Good question!
The short answer is yes, affiliate IDs are stripped when they are displayed to you in the table and also in the email notifications. That way you can click on the links without worrying about breaking the TOS.
The only possible issue could be if you are using the Amazon Short Link URLs (for example: http://amzn.to/1NAaArE) because the plugin has to follow those links to find what product that they are directed to. The plugin may erroneously effect the statistics that Amazon displays about the number of clicks but the programmatic way it checks these links wouldn’t cause you to accidentally buy things on your own affiliate account.
If you don’t use the Short Links, then this plugin won’t effect the statistics shown about clicks because it uses the Amazon Product Advertising API to look up the stock status. It’s using this API in accordance with Amazon’s guidelines.
I hope this helps, and please ask if you have any more questions. I will try to reply sooner next time.
Thanks!
Linnea
I’d like to follow up to this post to point out that because of concerns over possibly breaking Amazon TOS, I removed the feature to check Amazon Short Link URLs.
Now, the only way that this plugin interacts with Amazon is through the official Amazon Product Advertising API. Unlike a traditional link checker, none of your Amazon links are ever followed. Rather, this plugin extracts the ASIN from your links and then uses Amazon’s API to request the product’s status.
I hope this clarification helps! Please let me know if you have any more questions.
Brilliant plugin!
So just to confirm, you can’t use Amazon short links with this plugin? You have to have the full URL with the ASIN in it?
Thanks
