How To Disable Reddit Tracking Outbound Links
Reddit has ads like any other website that has bills to pay. To show you relevant ads Reddit tracks your activity. It doesn’t matter if you’re signed in to your Reddit account or not, your activity is being tracked. The activity that Reddit tracks includes, but is not limited to tracking outbound links. This means the links that you click on Reddit, whether they point to an Imgur gallery or an article on CNN. If you’re not a fan of being tracked, you can disable Reddit tracking your activity.
Disable Reddit Tracking
Visit this link to Reddit’s Personalization page and select which tracking options you want to disable. Once you’re done making changes, click ‘Save options’ at the end.
Impact
The page also tells you what happens if you disable these personalization options. The ads you see on Reddit will become repetitive i.e. Reddit doesn’t bombard you with the same ad over and over. This is because it knows which ones it has already shown you, and which ones it hasn’t. If you disable Reddit tracking, you will start seeing the same ad over and over again.
The ads you see will not be relevant. They’ll be generic ads that users who are in the current subreddit are likely to find useful. This will effect the ads you see in the right side bar but not the sponsored content that appears at the top of r/all or any other subreddit that you visit.
This only disables Reddit’s own tracking features not those of third-party ads. Ads themselves track views and clicks and any ad that you see on Reddit is likely doing the same. Those ads will still know, to some extent, what you’re clicking online. If that’s what you’re trying to avoid, consider enabling Do Not Track in your browser.
Alternative
If you’d like to opt out of any and all tracking, you can alternatively use third-party Reddit apps. There is no shortage of them and there are some great ones available for just about all major desktop and mobile platforms. Be sure to check if an app tracks your activity or not. It’s not a given that a third-party app will not track you. Usually, it’s not the app itself that’s tracking you but Reddit itself which the app accesses. One popular alternative is to use Go1dfish in your browser. It’s a replica of Reddit but without any of the tracking. It can also show you links that have been removed by moderators.
