DuckDuckGo’s new iPhone feature stops tracking IDs from hitching a ride in shared links

DuckDuckGo has added a small iPhone feature that can stop tracking identifiers from following links into your chats, emails and social posts.

The browser’s new Copy Clean Link option strips unnecessary parameters before placing an address on the clipboard. It arrived in a July iOS update and appears when users hold the address bar. The supplied report shows it working with pages from X, Reddit and YouTube.

Some of that URL clutter can be used for link decoration, a tracking technique that carries identifiers from one website to another.

How tracking IDs follow a click

Tracking parameters usually appear after a question mark in a web address. Some support ordinary analytics, while others carry a unique click ID that can connect activity across sites.

When the destination page loads, its scripts may read that identifier and save it alongside other browsing data. Apple’s WebKit team has described these click IDs as a way for trackers to establish an identity across websites.

Brave has identified examples including Meta’s fbclid, Google’s gclid and Microsoft’s msclkid. Removing known tracking parameters can interrupt that handoff without treating every long URL as suspicious.

What DuckDuckGo removes before sharing

DuckDuckGo cleans the address when it leaves the browser. Selecting Copy Clean Link places a stripped-down version on the clipboard instead of copying the full URL with its added parameters.

That can stop a click identifier from being forwarded to another person and read when the destination opens. The resulting address is also shorter and easier to inspect before it’s pasted into a chat or email.

The protection is modest but practical. Users don’t need to recognize individual tracking parameters or manually delete a long string of characters.

What the feature can’t clean up

Copy Clean Link doesn’t undo tracking that may already have happened when the page loaded. It also won’t block cookies, scripts or other tracking systems running within a website.

Some URL parameters are needed for a page to work, while others support ordinary campaign attribution. DuckDuckGo’s feature shouldn’t be treated as a universal privacy filter.

Its purpose is narrower. When sharing a page from the iPhone browser, choosing Copy Clean Link can keep unnecessary identifiers from travelling with it.