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Technology
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Bitly is an American marketing technology company that offers short links, QR code links and link-in-bio pages.
Bitly tracks and attributes link clicks for their customers with campaign measurement, performance and analytics.
Bitly is known for the ubiquitous link shortener hosted on "bit.ly"
. Links created have a unique URL on this domain, which when clicked, redirect to the desired destination.
Link shorteners came into prominence with the age of microblogging and social media where posts were constrained to a finite length. Every letter counted, so the link needed to be as short as possible. With SMS marketing, texts are charged per 160-character blocks. Today, the fixed length is not as much of a feature in social media, but link shorteners remain as an entry point and method of tracking link clicks.
Links on "bit.ly"
should not be inherently trusted — anyone can register a new short link on this domain to point to wherever they want. Malicious actors use link shortener services to obscure the true destination to platforms and users. Only after all after redirections, can trust be gauged by inspecting the final destination. Bitly has anti-fraud systems and trust-safety teams, but their mechanisms are mostly reactive, not proactive, and they tend to be too slow to respond in many cases.
Bitly owns and runs QR-branded domains including "qrco.de"
and "l.ead.me"
, which are present in many QR codes in campaigns and on physical products. These domains are highly visible to users as the smartphone camera prompts the domain when scanning a QR code.
The "qrco.de"
domain seems particularly trustworthy for the user since it reads as "qr code" and represents the essence of what they are scanning. Due to the value of the domain it would seem exclusive but anyone can register a link with this domain. The link does not confer the final destination — it just indicates the entry point, before redirection. Malicious usage has been documented. Trust should be determined on the final destination. The offered QR code generator for this domain also permits an image to be placed inside the QR code (which works because QR codes have extensive error correction). Some legitimate companies use their logo to improve the perceived trust value of the QR code; but again, a logo does not confer real trust and can be manipulated by malicious actors; the final destination is the marker of trust.
The long-term danger with open redirector domains like "qrco.de"
is that the majority of users’ individual experience with these domains will be probabilistically trustworthy while using an opaque and uncertain entry point. They scan a code and order their food. Tomorrow they scan a code and buy their parking ticket. And so on. All legitimate cases that build trust with the user. The more times they see "qrco.de"
with positive outcomes (which is highly likely on balance), the more likely they are to trust the next time they see "qrco.de"
. But a malicious link can appear at any time. Trust should not be reinforced in these domains over time; the final destination should be the crucial indicator of trust to the user.
Companies also use Bitly for their custom short links like the New York Times with "nyti.ms"
, ESPN with "es.pn"
, Autodesk with "autode.sk"
, and BuzzFeed with "bzfd.it"
.
We have strong, long-term confidence in our analysis
This analysis holds with high, long-term reliability
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bitly
Bitly
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Organisation
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https://bitly.com/
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https://bitly.com/
Epi
© Copyright Epi Technologies. All rights reserved
13 June 2024
28 June 2024
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