> They are explicitly stating they use Referrer-like data to track users.

To me, "track user" means persistently ID one person. This sounds more like inferring anonymous interest, like inferring that someone arriving from ESPN.com might be interested in your sports section.

If that person comes back tomorrow from The Financial Times, you might infer that they are interested in the economy.

But without cookies, I don't see how you would recognize that visit as the same person as yesterday and integrate the sports and economy interests into a persistent profile. Each visit would be self-contained, which doesn't fit my definition of "tracking."