DuckDuckGo's latest feature for iPhone prevents tracking IDs from being included in shared links.
Copy Clean Link eliminates unnecessary URL parameters before you paste a webpage into a message, email, or post.
DuckDuckGo has introduced a small feature for iPhone that prevents tracking identifiers from following links into your chats, emails, and social media posts. The new Copy Clean Link option removes unnecessary parameters from the URL before it is copied to the clipboard. This feature was included in a July iOS update and appears when users press and hold the address bar. Reports indicate it works with pages from X, Reddit, and YouTube.
Some of these URL parameters serve as link decoration, a tracking method that carries identifiers across different websites.
How tracking IDs follow a click
Tracking parameters typically follow a question mark in a URL. Some are used for standard analytics, while others include a unique click ID that can link activity between websites.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
When the destination page opens, its scripts may detect this identifier and store it alongside other browsing information. Apple’s WebKit team has referred to these click IDs as a means for trackers to create a distinctive identity across various sites.
Brave has identified some examples like Meta’s fbclid, Google’s gclid, and Microsoft’s msclkid. By removing known tracking parameters, it can disrupt this transfer without classifying every lengthy URL as suspicious.
What DuckDuckGo removes before sharing
DuckDuckGo clears the URL when it is copied from the browser. Selecting Copy Clean Link places a simplified version on the clipboard rather than copying the entire URL with additional parameters.
This action can prevent a click identifier from being sent to another person and being accessed upon opening the destination link. The new address is also shorter and easier to examine before being pasted into a chat or email.
Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends
While this protection may be minimal, it is practical. Users do not need to identify specific tracking parameters or manually remove long strings of characters.
What the feature can’t fix
Copy Clean Link cannot reverse any tracking that may have already occurred when the page was loaded. It also does not block cookies, scripts, or other tracking systems that operate within a website.
Some URL parameters are required for the proper functioning of a page, while others are used for standard campaign tracking. DuckDuckGo’s feature should not be considered a comprehensive privacy filter.
Its aim is more specific. When sharing a page from the iPhone browser, using Copy Clean Link helps prevent unnecessary identifiers from being included.
Paulo Vargas is an English major turned reporter turned technical writer, with a career that has always circled back to …
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DuckDuckGo's latest feature for iPhone prevents tracking IDs from being included in shared links.
DuckDuckGo's Copy Clean Link feature removes extraneous URL parameters prior to sharing, which aids in stopping tracking IDs from being included in messages, emails, and social posts on iPhone.