Occasionally The Little Link Generator shortened links will be used in spam or to point to malicious content. We take this abuse of our service very seriously and do everything we can to prevent it. Here are some of the ways we help to keep our users safe:
- Shortened URLs are permanent - we don't allow users to change their destinations once they've been created. This prevents "bait and switch" tactics by spammers who might link to real content first and then malware later.
- We check all our links against various blacklists that are continuously updated by various 3rd parties.
- We thoroughly investigate any complaints of abuse we receive and have a dedicated contact email address for these. We aim to act on all abuse complaints within 24 hours (but typically manage better than this).
- We don't just disable individual URLs in response to complaints like some similar services. Since a spammer could create many similar links this would obviously be useless. We blacklist by domain or track down links based on the creator's IP instead whenever possible.
- We blacklist other URL shortening/redirection services we know about. This stops spammers creating "chains" of redirects to help them circumvent our protections.
We hate spam usage of our service and The Little Link Generator has no relationship with spammers. We never send any spam email and only ever email people who have emailed us first (e.g. to respond to questions we get about the site).