Tracking remover

Remove extra tracking before you share a link.

Copied links can reveal which app, ad, newsletter, or account produced a click. Clean the link without changing where it goes.

What each app attaches

Different platforms attach different fields, so the cleaner uses a separate rule for each.

Instagram and Threads

igsh, igshid

A share code created when you tap the share button. It identifies the sharing session rather than the post.

TikTok

_t, _r, sender_device

Share session fields plus a label recording whether the link came from the app or the web player.

YouTube

si

Added to every link copied from the share sheet. The video, playlist, and timestamp fields are kept.

Amazon

tag, ascsubtag

Affiliate credit and the search position you clicked from. The product identifier is kept.

Facebook

fbclid, mibextid

A per-click identifier that differs every time the same post is copied.

Spotify and Apple Music

si, at, ct

Share and campaign fields. The track identifier inside an album link is functional, so it stays.

Four platforms, cleaned

Real output from the cleaner on this page, including the parts it deliberately keeps.

Instagram reel

Before: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cx12345/?igsh=MWFzaGFyZQ%3D%3D&img_index=1
After: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cx12345/

Removed igsh and img_index. The reel opens the same way for anyone who receives the shorter link.

TikTok video

Before: https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7460000000000000000?_t=ZS-abc&_r=1&is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
After: https://www.tiktok.com/@user/video/7460000000000000000

Removed four fields, including sender_device, which records whether the share came from a phone or a desktop browser.

YouTube share link

Before: https://youtu.be/dQw4w9WgXcQ?si=AbCdEfGhIjK&t=42
After: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=42&v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

Removed si and expanded the short domain. The 42-second timestamp is kept, because t is functional rather than tracking.

Amazon product

Before: https://www.amazon.com/Some-Product-Name/dp/B08N5WRWNW/ref=sr_1_3?tag=aff-20&qid=1699999999&sr=8-3&th=1
After: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08N5WRWNW?th=1

Reduced to the canonical product path. The affiliate tag and the search-position fields are gone; th, which selects a product variant, is kept.

What a share code can reveal

The fields an app attaches when you tap share are not the same as the fields that identify the content. A TikTok video identifier points at a video. A TikTok share code points at the act of sharing.

That distinction matters when a link travels further than expected. A screenshot in a group chat, a link forwarded into a public thread, or a URL pasted into a document can carry the share code with it. Depending on the platform, that code can associate the link with the account that generated it and the moment it was generated.

None of this is hidden or unusual, and for most links it does not matter. It matters more when the link is being forwarded on behalf of someone else, quoted in public, or archived somewhere permanent.

Platform rules, not one universal list

A single blocklist of parameter names does not work well, because the same name means different things on different sites. On Medium, source is a tracking field. On plenty of other sites, source is what tells the page which content to display.

So the cleaner runs platform-specific rules first, then a universal pass for fields that are unambiguous everywhere, like gclid, fbclid, and anything beginning with utm_. YouTube and Amazon use a stricter approach still: rather than removing known-bad fields, they keep only the known-good ones, because both platforms attach a long tail of fields that change over time.

What removing tracking does not do

A clean link is not an anonymous visit. The site at the other end still receives an IP address and still reads whatever cookies the browser already holds. If there is a logged-in session, the site knows who is visiting regardless of how tidy the URL was.

What a clean link does change is what the URL itself discloses to everyone who handles it in between: the person you send it to, anyone they forward it to, and any system that logs it along the way.

Common questions

Why do shared links contain tracking?

Apps, ads, email tools, and analytics systems add information to links so they can connect clicks to campaigns, accounts, referrals, and shares.

Can I delete everything after the question mark?

Not always. Some links need information after the question mark to open the right video, product, search, timestamp, or page. This cleaner removes known tracking parts and preserves useful ones.

Does this make browsing anonymous?

No. It removes extra information from the URL you share. The destination website can still use accounts, cookies, and other ways to recognize visitors.

Does a cleaned link still open the same page?

Yes. The cleaner only removes fields it recognizes as tracking, and it keeps functional parts such as video identifiers, timestamps, product variants, and search terms.

What about shortened links?

A shortener hides the destination behind a redirect that only its own server can resolve, so it cannot be expanded in the browser. The cleaner flags shortened links so you can clean the expanded URL after it opens.