Guide · 2 min read
What fbclid, utm and si= in links mean, and how to remove them
Links copied from social media and shops carry identifiers that say where you came from and sometimes who shared them. What each one means and how to strip it.
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Copy a link from Instagram, YouTube or an online shop and look at what follows the question mark. You will often find something like ?utm_source=ig&igsh=MTZh... or ?si=Kx9.... None of those characters is needed to open the page. They are there so someone knows where you came from and, sometimes, who sent you the link.
The most common ones
- utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content. Marketing campaign tags. They say which site, newsletter or ad you came from.
- fbclid. Added by Facebook to links leaving its platform. It identifies the click, which lets your visit be tied to your activity there.
- gclid and msclkid. The same for Google and Microsoft ads.
- igsh or igshid. Added by Instagram when sharing. It identifies the share and can be linked to the account that made it.
- si. Added by YouTube and Spotify when sharing. It also identifies the moment of sharing, and with it who shared the link.
- ttclid, twclid, li_fat_id. The TikTok, X and LinkedIn equivalents.
Why it matters
Each one looks harmless on its own. The problem is what they let someone join together:
- Who sent you something. With share identifiers such as
siorigsh, the platform can link whoever shared with whoever opened the link, even if they do not follow each other. - Your path between sites. An
fbclidlets a visit to a shop be associated with your Facebook account. - What you forward. Forward a link with these parameters and you forward the identifiers too, which can point back to you.
How to clean them
Paste the link into Clean links. Tracking parameters are removed and the necessary ones kept. It also unwraps links that pass through a redirector, such as Facebook’s or Google’s, to give you the real destination without visiting it. For every parameter removed, it explains what it revealed. You can paste several links at once.
It all happens in your browser: the tool does not open the links or ask any server.
A habit worth having
Before pasting a link into a group chat, an email or a social post, strip what it does not need. It takes ten seconds and protects both your privacy and that of whoever receives it.