Privacy Policy
The app collects nothing. The website measures itself without cookies, answers your messages, and stores no link you clean.
Effective 25 August 2026.
Who we are
Numen Technologies Limited makes Clean Links and is the data controller for the processing described here.
Numen Technologies Limited
Work Hub, 77 Camden Street
Dublin D02XE80
Ireland
Registered in Ireland with the Companies Registration Office, company number 677823.
For any privacy question or request, write to us at [email protected].
What this policy covers
This policy covers the cleanlinks.app website, including the link cleaner you can use in a browser, and the Clean Links app for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
The app and the website are not the same thing, and the old version of this page treated them as if they were. They are described in separate sections below, because the app collects nothing at all and the website has a contact form, analytics, and a cleaner that talks to our server.
This policy does not cover other companies. When Clean Links reveals where a short link goes and you decide to open it, the site you land on runs under its own privacy policy, and we are not responsible for what it does with your data.
We publish this policy in several languages. The English version is the one that controls. If a translation and the English text disagree, the English text applies.
The Clean Links app
The app collects no personal data. That is not a slogan; it is what the app's privacy manifest declares, and it is what the code does. There is no account, no sign-up, no analytics SDK, and no crash-reporting SDK anywhere in it.
The app's privacy manifest declares no collected data types, no tracking, and no tracking domains.
Cleaning happens on your device. Tracking parameters are matched and stripped locally against rules that ship inside the app. The link you clean is not sent to us, and we do not have a copy of it.
- Short links and redirect chains: to show you where a short link really goes, Clean Links contacts the destination host directly from your device. There is no Numen relay and no third-party API in the middle. Those requests use a hardened ephemeral session that rejects cookies and carries no identifier of yours, and the session itself retains nothing between requests. What Clean Links does keep is a cache of already-resolved expansions on your device, so the same short link does not have to be fetched twice; it holds up to ten thousand entries and never leaves the device. You can stop the requests entirely by turning off Allow Network Requests in Settings, which is on by default; short links then stay short.
- QR codes: the camera and the QR reader run on your device, using Apple's Vision and VisionKit frameworks. What the camera sees is never uploaded, to us or to anyone.
- Safari extension: the Safari extension needs permission to read the addresses of pages you visit, because cleaning a link in Safari is impossible without seeing it. That work happens locally inside Safari. Page addresses are not sent to us, to Apple, or to anyone else, and nothing about your browsing is stored off your device.
- Clipboard: on the Mac, Clean Links can watch the clipboard so it can offer to clean a link you just copied. That check happens on your Mac. Clipboard contents are not sent anywhere.
- iCloud sync: you can turn on sync for your cleaned-link history, up to one hundred entries, together with your usage stats. That data goes into your own iCloud private database, under your Apple Account. We hold no key to it and cannot read it. Turn sync off and the data stays on the device. Deleting it is done in the app and in your iCloud settings.
- Purchases: there are none. Clean Links is free, with no in-app purchases and no subscription, so there is no payment data for anyone to handle.
The app is distributed through the App Store. Apple sees an app download the way it sees any other, and gives us anonymous sales and territory reports that do not identify you. That is between you and Apple, and it is described in Apple's own privacy policy.
The Clean Links website
The website is a different surface from the app, and we want that to be explicit. When you paste a link into the cleaner on this site, that link is sent to our API so the trackers can be stripped and, if the link is short, the redirect chain can be followed.
The submitted URL itself is not stored. Its full value, path, and parameter values live in memory for the length of the request and are gone when the response is returned. We keep no link log or history table. The only server-side record tied to a cleaning result is the derived, content-free analytics event described below: destination domain, whether anything was stripped, how many parameters were removed, whether a redirect was followed, and which rule matched.
When the cleaner has to follow a redirect, the request to the destination site does not leave from your address. It leaves from our servers, carrying nothing that identifies you, and when our ProtonVPN egress is active it exits through that tunnel in Switzerland instead.
The cleaner is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile, so Cloudflare receives the connection data it needs to tell a person from a bot, and by a per-IP rate limit.
The web cleaner keeps a history of your cleaned links in your own browser, not on our servers. That is described in the section on cookies and browser storage below.
The support form
If you write to us through the support form, you send us your name, your email address, your message, and an optional screenshot. If you tick the anonymous option, your email address is stripped before the message leaves our server, and we then have no way to reply.
We do not store form submissions. The message is relayed to our mailbox by Mailgun, our email provider, and it then lives in our mail account for as long as we need it to answer you. Attached images are re-encoded and stripped of their metadata before they are sent on.
The form is protected by Cloudflare Turnstile and by a per-IP rate limit.
Analytics
We measure how the website is used with Umami, which we host ourselves on our own infrastructure and serve from our own domain. There is no Google Analytics, no tag manager, and no advertising pixel anywhere on this site.
Umami sets no cookies and builds no cross-site profile. It records page paths, referrers, your browser, operating system, device type, screen size, browser language, and an approximate location down to city level, derived from your IP address. It also records named events such as a button click. One event needs naming precisely: when the website cleaner finishes a link, it records the destination's domain name, whether anything was stripped and how many parameters, whether a redirect had to be followed, and which cleaning rule matched. It never records the full link, its path, or its parameter values.
Your IP address is processed transiently to derive that approximate location and the daily-salted hash that groups a visit. It is not stored.
The legal basis is our legitimate interest in understanding how our own site performs. We weighed that against your interests and concluded it is proportionate: the measurement is first-party, cookieless, content-free, confined to this one site, and never shared with an advertising network.
The app does not do any of this. It carries no analytics at all.
Error reports
When something on the website breaks, your browser can send an error report to Glitchtip, which we also host ourselves. The report describes the failure so we can fix it.
Before a browser error report is stored, query strings are stripped from URLs and identifiers are removed. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping the site working.
The same Glitchtip instance also receives performance measurements: ordinary page loads and requests are timed and sent there even when nothing breaks, scrubbed the same way. We use those measurements only to keep the site fast and working, on the same legal basis and with the same handling as the error reports.
Cookies and browser storage
One item on this list deserves your attention rather than a shrug. The web cleaner saves your cleaned links in your own browser so you can find them again, and those are real URLs you visited or shared. They stay in your browser and they never reach us. Two separate controls govern them: Private Mode stops the cleaner saving anything new, and Clear history deletes what is already saved. Turning Private Mode on does not erase the existing entries, so use Clear history when that is what you want.
The table below is the complete list.
| Name | Type | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| NEXT_LOCALE | First-party cookie | Remembers which language the site should serve you, so later visits land in the same one. Strictly necessary for delivering the site in that language. | Until you close the browser |
| cl-history | First-party local storage | The web cleaner's history: up to one hundred links you cleaned, kept in your browser so you can find them again. Never sent to us. Private Mode stops new links being added; Clear history deletes what is there. | Until you clear it |
| cl-private-mode | First-party local storage | Remembers that you turned Private Mode on, so the cleaner stops saving new history entries. | Until you clear it |
| cl-auto-copy | First-party local storage | Remembers whether you asked the cleaner to copy the cleaned link automatically. | Until you clear it |
| theme | First-party local storage | Remembers whether you chose the light or the dark theme. | Until you clear it |
| numen:report-payload | First-party session storage | When you report a problem with a cleaned link, this carries that link's domain, path, parameter names, and cleaned form into the support form so you do not have to retype them. It never leaves your browser until you press send. | Until the form reads it, or until you close the tab; ignored after ten minutes |
| Cloudflare Turnstile | Third-party security challenge | Tells a person from a bot on the web cleaner and the support form. | Per challenge, set by Cloudflare |
| cf_clearance | Cookie, set by Cloudflare | Appears only if Cloudflare has to challenge suspicious traffic, so that a visitor who passes the challenge is not asked again. It protects the site; it does not track you. On an ordinary visit it is never set. | Short-lived, set by Cloudflare |
There is no consent banner on this site because there is nothing here that needs consent: the locale cookie only remembers which language to serve you, the analytics are cookieless and first-party, the browser storage never leaves your device, and Turnstile and Cloudflare's cf_clearance challenge cookie are security measures that protect the site rather than track you.
Safari may show a banner offering the Clean Links app when you visit on an iPhone or iPad. That comes from a standard apple-itunes-app tag in our pages, which Safari itself acts on. It is not a third-party script and it sets no cookie.
We do not embed third-party video or social widgets on this site. If we ever do, the embed will not load until you click it.
Why we process data, and on what legal basis
| What we do | Data involved | Legal basis (GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Clean a link you pasted into the website's cleaner | The submitted URL and your connection data, held only for the length of the request | Article 6(1)(b), taking steps at your request |
| Follow a redirect so we can show you the real destination | The destination address, sent from our servers rather than from your address, through our ProtonVPN tunnel where that egress is active | Article 6(1)(b), taking steps at your request |
| Block bots and keep the cleaner and the form available | Connection data processed by Cloudflare Turnstile, and a per-IP rate limit | Article 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a free service that survives abuse |
| Answer a message you sent us | Name, email address, message, optional screenshot | Article 6(1)(b) and Article 6(1)(f), answering your request |
| Measure how the site is used | Cookieless, content-free page and event data | Article 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in improving our own site |
| Diagnose errors | Error reports and performance measurements with query strings stripped from URLs and identifiers removed | Article 6(1)(f), our legitimate interest in a working service |
| Meet legal obligations, including accounting and tax | Records Apple and our accountants require | Article 6(1)(c), legal obligation |
Who else is involved
We keep as much as possible in our own hands. Our analytics, our error tracking, and our databases are all operated by us, not bought as a service, so they are not third parties receiving your data.
These companies do process data on our behalf:
- DigitalOcean - hosting for our servers.
- Cloudflare - DNS, TLS, content delivery, Turnstile, and encrypted backup storage.
- Mailgun - delivery of messages sent through the support form.
- ProtonVPN - the tunnel the web cleaner's redirect requests leave through where that egress is active. It carries the destination address, not your identity.
- Apple - the App Store, and iCloud sync of your own data if you turn it on.
- Tailscale - the private network our machines talk to each other over. It carries traffic; it does not read it.
We do not sell personal data, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not use it to train AI models. We disclose data to a public authority only where the law requires it.
How long we keep things
Short, because there is little to keep:
- Links cleaned in the app: never held by us at all.
- Links cleaned on the website: held in memory for the length of the request, then gone. Nothing is written down.
- Cleaned-link history in the web cleaner: kept in your browser until you clear it. Private Mode stops new entries; Clear history removes the existing ones.
- Support messages: kept in our mailbox for as long as we need them to deal with your request.
- Analytics: kept indefinitely as event records that carry no identifier tying them to you. Umami groups a visit using a hash that is re-salted every day, so there is no identifier that follows you from one day to the next, and the IP address the hash is derived from is not stored.
Our servers are backed up nightly to encrypted storage at Cloudflare R2, and those backups are kept for up to about six months. Submitted URLs, paths, and parameter values are never written to those servers and therefore do not enter backups. Backups can contain the derived analytics and the scrubbed error and performance records described above; a record deleted from the live system can remain until its snapshot ages out.
International transfers
We are an Irish company. The cloud servers that run this site and its APIs are hosted in European Union datacenters, in Amsterdam. Some of the providers listed above are established in the United States and may process data there or in other countries.
The safeguard for each transfer depends on that provider's current arrangement. We are verifying the applicable Chapter V mechanism with legal counsel and will update this policy after that review. Contact us if you need the current details for a particular provider.
Security
Traffic to the site is encrypted in transit. Our machines talk to each other over a private network. Backups are encrypted. Access to production systems is limited to the people who need it.
No system is perfect, and we will not pretend otherwise. If we ever suffer a breach that puts your rights at risk, we will notify the Irish Data Protection Commission and, where the law requires it, you.
Children
Clean Links is a general-audience utility. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you think a child has sent us personal data through the support form, write to [email protected] and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We update this policy when what we do changes. The effective date at the top always tells you which version you are reading. We keep a full revision history of this page, and we will share the relevant changes on request.
We do not ask you to click a box accepting it. An earlier version of this page claimed we did, and that was never true.
Your rights
Which rights you have depends on where you live. To exercise any of them, write to [email protected]. We answer within the time the applicable law allows, and there is no charge. We may ask you for enough information to be sure the request is really yours, and no more.
One honest limitation: we hold almost nothing about you. The app sends us nothing, the web cleaner never stores the URL, path, or parameter values you submit, and your cleaned-link history sits in your own browser where we cannot reach it. We may hold the derived analytics and scrubbed error records described above. If we cannot find data that identifies you, we will tell you so rather than invent a match.
European Union and European Economic Area (GDPR)
You have the right to access your personal data, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have data erased, to restrict or object to processing, to receive your data in a portable format, and to withdraw consent at any time where we rely on consent. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that already happened.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object on grounds relating to your particular situation, and we will stop unless we have compelling grounds that override yours.
Our lead supervisory authority is the Irish Data Protection Commission. You can complain to it, or to the authority in the country where you live. The list of national authorities is published by the European Data Protection Board.
United Kingdom (UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018)
You have the same set of rights described above. You can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
United States state privacy rights
If you live in California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, Texas, Oregon, Montana, or another state with a comprehensive privacy law, you may have the right to know what personal information we collect, to get a copy of it, to have it deleted, to correct it, and not to be treated worse for exercising those rights. Not every right exists in every state.
We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, in any state, for any price. Because there is no sale or sharing to stop, a Global Privacy Control signal has nothing here to opt you out of. We do not use sensitive personal information for inferring characteristics.
To exercise a state right, write to [email protected]. If we cannot verify a request, we will say so and explain why.
Canada (PIPEDA)
You can ask what personal information we hold about you, how we use it, and who we disclose it to, and you can ask us to correct it. You can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.
If you are in Quebec, Law 25 gives you further rights, including rights around automated decisions and data portability. We do not make automated decisions that produce legal effects about you.
Brazil (LGPD)
You have the right to confirmation of processing, access, correction, anonymization or deletion of unnecessary data, portability, information about with whom we share data, and revocation of consent. You can complain to the Autoridade Nacional de Proteção de Dados.
India (Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023)
You have the right to access a summary of your personal data and our processing, to correction and erasure, to nominate someone to exercise your rights if you die or become incapacitated, and to a grievance route. Send grievances to [email protected], which is our contact point for this purpose.
Contact us
Privacy questions, requests, and complaints all go to the same address: [email protected]
The terms that govern your use of this site are in our Terms of Use.