on Author Help:
A Universal Book Link (commonly referred to as a UBL) is a short link that will go to a web page showing links to all the stores where the ebook or audiobook can be bought. When the user clicks on any of the links, they will go to their local site if the store has one. Such a link is useful in all sorts of situations, but especially on social media, where a long list of links looks clunky at best.
This post will explain how to set up a Universal Book Link for any book (even if you are not the book’s author).
Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog 
I have a D2D account and thought universal book links were a great idea…until the Cambridge Analytica scandal kickstarted a general awareness about how the tech giants are siphoning personal data from unsuspecting users.
Those UBLs don’t just benefit us authors, they benefit the ad networks too. That’s why UBLs are ‘free’. Trouble is, the people who use our UBLs are the ones paying with their personal data. The same applies to newsletter apps. The author who sends out the newsletter may not abuse the personal information of the people on their list, but the companies providing the newsletter service make no such claims.
We’re all complicit in this invasion of privacy. Some people may shrug and say ‘that’s the way the world is now’, but does that really absolve us of responsibility for our readers?
I apologise for coming across as a Cassandra, but this is an issue I can’t ignore.
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I didn’t know about this regarding universal links, Meeks – Thank you for letting us know 🤗❤️🤗
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🙂 They’re a great idea in principle.
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