ive just heard of an incident where students redirected their books codes to p**n. can i make sure that doesnt happen? also, im using google to generate them, is there a foss alternative as im scared of tracking. lastly, can i make the qr code redirect to a specific page of a pdf as i want people to be able to scan them and immediately land on a specific part

  • zero_gravitas
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    7 months ago

    ive just heard of an incident where students redirected their books codes to p**n. can i make sure that doesnt happen?

    This is kind of confusing, or at least leaves a lot of detail out 😆 Did the domain lapse? Did their short-URL account get hacked? In any case, your QR code will just be encoding a URL. Ultimately, any URL can be redirected by someone out there; so it’s just a matter of trusting that whoever has that access won’t act maliciously, and that malicious actors can’t gain access.

    also, im using google to generate them, is there a foss alternative as im scared of tracking.

    There absolutely are, just search and you should find plenty. Again, though, the QR code is just encoding a URL. Does Google use their own short-URL service for their generated QR codes? Just scan the QR code and look at the URL it encodes. If it’s only the URL you want - not some Google short-URL that then redirects to the URL you entered - then there can’t be any tracking done on it by Google.

    lastly, can i make the qr code redirect to a specific page of a pdf

    Covered by another commenter already, but for completeness: yes, you just add #page={n) at the end of the URL, e.g. https://dagrs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/2020-01/sample.pdf#page=5

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      Also, visiting that URL in a web browser should mostly be safe due to the fact web browsers are based on the notion of bad actor websites existing.