ClearURLs

Remove tracking elements from URLs.

What is ClearURLs?

'ClearURLs' is an Edge add-on designed to enhance your online privacy by automatically stripping tracking elements from the URLs you visit. With more extensive ruleset than similar tools, it effectively cleans the URLs and reduces your exposure to tracking. This tool also offers functionalities such as blocking common ad domains and preventing tracking injection via history API. ClearURLs operates transparently with its open-source nature allowing everyone to examine its source code or contribute to the project. Notably, no user data is collected ensuring maximum user privacy.

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Add-on stats

By: kroeb

View on Edge Add-on Store

Users: 38,749 ▼ -164

Rating: 4.20 (38)

Version: 1.26.0 (Last updated: 2022-11-18)

Creation date: 2021-12-28

Risk impact: High risk impact

Risk likelihood: Low risk likelihood

Manifest version: 2

Permissions:

<all_urls>
webRequest
webRequestBlocking
storage
unlimitedStorage
contextMenus
webNavigation
tabs
downloads

Size: 856.40K

URLs: Website ,Privacy policy

Ranking

# 787 ▼ 2

Other rankings

#31 in tracking keyword 46 ▼ 1

#46 in remove keyword 48 ▼ 2

#58 in destination keyword 14

#68 in sale keyword 20 ▲ 1

#72 in wiki keyword 17 ▲ 1

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Other platforms

ClearURLs (v1.26.0)

3.67

(198) 100,000

ClearURLs (v1.26.1)

4.40

(863) 349,700

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Add-on summary

Analyze keywords

This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browsing through the Internet.

Many websites use tracking elements in the URL (e.g. https://example.com?utm_source=newsletter1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=sale) to mark your online activity. All that tracking code is not necessary for a website to be displayed or work correctly and can therefore be removed—that is exactly what ClearURLs does.

Another common example are Amazon URLs. If you search for a product on Amazon you will see a very long URL, such as https://www.amazon.com/dp/exampleProduct/ref=sxin_0_pb?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=tea&pd_rd_i=exampleProduct&pd_rd_r=8d39e4cd-1e4f-43db-b6e7-72e969a84aa5&pd_rd_w=1pcKM&pd_rd_wg=hYrNl&pf_rd_p=50bbfd25-5ef7-41a2-68d6-74d854b30e30&pf_rd_r=0GMWD0YYKA7XFGX55ADP&qid=1517757263&rnid=2914120011

Indeed most of the above URL is tracking code. Once ClearURLs has cleaned the address, it will look like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/exampleProduct

Why use this extension as opposed to similar ones? Most other “link cleaners” employ about a dozen rules when looking for tracking parameters to remove. ClearURLs utilizes over 250 rules, so its capabilities are more comprehensive. And ClearURLs is open source, so everyone can join the project and/or can check the source code to error or malicious code.

All functions in a nutshell

Removes tracking from URLs automatically in the background

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Edge Add-on Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.

Pros

Effective at removing tracking URLs.
Improves privacy and data protection.
Very useful add-on for daily tasks.

Cons

Lacks whitelisting capability, requiring users to disable it for certain sites.
Breaks functionality on multiple websites, causing issues.
Incompatibility with specific features on popular sites like Google Play Books and eBay.

Most mentioned

No whitelisting feature.
Disables functionality on some websites.
Useful for maintaining privacy.

Recent reviews

This extension breaks the functionality of some websites. For example, when the extension is active, I cannot add an item on eBay to the watchlist. And when I deactivate extension - everything works as it should.

by Michael, 2024-10-15

少给一颗星以示鼓励这个扩展在国内需要配置才好用，给国内新手用户指条路： github.com/lifegpc/clearUrls

by Administrator, 2024-07-15

This is a great extension, except that one HUGE missing feature makes it a lot of work to use. It has no whitelisting capability so that you can have it disable itself for specified websites. Some pages do not load correctly when this is enabled. For instance if you're getting a Reddit digest via email and you click any particular post to see, the extension removes all of the information needed for it to take you to the story and you're instead just taken to your main feed. Also, if I try opening any ebook in Google Play Books, it spins forever unless I turn this off. There are others as well. So I'm constantly having to click this icon and turn it off, but only after having wasted time trying to open something and having it fail because I've forgotten nearly every time that this has to be manually disabled first and then re-enabled afterward. If it had a simple whitelisting feature, I'd be able to add these exceptions once and everything would just work and save lots of time.

by Chris, 2024-07-08

View all user reviews

Add-on safety

Risk impact

ClearURLs is risky to use as it requires a number of sensitive permissions that can potentially harm your browser and steal your data. Exercise caution when installing this add-on. Review carefully before installing. We recommend that you only install ClearURLs if you trust the publisher.