/url-tracking-stripper

An open-source Chrome Extension that will remove the tracking parameters from URLs to keep them short and cleaner for sharing, bookmarking, etc. It will also skip any known redirects and take you straight to the target URL instead of passing you through an intermediate URL.

Primary LanguageJavaScriptMIT LicenseMIT

URL Tracking Stripper

A Chrome Extension designed with one intention: Increase the speed and privacy of your web browsing by skipping tracking redirects and removing the tracking parameters from URLs to keep them short and cleaner for sharing, bookmarking, etc.

User Installation

If you are just a normal end-user looking to use this extension, you can install this Extension in the Chrome Webstore

Chrome Webstore

Developer Instructions

If you are a developer and would like to fork, modify and/or contribute to this extesion, then this section is for you. Development of this extension requires that you have Node installed on your system. This is because it uses Gulp and Webpack to build the extension, minify it, and compress it for the Chrome Webstore. Here are instructions to get going:

  1. Clone this repository and cd into it.
  2. Install all dependencies via npm install
  3. During development, you can run gulp dev, which will build the extension without compressing it then will "watch" the input assets, triggering a rebuild automatically.
  4. When you're all done, to build an compressed and zipped version you can run just plain gulp.
  5. Add (or refresh) the local chrome (dev build) or chrome_uglified (production build) folder in the Chrome Extensions page.
  6. Be sure to see the Testing area below for testing requirements.

Testing

The test suite is just getting started, but I'm going to try and insist on tests (where appropriate) for all PRs. For sure, if you add a tracker you must add at least one test example to the trackerExamples array located in examples.js. The same is true for redirects: please add at least one test example to the redirectExamples array in examples.js.

To run the tests, simply execute: npm test

Documentation

The following URL parameters are removed:

Google's Urchin Tracking Module & Google Adwords

  • utm_source
  • utm_medium
  • utm_term
  • utm_campaign
  • utm_content
  • utm_name
  • utm_cid
  • utm_reader
  • utm_viz_id
  • utm_pubreferrer
  • utm_swu
  • gclid

Adobe Analytics

  • ICID
  • icid

Facebook

  • fbclid

Instagram

  • igshid

Hubspot

  • _hsenc
  • _hsmi

Marketo

  • mkt_tok

Mailchimp

  • mc_cid
  • mc_eid

SimpleReach

  • sr_share

Vero

  • vero_conv
  • vero_id

Unknown

  • nr_email_referer
  • ncid
  • ref

Please file an Issue if you would like others tracked!

You can find the file with the trackers here.

Stripping Methods

This Extension is free and open source, and in no way is trying to keep tabs on you. However, different options provide different pros and cons around things like permissions, speed and privacy. Please read about the different "Stripping Methods" avaiable and choose which one is right for you:

  1. History Change:

    • This approach will simply monitor for URLs that you visit which contain tracking parameters, and after the page loads it will update your browser History and remove the tracking parameters from the URL for that tab.
    • This is pretty slick, shouldn't slow your browsing down and requires no page re-load. However, it provides absolutely no increased privacy for you, as any sites have already registered and tracked your visit by the time the change is made to the URL.
    • You can think of it as a purely cosmetic fix. I recommend one of the more privacy-focused Stripping Methods below, but it is your call.

  2. Block and Re-Load:

    • This approach will evaluate any URLs you attempt to visit before the request is actually executed. Any URLs that appear to contain tracking will be blocked and then the equivalent URL without the tracking parameters will be re-loaded instead.
    • While every effort to make the impact of this implementation minimal/unnoticeable has been made, and Chrome has spent a lot of time optimizing this area as well, this will still add a small amount of overhead to your web page requests.
    • Of the available methods, this one adds the more privacy over the "History Change" Stripping Method due to the fact that tracking paramters are stripped from URLs before they are requested.
    • For even more privacy, I recommend the below "Block and Re-load + Skip Redirects" option below.

  3. Block and Re-load + Skip Redirects:

    • This approach is nearly identical to the above "Block And Re-load" Stripping Method.
    • However this one adds the most privacy due to the fact that this method Skips Known Redirects that may track you via an intermediate page load - see below for more info.

Skip Known Redirects

Some links on pages (e.g. Google Search Results) look like they take you directly to the target URL, but really they will pass you through (an) intermediate server(s), cookie/track you, and then finally redirect you to the target URL. Some Stripping Methods make it possible for this extension to recognize when these links are clicked, and then extract the target URL and take you straight there, skipping the redirect and unnecessary tracking. For this reason, I recommend choosing the "Block and Re-load + Skip Redirects" Stripping Method.

You can find the file with the known redirects here.

Additional thoughts: This extension was not intended to be a catch-all for removing tracking and increasing your privacy. Its main purpose was simply to get a bunch of noise out of your address bar, with additional privacy (depending on your Stripping Method) being an added benefit. This extension also only monitors the URLs for the "main page" that you are visiting in your tabs, and does not monitor any resources that are subesquently loaded by that page that may contain tracking parameters. If you are really interested in privacy and actually blocking all tracking requests, I highly recommended you take a look at something that was designed with that as its goal, such as Ghostery [https://www.ghostery.com/].

Utilizes:

Thanks!

Thanks to the following:

  • jenntn for donating the work on the logos and design.
  • Pablo Massa for some great UI suggestions that I ended up implementing.
  • Menzo Wijmenga for contributing code and ideas for new features/enhancements.
  • jnozsc for contributing trackers and redirects.

Version History

Version history has been moved to the CHANGELOG. Please look at that for changes.

  • v1.4 - Added tracker: utm_name.
  • v1.3 - Added Hubspot trackers.
  • v1.2 - Made the Page Action popup better looking with MDL.
  • v1.1 - added more trackers to the list. Changed some image and description, etc.
  • v1.0 - added ability to re-load a page with trackers allowed 1-time from the PageAction (icon)
  • v0.0.7-8 - Added more trackers.
  • v0.0.6 - Icon will become active when a URL has some pieces stripped by the extension so you know when it's done something. The original URL will be shown if you click on it.
  • v.0.0.5 - Added support for more trackers. Made faster. Fixed bugs around removing matches that are not parameters, etc.