External links should not go through interstitial page

[Scotchester]

Whatever the reasons for interpreting that this was necessary at the time it was implemented, current Digital.gov guidance is that it is a bad practice:

What you shouldn't

Don’t roadblock external links with a modal window or dialog box. Allow users to follow external links without taking a separate action to acknowledge leaving your site. Roadblock notices result in a poor user experience and are redundant with both the link’s destination context (see Provide plain text context for external links, above) any external link indicator (see If you use an external link indicator, use it consistently, above), and your site’s policy and notices page (see Provide required notification for non-federal external links, above).

Current behavior

• Clicking an external link on consumerfinance.gov takes you to an interstitial page with a warning that you are leaving the site

Expected behavior

• Clicking an external link takes you directly to the external site

[anselmbradford]

Good to have you back flagging these things @Scotchester !!

@sonnakim What would need to happen to move forward with this? It would be nice to remove the complexity around the interstitial.

[sonnakim]

Thanks @Scotchester for bringing this to our attention. Agreed on all points with the guidance. I believe this would require approval from Privacy...I'll put some feelers out.

[Scotchester]

🎉 🥳 🎊