Have you ever noticed those long and cluttered URLs with tracking elements while browsing websites? These tracking elements are used by websites to monitor your online activity, but they are not necessary for the proper functioning of a website. In fact, they can compromise your privacy by providing unnecessary information about your browsing habits. That's where ClearURLs, a powerful Chrome extension, comes in.
ClearURLs is a user-friendly Chrome extension designed to automatically remove tracking elements from URLs, ensuring your online privacy is protected. With a total rating of 3.8, this extension has gained popularity among users who value their privacy while browsing the Internet.
How ClearURLs Works
Once installed, ClearURLs works silently in the background, eliminating tracking elements from URLs as you navigate through websites. It effectively removes unnecessary tracking code, such as utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign parameters, that are commonly used by websites to mark your online activities.
For example, if you come across an Amazon URL with a long string of tracking parameters:
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
ClearURLs will simplify the URL to its essential form:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/exampleProduct
Advanced Features for Enhanced Privacy
ClearURLs goes beyond just removing tracking elements and offers additional features to enhance your online privacy:
- Blocks common ad domains: ClearURLs can block ad domains, providing an extra layer of protection against intrusive advertisements.
- Context menu integration: The extension adds an entry to your browser's context menu, allowing you to quickly and cleanly copy links without any tracking code.
- Prevents tracking injection: ClearURLs prevents tracking injection over the history API, ensuring that your browsing history remains private.
- Blocks hyperlink auditing: Hyperlink auditing, also known as ping tracking, is blocked by ClearURLs, preventing websites from collecting unnecessary data about your clicks.
- Prevents search result manipulation: ClearURLs stops Google and Yandex from rewriting search results to include tracking elements, giving you unbiased search results.
- Badgeds for blocked elements: The extension provides badges to indicate the currently blocked tracking elements, allowing you to see the impact of ClearURLs in action.
- Optional logging and settings import/export: ClearURLs offers optional logging for advanced users and allows you to export/import your settings for easy configuration.
User Reviews
ClearURLs has received mixed reviews from users, highlighting both its benefits and limitations. Some users have reported issues with certain websites, such as Google Accounts and Firebase's "App Distribution" page, where the extension may cause disruptions. However, many users appreciate its ability to remove tracking elements and enhance their online privacy.
It's worth noting that ClearURLs requires the "manage downloads" permission, which some users have raised concerns about. The developers may consider providing more transparency regarding this requirement to address user concerns.
Conclusion
ClearURLs is a valuable Chrome extension that helps protect your privacy by removing tracking elements from URLs. While it may have some limitations and compatibility issues with certain websites, it offers a range of advanced features to enhance your online privacy. With its user-friendly interface and a total rating of 3.8, ClearURLs is a popular choice for those who value their privacy while browsing websites.
15 Reviews For This Extension
I'm having problems when giving permissions in google to third party apps, and when using some PWA.
Works well and does what it says, but I wish it worked for bing search results too.
It works everything well except school, gov and google websites cause OAuth2 authorization issues. It would be nice to add whitelist URL.
I really like the idea and it does seem to be cleaning the URLs. but like others have mentioned. it currently breaks google logins in sites like glassdoor. I will be more than happy to use it otherwise.
Trash, nothing works. It doesn't clear tracking URLs
"The server cannot process the request because it is malformed. It should not be retried." error is caused by this plugin breaking the OAuth 2 login for google accounts (logging into third party websites using google login).
While subtle, it certainly improved my browsing experience. It could have broader support for URLs, but it's improving with updates. 10/10.
I love this addon as it's clears up the urls on sites, however as others state (and it took me ages to identify this addon as the culprit) - this addon breaks google OAuth. now i know i can keep disabling this addon every time it causes issues, although that's annoying. up to now it's broken auth on many services and apps as I had no idea this was the culprit. As it looks like people have been reporting this issue for a year, it seems the addon has been abandoned? I've logged an issue on the github and posted to their twitter, hopefully someone finds a fix
I very much wanted to like this but it breaks OAuth2 authorization for Google accounts. Can't have that. Maybe next release will fix this so because of the developer's obvious good intentions I'll give it 2 stars instead of one.
Enabling this extension can cause OAuth2 authorization issues with Google accounts due to tracking data clearance. This may result in failed authorization with a 401 error. Exercise caution. P.s. Examples of OAuth2 usage include using a Google account for authorization to access Google Drive or using a Facebook account for authorization to access third-party developer applications.
This addon doesn't do anything, never removes anything from any URL. Useless.
I had a different experience from some recent reviews, no breakages at all. Works very smoothly, also speeds up my browsing to some extent. I see it don't get updates very often, but still very functional, i'd suggest anyone to give it a go. It's a nice addition to any adblock, since clearurls has some exclusive features.
This extension breaks the redirects of ad results on the Google search result page. When you click on an ad result, the page does not load. This is very frustrating when you actually want to get to that page. It took me some time to realise that this extension is responsible for that behaviour
Like other reviewers here, I like what it does but having it enabled by default breaks too many things. To be useful It needs a URL whitelist feature which has been requested for years (ref github) but developer has not added. I will make a note to check back in 12 months and if whitelist as added then change my rating to 5 stars. (Ref. https://github.com/ClearURLs/Addon/issues/93#issuecomment-1111052855 )
Like many others, I diagnosed a problem with authenticating to Google and found this extension to be the problem. When at the oAuth consent screen to authorise an app to access your account, it throws a generic "Something went wrong" error on screen. For the tech-savvy users, it appears the extension mangles the f.req value in the request, prompting Google to return 401 Unauthorized. It's a shame because I liked what the extension did, but I can't be dealing with login problems like this. Goodbye for now ClearURLs!