awstrack.me embedded link in Sacrament meeting Zoom invitation

[danielpfry]

Hello all,

I use a pop-up blocker on my phone and was surprised to get a warning when using the link to join our ward's Sacrament meeting. I discovered that the zoom invitation our ward uses (and has used for years) contains an embedded link directed to a *.awstrack.me/* site which is used (as expected) for AWS tracking. Searching online leads me to believe that embedding the tracker is default when using AWS for e-mail campaigns and I found additional information on what is tracked here: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/messaging-and-targeting/open-and-click-tracking-have-arrived/. Searching through these forums also indicated that the Church uses AWS with Zoom.

Root question then: is the AWS tracking and metrics used / desired by the Church? Or should our ward update the invitation to link directly to the zoom meeting without using the embedded tracker? Thanks!

[russellhltn]

How was this invite sent to you? Can you tell what the link itself is? Is it to Zoom or some kind of re-direct that takes you to Zoom.

I'm not aware of church policies on tracking one way or another.

[danielpfry]

Invite was sent via e-mail (from the Ward secretary) using Church tools (indicates sender's calling, allows you to unsubscribe, etc). The link shown in the e-mail (text) is https://zoom.us/j/<zoom meeting number>. The embedded link in that text is https://xwyqzl9y.r.us-east-1.awstrack.me/L0/<original zoom link replacing slashes with %2F>/1/<gibberish>. I can type out the "gibberish" if it would be helpful...

I also just noticed that all links in the e-mail (such as the link to "Email preferences" and "Unsubscribe") all contain the embedded tracker directing to awstrack.me.

[danielpfry]

Nevermind, I think I've answered my own question. If the links in the e-mail (which is sent using Church tools) contain the AWS trackers then they must be embedded by design.

[russellhltn]

Maybe not. I know leaders can make broadcasts available on church webpages, but I don't know of any that will send the email. I think the sender has to provide the link.