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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him

@ppival.bsky.social
645 followers 415 following 1.3K posts

YYC, cyclist, mostly road but some gravel and CX too. Librarian at UCalgary. Husband of a knitter. Father of 2 + 2 dogs. Feeling kinda old these days.

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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 3h
Read the CIA’s Manual of Trickery and Deception, Written by a Professional Stage Magician
openculture.com
Read the CIA’s Manual of Trickery and Deception, Written by a Professional Stage Magician
The idea of a youngster vacillating between whether to become a magician or join the Central Intelligence Agency may sound implausible, but those two working environments have deeper commonalities…
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
UNT Removes LGBTQ Archive Amid Lawmaker Criticism www.dailysignal.com/2026/09/25/u... What a #snowflake. Happy to see UNT didn't remove all the other LGBTQ+ content I was able to still find on their site(s)!
dailysignal.com
UNT Removes LGBTQ Archive Amid Lawmaker Criticism
The University of North Texas faces backlash after removing its LGBTQ Archive webpage following comments from state Rep. Brian Harrison.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Tim R @elibtronic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Every year around OA Week I've started putting together what I'm calling the State of Scholarly Publishing report: This year's is now posted. elibtronic.github.io/2026_state_o... #openaccess #libraries #CdnPSE #CDNunis
elibtronic.github.io
2026 State of Scholarly Publishing
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
PublicHealthCite — Canadian Open Government Data Search publichealthcite.com #opendata #OpenGov
publichealthcite.com
PublicHealthCite — Canadian Open Government Data Search
Search thousands of Canadian federal and provincial open government datasets.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Perspectives: Calgary-Shaw: Voters were tired of being taken for granted livewirecalgary.com/2026/09/19/p... #ABLeg #ABPoli
livewirecalgary.com
Perspectives: Calgary-Shaw: Voters were tired of being taken for granted
In a historic byelection result, Calgary-Shaw voters chose Kyle Campbell to represent a riding that the UCP had taken for granted. I’ve heard a few narratives from pundits this week, and I thought it…
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Imani Gandy @angryblacklady.blacksky.app · 20/09/2026
I just honestly can't get over that Save Women Sports, an anti-trans group could only find five trans athletes competing K through 12. Five. The NCAA president testified a year and a half ago or so that there were less than 10 college level trans athletes. What the fuck are we doing, people
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Oxford and Springer Nature launch frameworks on use of artificial intelligence - Research Information #AcademicPublishing
researchinformation.info
Springer Nature launches framework on use of artificial intelligence - Research Information
Publisher reports that more than 70 per cent of researchers "see guidance on AI as increasingly important"
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
The Sprawl wins 5 Alberta Magazine Awards—including Mag of the Year www.sprawlcalgary.com/alberta-maga... Bravo! #LocalJournalism
sprawlcalgary.com
The Sprawl wins 5 Alberta Magazine Awards—including Mag of the Year | The Sprawl
Celebrating our 9th anniversary with gratitude.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Advertised salaries for curatorial, museum and gallery roles — free dataset, CC BY 4.0. Maintained by curatorsearch.com github.com/nsamman/cura... #jobs #salaries #MuseumJobs #curators #GalleryJobs
curatorsearch.com
249 Curator, Curatorial & Museum Jobs Open Today | CuratorSearch
Curator jobs, curatorial jobs and museum jobs from institutions worldwide, gathered daily — with advertised salaries and a permanent archive of past vacancies.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
US executive-branch stock-trade disclosures (OGE 278/278-T), refreshed nightly github.com/disclosedcap... Every disclosed stock and asset transaction by senior US executive-branch officials parsed from their official OGE Form 278 and 278-T public financial disclosures. #OpenData
github.com
GitHub - disclosedcapitol/executive-branch-trades: Open dataset: US executive-branch stock-trade disclosures (OGE 278/278-T), refreshed nightly
Open dataset: US executive-branch stock-trade disclosures (OGE 278/278-T), refreshed nightly - disclosedcapitol/executive-branch-trades
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
What do young people around the world think about AI? www.pewresearch.org/global/2026/... #Pew
pewresearch.org
What do young people around the world think about AI?
A 37-country survey finds that young adults are particularly worried about AI leading to fewer jobs. Still, they're more likely than older people to feel both excited and concerned about AI.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, dies at 81 www.npr.org/2026/09/16/1... A reminder to go read more of her stuff!
npr.org
Annie Dillard, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, dies at 81
Dillard's work was characterized by spare prose and a deep connection to nature. She is best known for Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, An American Childhood, The Maytrees and The Writing Life.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
#ABReferendumb #ABReferendum
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 15/09/2026
I recently worked with Abacus Data on a poll of Albertans, probing deeper into the separation debate. Today we are releasing the 2nd of 5 reports. This one looks at vote intentions: 🟢 64% Remain ⚫ 24% Commence separation process 🤷 9% Undecided 💨 3% Would skip question This varies by region. 🧵...
Chart showing remain/commence vote Alberta-wide at 64/24
Calgary: 71/19
Edmonton 78/16
Small cities & bedroom communities: 59/32
Rural areas: 46/31
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Statistics Canada thanks Canadians for their exceptional participation in the 2026 Census - Canada.ca www.canada.ca/en/statistic... "The overall response rate for the 2026 Census of Population reached 98.4% nationally." #OpenData #Census
canada.ca
Canada.ca
The Government of Canada website is a single point of access to all programs, services, departments, ministries and organizations of the Government of Canada.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Mount Royal University launches School of Computing Sciences and Mathematics | MRU www.mtroyal.ca/AboutMountRo... #ABPSE
mtroyal.ca
Mount Royal University launches School of Computing Sciences and Mathematics | MRU
School will address continued growth in the fields
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
My 20 Favorite Google Docs Features ❤️ wondertools.substack.com/p/google-doc... Some good tips and tricks in here - bet you'll learn at least one new thing!
wondertools.substack.com
My 20 Favorite Google Docs Features ❤️
The shortcuts I actually use. Voice typing, tabs, extensions, and more
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
UCalgary AI Centre launches new speaker series ucalgary.ca/news/ucalgar... #CAIELI
ucalgary.ca
UCalgary AI Centre launches new speaker series
From Assessment to Accountability looks at responsible use of AI across the academic journey
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Saddle Lake Cree Nation asserts treaty rights over access to gender-affirming care edmontonjournal.com/news/politic... ♥️🏳️‍⚧️
edmontonjournal.com
Saddle Lake Cree Nation asserts treaty rights over access to gender-affirming care
Saddle Lake takes steps to establish safe haven for gender-affirming care on reserved lands, invoking Treaty No. 6 'Medicine Chest' clause.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 09/09/2026
Late to the party here but I always used Google Pinpoint for transcription when I was working as a journalist. For non-cloud-based options, there's also MacWhisper (for Macs) and aTrain (for Windows). Buzz and Vibe are two open-source options.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Sara Hastings-Simon 🇨🇦 @shastingssimon.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
It’s me!
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
11 best alternative search engines to Google in 2026 searchenginewatch.com/best-google-... I've been happy to support Kagi
searchenginewatch.com
11 best alternative search engines to Google in 2026
In recent years, Google has made significant changes that have particularly impacted publishers and other content creators. At the same time, we’ve witnessed the rise of alternative search engines.…
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
How Do We Track Terminations of Federal Data? - Federation of American Scientists #OpenData #ClosedData
fas.org
How Do We Track Terminations of Federal Data? - Federation of American Scientists
As federal data policy nerds, the question we get asked all the time is "How much data has the current administration terminated?"
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Identify Feather Tool - The Feather Atlas Use the buttons above to select different criteria for a feather you've found and attempt to identify it.
fws.gov
Identify Feather Tool - The Feather Atlas
IDENTIFY FEATHER TOOL
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 03/09/2026
Everyone's talking about how the Alberta referendum will be all about *turnout*. But how, exactly, would different turnout rates among separation supporters vs. stay-in-Canada supporters affect the outcome? I built a tool where you can play with the numbers and see for yourself:
turnoutsimulator.ca
The smaller side can win a referendum — or at least make it close
A side that's behind in the polls can still win if the other side stays home. Try it with the Alberta separation vote.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon temporarily rescinds guidance on testosterone screening for US troops www.reuters.com/business/hea... Jeez, I can't believe nobody sent it to an archive site yesterday. Alas.
reuters.com
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pentagon-temporarily-rescinding-guidance-testosterone-screening-us-troops-2026-09-03/
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
A very good explainer and intro. AI for Academic Libraries: Open-Weight AI Models for Local and Private Use - Choice 360 www.choice360.org/libtech-insi... #LocalLLMs
choice360.org
AI for Academic Libraries: Open-Weight AI Models for Local and Private Use - Choice 360
Open-weight AI models offer librarians the advantages of AI but addresses many of the profession's ethical concerns around privacy.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Court upholds school board's disqualification of trustee LaGrange edmontonjournal.com/news/politic... #TRAHR
edmontonjournal.com
Court upholds school board's disqualification of trustee LaGrange
The court also struck down the board's sanction requiring then-trustee Monique LaGrange to apologize after posting a social media meme.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Kent Fellows @gkfellows.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
In addition to @alexusherhesa.bsky.social 's well reasoned and understandably scathing critique of this recent MLI Study, I would assert that even if the authors addressed all of Alex's concerns, the paper STILL wouldn't actually show what it purports to. Let me explain in a too lengthy thread 1/16
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Submission requirements (word limits, abstract limits, reference caps) for 7,239 academic journals - open dataset, CC BY 4.0 github.com/scraiber/jou... ...collected from each journal's own author guidelines and mapped to fields via OpenAlex. #AcademicPublishing #OpenData
github.com
GitHub - scraiber/journal-submission-requirements: Submission requirements (word limits, abstract limits, reference caps) for 7,239 academic journals - open dataset, CC BY 4.0
Submission requirements (word limits, abstract limits, reference caps) for 7,239 academic journals - open dataset, CC BY 4.0 - scraiber/journal-submission-requirements
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 31/08/2026
Top-notch follow for Canadians. Or anyone with an interest in Canada. Paula is an excellent former newspaper columnist who is now a *Canadian Senator*. She doesn't post like a typical politician though. Follow her if you like honest perspectives, independent views, deep context & plain language.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Dear Alberta Separatists: ino.to/8OAUYxZ
ino.to
True cost of Brexit on UK trade revealed as calls to rejoin single market grow
Exclusive: The damning findings comes as a major new survey shows that 98.2 per cent of businesses want access to the EU single market restored
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
New 15,000 sq. ft. library in the works for northwest Calgary | Daily Hive | Urbanized dailyhive.com/calgary/calg... Excellent!
dailyhive.com
New 15,000 sq. ft. library in the works for northwest Calgary | Daily Hive | Urbanized
Northwest Calgary is getting a new library and community hub, with construction underway on Symons Valley Centre.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Heather 🍁 @hganshorn.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Hey, academics, don't do this. If you are adding supplementary files to your article, give them a title that indicates what's in each file.
Screen shot of an academic journal article's "Supplementary material" link. Two appendices, both labelled "supplementary material" instead of with a title that indicates what the files contain.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A couple of fun vibe-coded travel comparison sites. georank.place wandergrade.com #travel #ComparisonShopping
georank.place
GeoRank.place — Sunshine, Cost & Visa Maps for Relocation
Calibrated sunshine, cost-of-living, tax, and per-passport visa maps at ~5 km precision — 9 data layers across 183,000+ map tiles. For deciding where to live.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Ordinary Wi-Fi can identify people with nearly 100% accuracy newatlas.com/technology/w... 🤯
newatlas.com
Ordinary Wi-Fi can identify people with nearly 100% accuracy
“Better the devil you know ...” That’s a worst-case scenario outlook. The best case is an angel you know. But what if that angel was somewhat of a devil all along? Researchers have shown that…
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
GeoScienceWorld launches AI research assistant for geoscientists www.researchinformation.info/news/geoscie... JFC, another press release that doesn't include a link to the actual product, geosapien.ai I don't have enough subject expertise to evaluate it, but you can poke around a bit for free...
researchinformation.info
GeoScienceWorld launches AI research assistant for geoscientists - Research Information
GeoScienceWorld launches GeoSapienAI. The AI research assistant synthesises peer-reviewed geoscience literature to reduce AI hallucinations
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
How to Read Many CSV Files at Once in R datascienceplus.com/how-to-read-... Untested by me, but from a solid source! #datascience #R
datascienceplus.com
How to Read Many CSV Files at Once in R
I wanted a folder of weather station files as one data frame, and I assumed that part of the job would take one line. It does take one line, right up until…
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 26/08/2026
There is a remote and tiny body of water in northern Ontario called Trump Lake and Canadians have been giving it one-star reviews on Google Maps. Comments include "Please rename" and "Lake of Mexico might be a better name." 🔗: maps.app.goo.gl/aAHuCjHdbu7s...
Screenshot of Trump Lake, Ontario, on Google Maps
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Europe Adds New Protections for Air Travelers—Here’s What You Will Get Now www.afar.com/magazine/eur... Good! We could really use this in North America!
afar.com
Europe Adds New Protections for Air Travelers—Here’s What You Will Get Now
Europe’s EU261 passenger-rights law already offered more protections than those in the U.S. Following a major overhaul, now it's even better.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, an LTE health and safety band | TechCrunch techcrunch.com/2026/08/25/f... What do we know about the Fitbit founders? If truly privacy-focussed, this could be a great product!
techcrunch.com
Fitbit founders launch Luffu Link, an LTE health and safety band | TechCrunch
Luffu Link combines all-day health sensing, voice logging, location awareness, and the ability to get help from trusted contacts into a single device, all without needing a phone nearby.
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Trevor Tombe @trevortombe.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
The full list of 893 items subject to retaliatory tariffs on September 8 is available here: www.canada.ca/en/departme...
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
While cleaning up my dad's estate, I was truly shocked at how many bogus subscriptions he had accrued 😡
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Reposted by Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him
Robson Fletcher @robsonfletcher.com · 24/08/2026
This chart got a lot of response when I posted it a couple of months ago, so I kept digging beyond just Calgary. Turns out the Alberta-wide data tells much the same story, which I think helps explain the province’s recent mood. I fleshed out my thoughts here. Would be interested in yours!
robsonfletcher.com
Why Albertans don't feel as rich as they are · Robson Fletcher
Two decades of astounding growth have been followed by a decade of decline and stagnation. That affects the psyche.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
Weird for them to report on a 2008 article, but neat info. " idling the blades in low wind cuts bat deaths by half or more while sacrificing a sliver of annual generation."
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Postplagiarism, Now Available in Prescription Strength postplagiarism.com/2026/08/18/p... A worthwhile read, with some interesting thoughts on #Wearbles
postplagiarism.com
Postplagiarism, Now Available in Prescription Strength
Weaver Shaw describes her experience using AI-enabled glasses that provide real-time translation and other functionalities, which challenge traditional boundaries of communication and responsibilit…
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Generative “AI”: The Guitar Hero of Creativity whatever.scalzi.com/2026/08/06/g... This is a great analogy!
whatever.scalzi.com
Generative “AI”: The Guitar Hero of Creativity
So, you’re a person who has decided to embark on a creative journey of self-expression — to make art, in other words. First off, this is awesome! The universe needs more people making a…
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It's Almost Hard to Believe futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com
Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It's Almost Hard to Believe
A new survey of 1,000 young adults in the US found that nine of the top tech executives are deeply loathed.
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Paul R. Pival 🇨🇦 he/him @ppival.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
DuckDuckGo Adds "Copy Clean Link" to Strip Trackers From URLs on iPhone ino.to/E7BXKnW Yay, I'm now seeing this option on my device.
ino.to
DuckDuckGo Adds "Copy Clean Link" to Strip Trackers From URLs on iPhone - gHacks Tech News
DuckDuckGo's iOS app can now strip tracking parameters from URLs with a "Copy Clean Link" option before sharing.
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