Tracking link

A tracking link is a URL issued to one recipient so that activity on it can be attributed to them. It is the mechanism behind every claim that a platform can tell you who watched: the identity lives in the link, not in the video.

In a campaign, each recipient receives a link of their own, generated when the campaign launches. Opening it identifies the viewer, which is what turns aggregate analytics into a per-person report. Forwarding it breaks the assumption — anyone who receives the forwarded link is recorded as the original recipient — which is a limitation worth knowing rather than a defect to hide.

Tracking links usually expire, and the expiry is a deliberate part of the design. A personalised link that still works two years later is a small privacy problem, because it identifies a person to whoever happens to find it.

An ordinary share link is a different object: it identifies nobody, does not expire, and is the right thing to post in a public channel or a help centre.

Basic hygiene keeps these useful. Do not post a personalised link in a shared channel, do not reuse one from an old campaign for a new one, and treat the expiry as a feature rather than an inconvenience. Every one of those habits protects the same thing: the assumption that whoever opened the link is the person it was sent to.

It is also worth knowing what a tracking link does not do. It does not verify identity — anybody holding the URL is recorded as the recipient — and it does not survive a forward with the identity intact. Treat it as strong evidence rather than proof, especially before telling a colleague that a named person watched something.