Comment by commoner | Hacker News Reader

Comment by commoner | Hacker News Reader

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If you're using Firefox, the Smart Referer add-on strips out the HTTP Referer and the value of document.referer (in JavaScript) from cross-domain requests. It includes a default whitelist, and is customizable.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/smart-referer

It's also open source.

https://gitlab.com/smart-referer/smart-referer

This extension is most effective if you also use an ad blocker (like uBlock Origin) and Firefox's first-party isolation feature, although Smart Referer will still help prevent tracking even if you don't.

https://www.ghacks.net/2017/11/22/how-to-enable-first-party-...

You can also set this directly in about:config under network.http.sendRefererHeader:

  0 = never send the header
  1 = send the header only when clicking on links and similar elements
  2 = (default) send on all requests (e.g. images, links, etc.)

If you want more granular control (like sending referrers but only the root of the domain) all of the various network.http.referer flags for Firefox are listed here:

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Referrer

Doesn't have a few of the features that your extension has, but it's done the trick for me!

Has the 0 setting broken anything in your experience?

I'm not the developer of the extension (just a user), but thanks for the about:config tip!

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