Remove tracking
Remove tracking from YouTube links
YouTube's si parameter is a unique share identifier generated every time you tap Share. It ties the click back to your sharing session. feature and pp expose how you found or played the video. The video loads identically with or without them.
Try it — paste a YouTube link
Or prepend prunethe.link/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&si=abc123tracking&feature=shared
Before and after
What YouTube tracks in shared links
si is a signed token tied to the sharer. feature=shared, feature=youtu.be, or feature=youtube.com tells YouTube which surface the share came from. pp is a packed-params blob for advanced playback context. None of these are needed to play the video — the v= parameter is.
YouTube tracking parameters explained
- si
- Share identifier — signed token for the sharer's session.
- feature
- Discovery surface (shared, youtu.be, youtube, etc.).
- pp
- Encoded playback parameter blob (undocumented; commonly observed on shares).
Frequently asked questions
- Does removing si hide me from the uploader?
- Uploaders don't see a per-click list of viewers. But removing si removes your click from the attribution chain that feeds YouTube's share-analytics and "your friends watched" signals.
- Will timestamps (like t=120s) still work?
- Yes. PruneTheLink only strips known tracking parameters. Playback-relevant params like t= (timestamp), v= (video ID), and list= (playlist) are preserved.