02.16.19

Be careful with shortened links

Vanity link shorteners such as bit.ly and goo.gl were once popular as a space-saving techniques on platforms like Twitter. They carry risks, though, since you cannot immediately see where they lead. Truncated URLs have been used in several scams. For example, a goo.gl address was central to a phishing campaign that pointed victims to a malware-laced ZIP file. Be careful with these links; use a link expander like Where Does This Link Go? or take advantage of Force Touch/3D Touch on an Apple device to get an inline preview.