Wouldn't be surprised if pretty much every communication service is doing this.
I sent a link to a large file over Viber and immediately some ip connected and started downloading. Stopped at 350mb of around 3.5gb. I get that they want to show thumbnails or whatnot, but they just don't discriminate between content types.
That is a great way to do a cross-link DDoS of unsolicited link opening services - send 1000 messages with google links on skype and send 1000 gmail messages with microsoft links there, all gigabytes in size...
Hopefully any automated systems will open the first or last link first, so that you can save the request info and filter based on that. In case requests come out of order, you can always add a small delay to the "human" link before responding.
I haven't yet gotten to implementing any of the authentication on my current project, so I might be missing something really basic.
The next best thing is to set a cookie when requesting the magic link, but the downside (or upside?) is that it will be valid only for the browser it was requested with.
No link in an email should perform an action on its own. Every link should lead to a confirmation button, at minimum. Too many services automatically open all the links in emails.
This may be for the purpose of ensuring the email address itself is deliverable. You don't want someone to sign up with random garbage, then try sending notifications, newsletters, etc. to it- I believe doing so can affect domain reputation.
For this use-case, it seems like even an automated link click would be a good signal of a deliverable email address.
Not just deliverable, but also that it's correct. There's a lot of people who think that my {firstname}{lastname}@gmail.com email address is their own. If they try to register it somewhere, a verification email stops them from completing the registration.
There are many ways to participate, and with modern communications and relative ease of travel, you could keep track and don't loose connections, even if you are not phisically "there". Also, having the perspective from living under different set of rules, allows you to compare and propose changes back home. Many, many bulgarians abroad still care deeply about our beautiful country and I personally know several who have returned to try and fight the fight on home turf. And you certainly are aware that throughout history large bulgarian diasporas all around the Balkans and beyond have been involved with preserving culture, language and shared history and that begginning of the 20th Century it was standard practice to go study in Western Europe or Russia and come back home with top notch education. You sure are also aware that believing in good strong education is one of the tenets of our people, that has endured uninterrupted for more than a half millennium, from the times of the Paisius of Hilendar,through our unique, and unfortunately lost community cultural centers[O] and up until today.
It is not going to be easy to revive that spirit, but "we" have no choice but to try and be юнаци :)
