Click IDs and campaign tags are different animals
Most tracking parameters fall into two families. Campaign tags like the utm_ family are labels a marketer typed by hand: they say "this click came from the spring newsletter" and identify a campaign, not a person. Click IDs like gclid, fbclid and ttclid are different: a unique value generated for your individual click, used to match what you do on the site back to the exact ad impression you saw. One is a folder label. The other is a serial number on your click.
That difference is why the decoder shows two outputs. The cleaned link strips everything, which is what you want when sharing a link with another person. The canonical link keeps campaign tags but drops the per-person identifiers, which is what you want when saving a link for reuse without carrying someone else's click serial number along.
When stripping parameters breaks things
Not every parameter is surveillance. Some are load-bearing: a video ID, a search query, a page number, a timestamp. The decoder leaves parameters it cannot identify as trackers in place rather than guessing, and flags the ones it recognises with an explanation of what removing them changes. The practical rule: stripping recognised trackers never breaks the page for you, but it does break attribution for whoever sent the link, which is sometimes exactly the point and sometimes rude to a creator you like.
Links that carry their destination inside a parameter
Some links do not go where they say. Wrappers used by email tools, ad servers and some social platforms put the real destination inside a parameter of the visible URL, then bounce you through their counter on the way. When the decoder finds a parameter whose value is itself a URL, it surfaces the embedded destination so you can see where you would actually land, and go there directly if you prefer.
What one click reveals
Every parameter this tool explains exists because a click is worth measuring. The parameter is only the label on the envelope; the click itself carries an IP address, and from it a location, network and device profile. Raydar is built on that fact: it gives you the receiving end, a per-click logbook of location, device and referrer for every visitor on your own links. If the decoder shows you what other companies attach to your clicks, Raydar shows you what your own clicks are worth.