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https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner

A Firefox extension to clean urls from tracking and advertisement parameters
https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner

extensions privacy-enhancing-technologies tracking

Last synced: 4 months ago
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A Firefox extension to clean urls from tracking and advertisement parameters

Host: GitHub
URL: https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner
Owner: apiraino
Created: 2018-09-21T16:27:27.000Z (over 6 years ago)
Default Branch: master
Last Pushed: 2022-09-03T01:02:29.000Z (over 2 years ago)
Last Synced: 2024-08-01T16:45:30.482Z (7 months ago)
Topics: extensions, privacy-enhancing-technologies, tracking
Language: JavaScript
Homepage:
Size: 265 KB
Stars: 80
Watchers: 6
Forks: 10
Open Issues: 7
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

README

# ![Link Cleaner+](/assets/web-link-cleaned-thumb.png) Link Cleaner+

This project is a fork of [Link Cleaner](https://github.com/idlewan/link_cleaner), a Firefox extension to sanitize links removing all tracking parameters. This fork would like to keep the original project alive. We have a [roadmap](https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner/wiki) and a list of items (features and bugs) open up for grabs. Contributions are welcome!

## Why "Link Cleaner+"

The original project seems to have stalled, issues and pull requests don't get through. We will try picking up where the original project left and move forward. You can install Link Cleaner+ from the [Mozilla Add-ons website](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/link-cleaner-plus/).

## How does it work?

Links are checked and sanitized before any further action is performed (browser redirect, open tab, copy link). Sanitization is performed based on a blacklist.

Feature list:

- [x] removes utm\_\* parameters
- [x] on item pages such as of Aliexpress and Amazon, removes tracking parameters
- [x] on item pages of Amazon, rewrites SEO friendly links to the tbare minimum (see examples below)
- [x] Configurable flag to enable / disable AMP links cleanlinks (Why are [Google AMP page bad](https://love2dev.com/blog/problems-with-google-accelerated-mobile-pages-and-fighting-back/)?)
- [x] Context menu item to copy sanitized link to clipboard
- [x] skip redirect pages of facebook, steam and reddit (directly go to the url being redirected to, and never hit their outgoing redirect tracking)

You can now visit and bookmark clean links instead of the long, tracking-enabled ones!

Link Cleaner+ is a work in progress, [contributions and suggestions](https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner/issues) are welcome!

# Examples:

| | utm\_\* removal |
| --------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Original | `http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2017/03/07/welcome-to-the-grid/?utm_source=frontendfocus&utm_medium=email` |
| Sanitized | `http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2017/03/07/welcome-to-the-grid` |
| | **Amazon item URL** |
| Original | `https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Type-C-USB-Male-Cable/dp/B01GGKYQ02/ref=sr_1_1?s=amazonbasics&srs=10112675011&ie=UTF8&qid=1489067885&sr=8-1&keywords=usb-c` |
| Sanitized | `https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01GGKYQ02` |
| | **Facebook redirect** |
| Original | `https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fsf.org%2Fcampaigns%2F&h=ATP1kf98S0FxqErjoW8VmdSllIp4veuH2_m1jl69sEEeLzUXbkNXrVnzRMp65r5vf21LJGTgJwR2b66m97zYJoXx951n-pr4ruS1osMvT2c9ITsplpPU37RlSqJsSgba&s=1` |
| Sanitized | `https://www.fsf.org/campaigns` |
| | **Reddit redirect** |
| Original | `https://out.reddit.com/t3_5pq7qd?url=https%3A%2F%2Finternethealthreport.org%2Fv01%2F&token=AQAAZV6JWHBBnIcVjV1wvxVg5gKyCQQSdUhGIvuEUmdPZhxhm8kH&app_name=reddit.com` |
| Sanitized | `https://internethealthreport.org/v01/` |
| | **Steam redirect** |
| Original | `https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?url=https://getfedora.org/` |
| Sanitized | `https://getfedora.org/` |

For a full list of test cases, have a look at the included [test_urls.html](https://github.com/apiraino/link_cleaner/blob/master/test_urls.html) file.

# Comparison to other add-ons

Unlike other legacy add-ons, Link Cleaner+ doesn't inject JavaScript into pages to change links. Instead, it listens to main url requests and changes them (if needed) to remove redirects or tracking.

That means it's doing less unneeded work and consumes less resources (memory and CPU).

# Warnings

- Cleaning Amazon URLs will break any affiliation program. Use the usual "Copy Link" (L) shortcut if you want to support the third-party affiliate program.

- Cleaning Slack redirect URLs could potentially leak company's sensitive links, see [the documentation](https://slack.com/intl/en-de/help/articles/115004155306#click-shared-links-with-caution).

# Test the extension locally

You can use the `web-ext` package to keep things easier (see [documentation](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/web-ext_command_reference#web-ext_sign) and [how to install](https://github.com/mozilla/web-ext)).

Install Use the provided script `web-ext-run.sh` to launch Firefox with a dedicated profile. The add-ons is already installed and the browser will open on the test HTML page.

Notice that since the profile is created at runtime, preferences saved by the extension will be lost once the browser will be closed (unless the parameter `--keep-profile-changes` is added to the `web-ext-run.sh` script.

The profile should be located in `/tmp`.

Enable extension debugging from `about:debugging` to see logging.

# Test the extension locally in normal Firefox profile

First, deactivate/uninstall AMO-installed add-on. Then, visit `about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox`, and use "Load Temporary Add-on..." to select the `manifest.json` file in this directory. It will be unloaded when Firefox restarts.

# Build extension for publishing

```bash
# not signed, local installation (load from about:debugging#/runtime/this-firefox)
$ rm -f ~/tmp/link_cleaner_x.y.zip
$ zip -r -FS ~/tmp/link_cleaner_x.y.xpi manifest.json *.js _locales/ options/ assets/icon*
```

```bash
# build and sign for publishing on AMO
$ export AMO_JWT_ISSUER=user:12345:67
$ export AMO_JWT_SECRET=634f34b...
$ web-ext sign --api-key=$AMO_JWT_ISSUER --api-secret=$AMO_JWT_SECRET -i web-ext-run.sh
$ ls web-ext-artifacts/
link_cleaner_x.y.zip
```

# Credits

Original work: [Link Cleaner](https://github.com/idlewan/link_cleaner)

Icons made by [Daniel Bruce](https://www.flaticon.com/authors/daniel-bruce) and [Good Ware](https://www.flaticon.com/authors/good-ware) from [Flaticon](https://www.flaticon.com) licensed by [CC 3.0 BY](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0).

# License

Released under the GPLv3 license