Problem

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For some people, links in their UC San Diego e-mail will take you to an error message page with the following text:

You've Reached This Page In Error

Sorry, we are unable to reach the page you were trying to access. It appears that the link you clicked on is missing some key information. The link may have been broken because the message has been modified, forwarded, or otherwise changed from its original form…

We've determined a common cause for this error and have found a workaround to resolve it in most cases.

Background

UC San Diego uses Proofpoint to maintain e-mail security. This includes a Spam Quarantine environment that filters out potential marketing or phishing email, but it also includes URL Defense, which allows us to retroactively mark accounts as compromised if they have clicked a link later found to be malicious.

Cause

We have narrowed down the cause of this error message to a Google Chrome extension named DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials. This extension removes some tracking information from links, including the information that Proofpoint needs to record that you were the one who clicked on the link.

The Privacy Essentials extension changes the link after you visit it using an internal redirect. This means that the link you click in Gmail or Outlook is valid but, when it opens in your browser, the extension changes it to remove tracking data. When the address changes, it becomes invalid and URL Defense redirects you to the error page.

To check if you have the affected extension do the following:

1. Click the three dots at the top right of the Google Chrome window.
2. Under More Tools select Extensions.
3. On the "Extensions" page, you will see an entry labeled "DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials."

Solution

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If You Access Your E-mail From the Web

1. Open the website you use to access your UC San Diego e-mail, Gmail or Outlook. Sign in to view your inbox.
2. Once you are at your inbox, click on the puzzle piece icon at the top-right corner of your web browser to open the extension menu.
3. Select "DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials" from the list of extensions. This should open the configuration panel for extension.
4. Next to "Protections are ON for this site," there should be a switch. Toggle this switch so that it is off.
5. The page will reload and you should be able to use links that were previously blocked.

If You Access Your E-mail from an E-mail Client

If you access your e-mail from a client such as Outlook or the Mac Mail app, the links may still not work. In that case, you will need to remove the extension.

1. Click the three dots at the top right of the Google Chrome window.
2. Under More Tools select Extensions.
3. On the "Extensions" page, you will see an entry labeled "DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials."
4. Click the "Remove" button for the extension and click "Remove" in the top-right corner of the window.

Once you complete these steps, you should now be able to access links in your e-mail without reaching the error page.