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Description
Strips utm_*, fbclid, gclid and other tracking parameters when you copy, bookmark or navigate — and cleans the ones already saved. Link Cleaner — a link cleaner that removes utm_*, fbclid, gclid and other tracking parameters when you copy, bookmark or open a link — and cleans the ones already saved Link Cleaner is a small browser extension with one job: it takes the tracking junk out of web addresses. Marketing teams add tags to almost every link — utm_source, utm_medium, fbclid, gclid, msclkid and dozens more — so they can follow who clicked what and where the visit came from. Those tags travel with the address when you copy it into a chat, save it as a bookmark or paste it into a document. This extension reads the address at the moment you use it, removes the parameters you do not want, and hands over the clean version. No account, no subscription, no server on the other end: everything happens in your own browser profile. Why a link cleaner is worth installing A link with tracking parameters is longer, uglier and less private than the same link without them. When you send it to a colleague, you also send a record of the campaign that brought you to the page, the ad you clicked and the search you typed a minute earlier. Saved bookmarks keep that record for years, and every later visit can be attributed back to it. Copying a clean link takes two seconds with a link cleaner and saves the recipient from a wall of percent signs. There is a second, quieter cost: long addresses break in chat apps, get truncated in emails and look suspicious in tickets. Stripping the tags gives you a short, readable link that still opens the exact same page. How the extension works The extension watches the three moments when a link leaves your browser: copy, bookmark and click. It only reacts to a real web address — a single http or https link on the clipboard, a saved bookmark, a link you are about to follow. If the address has no parameters from your list, nothing is touched and you get no notification at all. Clean on copy. Select a link, press Ctrl+C, paste — the clipboard already holds the cleaned address. The original text on the page is not modified, so nothing breaks if the site needs it later. Clean saved bookmarks. Turn the bookmark option on and the extension rewrites the bookmarks that already sit in your profile, one pass, no manual editing. Bookmarks without tracking parameters are left exactly as they are. Clean on click. With click cleaning enabled, the address is rewritten the moment you follow it, so the site you land on never sees utm_* or fbclid. Links that open in a new tab are handled the same way. Clean the links of this page. The button in the popup scans every link on the page you are looking at and rewrites the ones that carry tracking tags. It reports how many links changed, so you can see the result immediately. Report and quiet mode. A small toast tells you what was removed, for example "Copied without utm_source, fbclid". If you prefer silence, switch the report off and the extension keeps working without saying a word. What you can configure The default list covers the parameters used by the big ad networks and analytics suites: utm_* (any name that starts with utm_), gclid, gclsrc, dclid, fbclid, msclkid, yclid, igshid, mc_cid, mc_eid, _hsenc, _hsmi, vero_id, s_kwcid, ttclid, twclid, ref, ref_src and spm. You can edit that list at any time: type one name per line, use an asterisk to match a prefix such as promo_*, restore the default list with one click and add exceptions for sites where links must stay untouched. There is also an option to drop the #hash part of an address, which is handy when the hash is used for scroll position or an analytics anchor rather than a real section. Exceptions work per host, including subdomains, so intranet tools and sites that genuinely need their parameters keep working. Privacy Everything runs locally. The extension does not collect browsing history, does not send page content anywhere and does not talk to a remote service. The list of parameters, the exceptions and the small statistics counters live in chrome.storage.local inside your own profile. Uninstalling the extension removes all of it. There is no analytics, no crash reporting, no remote configuration and no advertising identifier. Permissions are limited to what the job needs: storage for your settings, bookmarks for cleaning saved addresses, and access to pages so the content script can see the link you are clicking and read the clipboard on copy. Who it is for Anyone who shares links in messengers, sends them to clients or posts them in tickets; people who keep a large bookmark library and do not want campaign tags in it; researchers and journalists who prefer not to leak the path they took to a source; and anyone who simply dislikes a 200-character URL with nine question marks. Frequently asked questions Does it work offline? Yes. There are no network requests at all, so the extension behaves the same with the cable unplugged. Will it break links? Only parameters from your list are removed. Everything else — path, query values, anchors unless you enable hash stripping — stays exactly as it was. Does it change the page itself? The visible text of a link is left alone; only the address used for copying or navigation is cleaned. Can I keep tracking parameters on some sites? Yes, add the host to the exceptions list and the extension will not touch links there. Does it need my data? No. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sync. Try it on one page: open the popup, press the scan button and watch the counter. If the numbers look right, switch on copy and bookmark cleaning and forget about it. A cleaner link is a smaller footprint, and it takes one click.