Show HN: PasteClean – Desktop app to strip tracking parameters from clipboard

Posted by Iblockedthem 15 hours ago

2012Original

I built a small desktop tool called PasteClean to solve a personal annoyance: sharing URLs filled with tracking garbage (utm_source, fbclid, etc.).

It runs in the background and automatically cleans URLs in your clipboard when you copy them. It handles 50+ tracking parameters and can also unshorten links (bit.ly, t.co) to reveal the destination and clean them before pasting.

Tech stack is Electron/React/TypeScript.

The core privacy features are free. I added a "Pro" lifetime license for some advanced features (unshortening, batch mode) to support development.

Comments

Comment by crtasm 2 hours ago

Firefox's right-click menu has "Copy Link Without Site Tracking"

uBlock Origin can remove them before loading a URL, some examples (they go in My Filters)

    *$removeparam=/^utm_/
    *$removeparam=fbclid
    *$removeparam=si

Comment by tonymet 13 hours ago

My hobby is writing iOS Shortcuts while in the restroom and my url cleaner shortcut is my most often used one.

Side note : Shortcuts.app is iOS best feature hands down

Comment by Brajeshwar 13 hours ago

How do you deal with the permissions on using Shortcut?

With the new macOS Spotlight improvement and the window management getting better, I thought I will get rid of Rectangle Pro (I use only that custom window resizing) and tried a window Resizer Shortcut. I’ve tried giving it as much freedom as I can but it keeps bumping into more and more gates.

Btw, I think I jumped too early on that Spotlight thing. I remember, I got back to Alfred last week.

Comment by dfajgljsldkjag 14 hours ago

Obvious vibe coded slop.

Also includes a nice fake readme on github that says it's open source (it's not) with "instructions" to build it locally with npm (they don't work). https://archive.is/rzwK1

Comment by techjamie 11 hours ago

Not sure how much you checked in detail, but to add on, I downloaded it and unpacked the app to check out the source. Would say it definitely looks like AI written code. I partially wonder if Gemini generated it, because it seemingly imports `@google/genai` as a dependency and does nothing with it, and that kinda seems like a Gemini thing to do.

Comment by drshajul 6 hours ago

Absolutely right.. this is closed source. Don't know why there is the 'Development' section.

Comment by TylerE 14 hours ago

Seconded.

Comment by jauntywundrkind 13 hours ago

On Android, I've been using Leon - The URL Cleaner. GPL3 is restrictive but fine here for me. It is a nice Share Target app, so integrates well with Android. And it has an option to copy the URL to the clipboard automatically after cleaned, which is what I want. https://github.com/leon-cleaning-services/leon

I'd love to use a webapp/PWA that has Share Target support, just because. Not sure what is out there.

Comment by fragmede 14 hours ago

kinda related, on iOS there's https://routinehub.co/shortcut/16554/ for this.

Comment by AnonHP 13 hours ago

Sadly, this site requires a login or registration with an email just to get the shortcut. I guess I may be able to find a similar one that’s just shared by someone on their iCloud storage.

Comment by fragmede 12 hours ago

Oh that sucks. Wasn't trying to shill for that site. I've got this one but I can't remember where I got it from and it doesn't work for youtube links. There's probably a better one out there if you look around.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2012dc7a1a894f72b0ff0d5e0b3...

Comment by stephenr 13 hours ago

Presumably this also works on macOS.