even when it leads to a fake login page designed to steal your password.
Hackers love this. They create a shortened link, make it look legitimate, and wait for people to click. By the time you realize it's fake, your credentials are already gone.
Malware Distribution
Between July 2024 and June 2025, security researchers identified six popular URL shorteners that were heavily abused to spread malware. Information stealers like Pure Logs Stealer and Lumma Stealer infected hundreds of thousands of devices.
The clever part? Attackers often chain multiple shorteners together. Click one shortened link, it redirects to another shortened link, which then takes you to the malware. This tricks security tools that only check the first redirect.
Features That Help Hackers
Those analytics features that marketers love? Hackers love them too. When you click a malicious shortened link, the attacker immediately knows:
- Your location
- Your device type
- Your browser
- Whether you're actually using that email address
This intel helps them craft better targeted attacks against you later.
Some shorteners even let you password-protect links or route traffic differently based on location. Sounds useful, right? Except attackers use these features to hide malicious sites from security scanners while showing them to real victims.
Data Breaches and Broken Links
URL shortening services collect massive amounts of data, making them attractive targets for hackers.
Exposed Dashboards
Security researchers found over 400 million shortened URLs publicly accessible because of misconfigured analytics dashboards. That exposed IP addresses, locations, and campaign data that people assumed was private.
When a URL shortener gets breached, everyone who used it is affected. Your audience's data, your campaign strategy—all potentially in the hands of criminals.
The Service Shutdown Problem
Remember Google's goo.gl? Shut down in 2019. Millions of links across the internet stopped working overnight.
A major free shortener had a 4-hour outage in 2023. Over 15 million links globally just... stopped. If your business relies on free shorteners, you're one shutdown away from losing all those links forever.
The Legal Minefield (GDPR, CCPA & Friends)
If your business operates in Europe or serves European customers, URL shorteners create a compliance nightmare.
GDPR Says What?
Under GDPR, IP addresses are personal data. URL shorteners collect IP addresses. Therefore, you need:
- A legal basis for collecting that data
- User consent (in many cases)
- A Data Processing Agreement with your shortener
- The ability to honor deletion requests
Analytics platforms have been fined €90 million for improper tracking. Think your URL shortener is exempt? Think again.
CCPA Compliance
Serving California customers? The California Consumer Privacy Act means you need to:
- Notify users about data collection
- Honor deletion requests
- Provide opt-out mechanisms
- Not discriminate against users who opt out
41% of businesses using free URL shorteners unknowingly violate data protection laws. Most never considered that shortening links could trigger million-dollar penalties.
Cookie Chaos
Many URL shorteners drop tracking cookies on your visitors without proper consent. GDPR requires explicit consent before non-essential cookies. Companies have been fined €60 million specifically for cookie violations.
What You Can Do About It
Understanding the risks is step one. Here's step two:
Check Before You Click
Some shorteners let you preview where a link goes. For Bitly links, add a "+" at the end to see the destination. Use tools like VirusTotal or URLVoid to check suspicious links.
Use Trusted Services Only
Stick to reputable shorteners with clear privacy policies. Avoid obscure services offering "unlimited free features" with no visible business model.
For Businesses: Do Your Homework
Before using a URL shortener for your company:
- Review their security and privacy practices
- Check where their servers are located
- Get a Data Processing Agreement
- Verify GDPR/CCPA compliance
- Understand what data they collect and why
Consider Privacy-First Alternatives
Not all URL shorteners are created equal. Privacy-focused services exist that:
- Don't track individual users
- Don't place cookies
- Store minimal data
- Use EU-based servers
- Include GDPR compliance by design
- Give users control over their data
The Ethical Alternative: Privacy-First Digital Services
Fortunately, a new generation of digital services is emerging that prioritizes user privacy without sacrificing functionality. These platforms prove that you can provide valuable services without selling out your users.
What Makes a URL Shortener Ethical?
The difference is simple: collect only what's necessary, be transparent about it, and respect user privacy as a fundamental right.
Key principles of ethical shorteners:
- Data minimization: Only collect what's needed for core functionality
- No third-party sharing: Your data stays with the service, period
- EU hosting: GDPR compliance built-in, not bolted on
- Transparent policies: Clear explanations in plain language
- No cookies: Zero tracking cookies on visitor devices
fearly.eu: Privacy-First by Design
Take fearly.eu as an example of how URL shortening should work:
For anonymous users (no registration):
- Direct redirects to your destination URL
- Zero tracking, zero analytics, zero cookies
- No click counter (complete anonymity)
- Links expire after one year without clicks (spam prevention)
- EU-hosted infrastructure
- No cookies placed on visitor devices
For free registered users:
Here's where it gets interesting. Registration requires no email address. You get a 22-character anonymous account number—similar to how Mullvad VPN works. You stay completely anonymous.
What you can do:
- View basic click counts on your links
- Manage your links (delete, edit destination URLs)
- Create unlimited short links
- Links never expire
- All URLs checked against phishing databases for safety
What we still don't collect:
- No visitor tracking
- No cookies on any devices
- No user profiling
- IP addresses are hashed (with salt and pepper) only for rate limiting, then discarded
For premium users (coming soon):
Even with paid analytics enabled, data collection remains minimal:
- Country (not city or precise location)
- Device type (mobile vs desktop)
- Timestamp of clicks
- Click count
That's it. No IP address storage. No fingerprinting. No behavioral tracking. No possibility to build user profiles.
The key difference? fearly.eu redirects your visitors directly to their destination without routing through analytics servers, tracking pixels, or data collection middleware. Anonymous users get pure, untracked redirects. Registered users can see basic stats without compromising their visitors' privacy.
A Sustainable Business Model
fearly.eu takes a different approach to business sustainability:
- Self-funded: No venture capital with growth-at-all-costs demands
- Organic growth: Building trust through transparency, not aggressive marketing
- Freemium model: Free users supported by premium subscriptions
- Community donations: Optional support from privacy-conscious users
- No quick wins: Long-term sustainability over short-term profits
This means no pressure to monetize your data, no sudden policy changes to please investors, and no selling out to the highest bidder. Privacy isn't just a feature—it's the foundation of the entire business model.
Other Privacy-Respecting Options
While options are limited, a few other services take privacy seriously:
- Kutt.it: Open-source and self-hostable for maximum control
- Polr: Self-hosted option for technical users
- Your own domain: Ultimate privacy through self-hosting
The landscape is changing. More services are recognizing that privacy and functionality aren't mutually exclusive.
The Bottom Line
URL shorteners are incredibly useful tools. But "free" often means you're paying with your privacy and security.
The good news? You don't have to choose between convenience and protection. Privacy-focused shorteners like fearly.eu prove you can have both—clean, manageable links without sacrificing user privacy or regulatory compliance.
What to look for in a privacy-first shortener:
- Clear privacy policy (actually readable)
- EU-based hosting
- Minimal data collection
- No third-party data sharing
- Direct redirects without tracking middleware
- User control over analytics
The question isn't whether to use URL shorteners. It's which ones to use and understanding what you're actually agreeing to when you click that "Shorten" button.
Choose wisely. Your data (and your users' data) depends on it.
Karelvo