When 404 url is transmitted to archive.org

Archives Test Pilot/NoMore404s
#1

Hi,

I’m concerned about privacy (that’s why I only use tab center so far as the other two experiment share too much with third party company). So my question is when the 404 url is shared with archive.org ? Do you do it pro actively to test if archive.org has an archive of the page or do you do only on demand ?

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#2

When the “No More 404s” extension detects a 404 response code, at that point it automatically checks to see if an archived version of that page it is available via the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. If a copy is available a message is displayed and users are given the option of accessing that archived page, or not. In addition the The Internet Archive takes steps to avoid recording user’s IP numbers. Please also see: https://blog.archive.org/2013/10/25/reader-privacy-at-the-internet-archive/

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#3

Could there be an option to make the step which check automatically the url on archive.org manual. Even if the ip is not logged, the url asked is probably logged and some url contain confidential data such as session id

#4

Hey Xavier,

Thanks for your comments.

Looking at the source code for this experiment, I think it would be pretty easy to exclude the query string part of the URL, which often contains tracking IDs (google analytics, for instance), and sometimes carries session IDs. I’ve opened a bug to suggest this to the archive developer team: https://github.com/internetarchive/FirefoxNoMore404s/issues/45

The problem I could see with a manual URL check is that, in many cases, there might not be a matching page in the wayback machine. Seems like a worse user experience in general.

Note also that 404s aren’t sent from private browsing pages, so that’s an option you could try.

Thanks again for the feedback :slight_smile:

Jared

#5

I understand that it would be a worse user experience. but it is a user preference i prefer. that’s why i would like an opt in if possible

#6

I occasionally have come across this error message, did not know why and now I know I can get the the stuff I need thru Internet Archive. A great source and service, Thanks

#7