safeshare

I built SafeShare, a local-first URL cleaner that removes common tracking parameters (utm_*, gclid, fbclid, msclkid, etc.) in the browser.

Why: these params leak into chats, emails, docs, tickets and carry extra metadata.

How it works: paste a URL → it strips known tracking params → you copy/share the clean URL. No account. No server-side processing.

I’d love feedback on: 1. Which params/edge-cases should be handled next? 2. Any URLs where cleaning breaks expected behavior? 3. UX: does “Copy → Clean → Share” feel fast enough?

If you have a few real-world URLs where you’d want to keep/edit specific params, I’d be happy to use them as test cases.

Thanks a lot for the thoughtful comment.

You’re right that for many HN folks the interesting part is not just “make the URL shorter”, but understanding what is being removed and being able to keep / edit specific bits. Right now SafeShare is deliberately “dumb & small”: it only sees the URL string in the address bar and strips parameters that match a simple list/heuristic (UTM, gclid, fbclid, some obvious redirect params etc.). It doesn’t look at the request method – so it’s really working on query strings, not HTTP POST bodies.

I like your idea of an attribution / explanation layer, e.g.: • parse the URL and list detected tracking params, • show a short label for each (utm_source → source, campaign attribution, etc.), • let the user tick which ones to keep/remove, maybe even edit values, • then regenerate the final URL.

That would probably live as an “advanced” or “details” view so that the default flow stays as simple as: paste → clean → copy/open.

I’ll experiment with a prototype of that – even just a “show what was removed and why” panel would already be a useful first step. Thanks again for pushing me in that direction.

I built a tiny browser-based tool called SafeShare. You paste a URL, it removes common tracking parameters (utm_source, gclid, fbclid, etc.), tries to unwrap obvious redirect parameters (url=, redirect=, u=…), and shows you a cleaner link to share.

There is no login, no accounts, no tracking cookies – it runs as a simple web app on GitHub Pages and processes links locally in the browser.

It’s intentionally limited to “link hygiene” and transparency: – It’s not a full security scanner. – It does not follow every redirect hop across the network. – It focuses on cleaning links you want to share (mail, messenger, newsletter, social), not on doing deep inspection. App: https://j-ai-71.github.io/Supersystem/app.html Code: https://github.com/j-ai-71/Supersystem

I’d be happy about feedback from this crowd: – Would you actually use a tool like this in your own workflow? – Which parameters or patterns would you expect it to handle that it doesn’t yet? – Is the UX clear enough, or is something confusing/over-engineered?

Any comments, criticism or “this is useless, but here’s what would be useful instead” are welcome.