[OSM-talk] Proposal to run an automated bot edit that will remove tracking parameters

[Mateusz Konieczny]

tl;dr:

I propose to run an automated bot edit that will remove tracking parameters, turning tags 
such as
website=http://paris.intersquat.org/les-lieux/le-satellite/?fbclid=de58e340d6aa79a584552a2055042d004b9b19454bc0d7a6046fc81fc90f51
into
website=http://paris.intersquat.org/les-lieux/le-satellite/


I did it already before, see: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny_-_bot_account/remove_tracking_parameters
This edit will remove newly edited links and purge more tracking parameters.

If anything will go wrong I will fix it.
I have experience with automated edits, see
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny_-_bot_account

changes listing: https://gist.github.com/matkoniecz/1d20caa198ec2d4001d95adf09123a8a
(based on current OSM database, if OSM data changes then actual edit will be different,
feel free to make backup of this linked file - it may be deleted some time after edit)

source code and other documentation (except source code, duplicate of that posting):
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny_-_bot_account/remove_tracking_parameters2/

--------------------------------------
full details:

I propose to run a scripted edit - it was already run before but this will
remove more tracking parameters.

URL often have unnecessary parts, some added for tracking purposes
by FB, Google and others.
This tracking parameters should never appear in any osm tags.

It means that it is beneficial to turn tag
website=http://paris.intersquat.org/les-lieux/le-satellite/?fbclid=de58e340d6aa79a584552a2055042d004b9b19454bc0d7a6046fc81fc90f51
into
website=http://paris.intersquat.org/les-lieux/le-satellite/
and it is worth doing it as an edit.

This urls can be often fixed using an automated script, allowing to
use human time on something more productive.

Human-made edit will also result in changing "last edited by"
(while not allowing to filter out such edits unlike marked bot edit),
there are better ways to spot areas requiring fixes and we are not lacking
places with QA indicators that manual review is needed.

Usually tracking links are added by clueless people who just searched for
a website and copied it from FB/Google.

There are rare cases of links created to specifically track OSM users
see for example
* https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/754704241/history
** https://www.cronauerlaw.com/?utm_source=openstreetmap
* https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1063808111/history
** http://www.travelerscoffee.ru?utm_campaign=geo&utm_source=openstreetmap&utm_medium=link
* https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/6817678019/history
** https://www.resotainer.fr/agence-bonneuil-sur-marne?utm_source=open-street-map&utm_medium=recherche-locale&utm_content=openstreetmap&utm_campaign=open-street-map-garde-meubles-bonneuil-sur-marne
* https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/1684317522
** http://www.travelerscoffee.ru?utm_campaign=geo&utm_source=openstreetmap&utm_medium=link

In general I have not noticed correlation between presence of tracking links
and additional issues that would not be detected automatically.

Therefore automatic removal of tracking parameters is not causing loss of
useful indicators of areas that should be reviewed.
Osmose and JOSM validators and StreetComplete are offering many better indicators,
and we are not in danger of running out of places where human intervention is clearly needed.

Automatic removal would allow me and others to spend time on something more useful,
than reviewing all cases where tracking is clearly present and confirming them one by one.

Proposed bot edit would remove links where all used parameters are tracking
users and may be removed.

I am reviewing manually more complicated cases to catch
also currently unknown tracking parameters.

Anchors (#section) will be preserved.

Code is tested, was using it in a manual review mode and for a fully automated edit run
that removed tracking parameters from over 1000 objects - see
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny_-_bot_account/remove_tracking_parameters

I have experience with automated edits, see
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny_-_bot_account

Yes, editing element will cause it to be edited and change "last edited" date.
Effect will be exactly the same in case of using bot and manual edit
(which would be necessary in case of rejecting this automated edit proposal).
Note that in case of bot edits you may filter out bot edits marked as automatic.

following are consider as tracking parameters and would be removed:

            fbclid, gclid, campaign_ref, mc_id, utm_source, utm_medium, utm_term,
utm_content, utm_campaign, utm_id, gclsrc, dclid, wt.tsrc, WT.tsrc,
zanpid, yclid, utm_campain, trkCampaign, mkt_tok, sc_campaign, sc_channel,
sc_content, sc_medium, sc_outcome, sc_geo, sc_country, mbid, cmpid,
campaign_id, Campaign, fb_action_ids, fb_action_types, fb_ref, fb_source,
gs_l, _hsenc, igshid, CampIDMin, CampIDMaj, campaign, Campaign,
campaignid, campaignId, adid, adgroupid, refr, referrer, cm_mmc, lw_cmp,
CLID, ReferralSource, SourceID, trkid, adjust_creative, partner_slug, y_source,
oppartnerid, padid, otppartnerid, ref_device_id, utm_kxconfid, SEO_id,
originalReferrer, spMailingID, hsCtaTracking
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/attachments/20210202/08c40e73/attachment-0001.htm>