Settings

Strip tracking codes from a link SANILINK

Strip the tracking tags from a link (utm_source, fbclid, gclid and dozens more) and unwrap redirect links, in your browser, so what you share is just the clean destination.

How it works

It never opens the links or contacts any server. Check an important link after cleaning.

The two different things in a link

  • Campaign tags. utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign and the rest. These describe where the link was placed, not who clicked it. They are the same for everybody who sees that placement, and removing them changes nothing about the page you land on.
  • Click identifiers. fbclid, gclid, msclkid, igshid, ttclid, mc_eid. These are the ones worth removing. Each is generated for a single click and ties that click to a profile, so a link you forward carries the identifier of the person it was made for. Forwarding a newsletter link with mc_eid in it hands the recipient your subscriber identity.

Redirect wrappers

A great many links are not the link at all: they point at a counting service which records the click and then sends you on. Mail providers, newsletter platforms and social networks all do it, and the real destination is usually sitting in the URL as a parameter.

Unwrapping one here means you can see where it actually goes before visiting, and the person you share it with is not counted by a service they never chose. Where a wrapper hides the destination entirely rather than carrying it as a parameter, this says so rather than guessing; it never opens a link or contacts anything, which is the point.

What it will not do

  • It does not shorten or expand a short link. A bit.ly address contains no destination; finding it means asking the shortener, which is a request this tool will not make on your behalf.
  • It cannot strip tracking built into the path. /r/a8f2c91/article carries an identifier in the path rather than the query, and removing it would break the link.
  • It does not make a link safe. A clean URL to a phishing page is a clean URL to a phishing page. For where a link actually goes and whether the domain is imitating another, use PHISHLENS and HOMOGLYPH.

What the tracking on a link actually does goes through both kinds and what each one is for.

Doing this often? The OBSCURA Sovereign Suite checks what this browser lets every site read without asking, and what to change. On its own, US$4 a month; with everything else, US$9 a month or US$79 a year. 7 days free.