CheckLink

CheckLink is a second look at links and QR codes. It shows what a link holds before you share or open it: the parts that tell Google, Meta, Amazon and others about your click are marked in red, each with who learns it and what it tells. Untick anything you want to keep, then copy or share the clean link. It reads QR codes too, from a picture or the camera, and says in plain words what a code holds. It never opens the link it checks. It asks for one Android permission, the camera, and only when you press Scan with camera. There is no internet permission, so it cannot send what you check anywhere, and no storage permission either: links and pictures come in by pasting, the camera, Android's file picker or a share from another app, and go out through the clipboard, a share, Android's save screen or Go to. Check it yourself before installing: aapt dump permissions <the APK you downloaded> The only lines you should see are the package name and android.permission.CAMERA. - Paste, scan or share in. Paste a link, or text with a link in it, choose a picture of a QR code, or press Scan with camera. Share a link or a picture into CheckLink from any app, and Share clean link becomes the main button. - The full link, with the tracking parts marked. Removed parts are red and struck through, so colour is not the only signal. Each one also says whether it is unique to this click or the same for everyone who got the link. - Your choice. Ticked parts are removed from the clean link; untick one to keep it, for example an affiliate tag that pays someone you want to support. Parts a page needs, such as a YouTube start time, are kept and explained, with Remove anyway. - Signs worth checking. Calm notes for a disguised address, a bare number in place of a name, a name that looks like a known brand's, a short link whose destination CheckLink cannot see, an address hidden inside another, and a link that is not encrypted. "No warning signs found" comes with a reminder that this does not prove a site is genuine. - QR codes in plain words. A web address in a code gets the full link check. Wi-Fi details, contacts, payment requests and app links are described. Secrets, such as a Wi-Fi password, stay hidden until you press Show, and copying a two-factor seed or a recovery phrase asks first. Payment requests are shown, never paid. - A QR code of the clean link. Make a QR code draws one on your device and reads it back before it shows it, then Save picture or Share picture. It is not offered for short links, sign-in links, links with personal details or links with something to check. - Go to opens the clean link in your browser, only when you press it, and asks first when there is something to check. - The camera reads a few frames a second on your device and drops them; nothing is recorded. It stops when a code is found, when you stop it or leave the app, and after two minutes without a code. While it is on, the app keeps the screen out of screenshots and the recent-apps view. - If you turn off JIT (the fast compiler) for CheckLink, for example in GrapheneOS's Exploit protection settings, scanning still works, only more slowly. What it cannot do: a tracking part its dated rules do not name stays in the link. It never opens a link, so it cannot see where a short link or a redirect ends up. It cannot tell whether a site, a sender or an offer is genuine, and a link with nothing to point out can still lead somewhere harmful. Cleaning can break a link, so every removal can be undone and the original is always there. The app runs CheckLink's web page from inside the APK, offline. The build checks that every bundled file is byte for byte the one in the source repository, apart from one added line in index.html for the bridge to Android. In English only. The privacy page and the full disclaimer open from the app's footer. This is a functioning prototype from Stormberry AS, MIT licensed, and 0.0.1 is its first, early release.

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