PrivateLink
Stop TikTok and others from embedding your info in links
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I wanted to share a TikTok without my username going with it and popping up to the receiver, or TIkTok's advertising backend. What started as a simple question turned into a rabbit hole.TikTok's links embed referrer parameters that identify who shared the link. Facebook's share link wrapper includes session hashes. YouTube's `si=` parameter likely logs the share against your profile. Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc.Each platform implements this differently, and they change their schemes regularly. So I built a secure modular cleaner with a constantly updating database, after carefully inspecting the behavior of each platform.The app uses a deny-by-default security model. If it doesn't recognize a parameter, it gets stripped. Behavior is configurable, and I tried to make it as self-explanatory as possible, and hopefully educational about exactly what the app does on your behalf and exactly what the platforms are doing with their parameters.I feel like there's a kind of "physics" to internet interaction we used to understand intuitively. Click a link, go to a page. Share a link, send a URL. But platforms have been eroding this. Now sharing means sending a URL + your identity + session context + attribution metadata, all encoded in ways we can't read.I built PrivateLink to scratch my own itch for that transparency, paired with one-touch sharing integration. The app shows you what's in the link, what gets stripped, and why. The goal isn't just "clean URLs" — it's understanding what happens when sharing from any app.Available on iOS and Android, with a free version that cleans TikTok and Facebook shortlinks specifically, and a $0.99 pro unlock for any website.Any and all feedback greatly appreciated!
HN · launched Jan 13, 2026 · 8 upvotes (top 58%) · 0 views
Niche: privacy-focused browsers and web tools · 93 launches, 9 in the last 7 days · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Compliance & governance
- B2C
- Not AI
- Commercial product
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 93 launches in privacy-focused browsers and web tools →
Could you build this?
Yes Stripping tracking identifiers from URLs involves regular expressions, known URL query parameter cleaning, and resolving HTTP redirects, which is easily implemented in a lightweight mobile utility or browser extension.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 589 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #220 of 590 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 72 days after the earliest competitor.
- Linkpolish · ph · 2026-09-29 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.68
- SHHHHHHH · ph · 2026-11-06 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- Clipsavo · ph · 2026-11-02 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.50
- TikTok Story Viewer · ph · 2026-10-08 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- FixMyTok · ph · 2026-09-20 · 2 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- TikTock – TikTok Video Downloader · ph · 2026-11-05 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- Sendhour · ph · 2026-11-14 · 3 upvotes · similarity 0.48
- repostviewer · ph · 2026-10-18 · 1 upvotes · similarity 0.47
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