QR Codes Without the Middleman

2023-07-02 21:08:12Z

A post on the Fedi recently showed up in my feed.

The post on Fedi

That post contains a QR Code. And as scanning an unknown QR Code goes, I noticed that the URL did not link to "https://essentialtremor.org/" or anything like that. In fact, the QR Code linked to this URL:

Now, I have no idea what QR Code generator they used for their QR Code. But in the case the linked service dies, the link pretty much dies. And that's bad.

So what can you do?

If you can use the command line, I suggest libqrencode for creating QR codes. (For scanning (from image file or camera), zbar can be used.)

libqrencode

zbar

If you're not using the command line through... It gets a little more complicated.

What you can try is find something, generate a QR Code, then test if it uses a link shortener by checking the raw contents of the QR Code.

To check the raw contents of the QR Code though, my only recommendation is to use Binary eye for Android. My disrecommendation is pretty much anything else including the dedicated QR Code scanner thing in iOS (found in control center if you added it) because I don't think it allows you to check (but correct me if I'm wrong, this might not apply to Camera in iOS).

Binary Eye

How you check it is by seeing what's encoded in the QR Code, then comparing the URL to what you inputted. If what you inputted is "https://this.is.a.very.long.example.com/" but you got something similar to "https://shrt.example/uath8Ze" i.e. A different link, then the QR Code generator should not be trusted to give you exactly what you want.

Pros:

Someone else isn't in control of your QR Code

Cons:

You must change the QR Code in order to change what it links to

(The word “QR Code” is registered trademark of DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED in Japan and other countries. Yes, this is required as per point 2 of QR Code's intellectual property right.)

DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED

QR Code's intellectual property right

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