A URL shortener with no tracking — GDPR-friendly by design

What Linkonda stores and what it doesn't

Stored per link:

• The destination URL you provide.
• The short code (slug) used in the redirect.
• A total click count, incremented each time the link is followed.
• The date the link was created and, if applicable, when it expires.

Not stored:

• Visitor IP addresses or any derivative (geo, ISP, ASN).
• Device type, browser, or operating system of visitors.
• HTTP referrer headers — where visitors came from before clicking.
• Timestamps of individual visits or session identifiers.
• Cookies placed on visitors' browsers.

For anonymous link creators, Linkonda hashes the creator's IP address with a server-side salt to enforce per-network quotas, and then discards the value — the raw IP is never written to the database. See the privacy policy for the full data handling description.

Why this matters

When you share a link shortened with a tracking-heavy service, every person who clicks it becomes a data point in that service's analytics platform — often without knowing it. This creates obligations for you as the link creator: in GDPR jurisdictions, collecting that data typically requires a legal basis, a privacy notice, and often a cookie consent banner.

Linkonda's approach avoids that problem entirely. Because no personal data about visitors is collected, there is no consent flow to implement and no visitor data to protect, retain, or delete on request.

Who this is for

• Organisations subject to GDPR, PECR, or similar regulations that want short links without adding another service to their data processing register.
• Developers and technical teams who want a lightweight URL shortener with an API and don't need a full marketing-analytics stack around it.
• Non-profits and public sector organisations that share links with constituents and want to minimise surveillance overhead.
• Privacy-conscious individuals who share links socially and don't want the people clicking those links profiled without their knowledge.

What you can still measure

Aggregate click counts are enough to answer most practical questions: Is this link being used? Which of two campaigns got more clicks? Did traffic drop after I changed the destination?

If you need per-placement breakdowns without per-visitor data, create a separate short link for each placement (e.g. one for Twitter, one for email) and compare totals. Paid plans also offer A/B split links that split traffic across destinations and track per-variant aggregate counts.

How this compares to typical URL shorteners

Most major URL shorteners — Bitly, Rebrandly, Short.io — offer rich per-click analytics including geo, device, and referrer data as a core selling point. That data is valuable for marketing teams optimising campaigns, but it comes with compliance overhead and places your link visitors into a third-party data profile they didn't consent to.

Linkonda occupies a different position: fewer analytics features, a simpler product, and a significantly smaller data footprint. It is not the right tool if you need per-visitor attribution. It is the right tool if you need short links and QR codes without the tracking.