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Description
Automatically removes UTM parameters and known tracking identifiers from URLs and boosts your privacy. Auto URL Cleaner automatically removes tracking parameters from the links you click and the links you copy, so the URLs in your address bar and clipboard stay private. Most links you click are loaded with tracking junk. Marketing platforms add parameters like utm_source and utm_campaign to measure ad campaigns. Facebook adds fbclid, Mailchimp adds mc_cid and mc_eid, Instagram adds igshid. None of it does anything for you as a visitor. It exists so companies can follow you across sites, tie you back to a specific email, ad, or post, and build a profile of your browsing habits. Auto URL Cleaner strips these parameters out automatically before the page even loads, so that history and profile is harder to build. How it works The extension uses Chrome's built in declarativeNetRequest system, which means the cleaning happens directly in the browser using a static rule set. There is no proxy server, no remote request, and no third party ever sees the URLs you visit. Everything runs locally on your machine. When you click a link or type an address, known tracking parameters are removed from the URL before the request completes. If you copy a link from a page instead of clicking it, a lightweight content script rewrites the copied address so the version that ends up on your clipboard is already clean. Either way, the tracking noise never makes it into your browser history, your bookmarks, or the message you paste to a friend. What gets removed The current list covers the most common offenders: the five standard UTM parameters (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content), ad click identifiers from Google and Facebook (gclid, dclid, gbraid, wbraid, fbclid), Mailchimp campaign tags (mc_cid, mc_eid), Instagram's igshid, and Alibaba's spm parameter. The list is intentionally conservative. Parameters that could break checkout flows, logins, or referral credit, such as token, code, state, session, redirect_uri, and similar, are never touched. A parameter named ref was deliberately left alone, because sites like GitHub and Amazon use it for things other than tracking and stripping it can break the page. Control over every site Not every site behaves the same way, so you are never locked into one setting. Click the Auto URL Cleaner icon in your toolbar on any page disable the extension only for that site. Your exception list lives in a simple options page where you can add or remove sites at any time. Settings are stored locally using Chrome's storage API and are never uploaded anywhere. Privacy by design This extension does one thing, it removes tracking parameters from URLs. It does not collect analytics, does not phone home, does not inject ads, and does not read the content of the pages you visit. There is no account, no sign in, and no data leaves your device. The permissions it requests are the minimum needed to rewrite URLs and remember your per site preferences, nothing more. Auto URL Cleaner is free, has no paid tier, and will stay that way. It was built to solve a small, specific annoyance, the web is full of long, ugly, tracking laden links, and browsing should not mean handing over a breadcrumb trail with every click. If you want cleaner links and a little more privacy without changing how you browse, this extension does that in the background and gets out of your way. This project was inspired by ClearURLs.