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Comment by forgotmypw | Hacker News Reader

On the user end, this can be controlled to a fine degree with the RefControl extension

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

I'm also a RefControl user, I've blacklisted only about 15 sites. I'm surprised how little the Referer header matters these days. Of course it should never matter at all, it's so easy to spoof.

No need for an extension, in about:config you can toggle network.http.SendRefererHeader from the default value of '2' to '0', which will disable all referer headers.

This breaks virtually all paid webfont services, messing up referring websites and frequently making them completely unusable.

Good point, but those paid webfont services were already blocked by my NoScript extension, so I see no changes from my end.

As far as sites which require a referrer header, it has been my experience that these are very few and far between. I get one occasionally and if the content is worthy, I'll briefly disable then re-enable my setting.

Not for everyone, I know, but it works well for me.

> No need for an extension, in about:config you can toggle network.http.SendRefererHeader from the default value of '2' to '0', which will disable all referer headers.

Some websites require the referrer to work; RefControl allows you whitelist exceptions, and also configure a few different options.

HeaderControlRevived has all of RefControl's features, but is able to manipulate more headers, plugging more potential privacy leaks.

https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/headercontrolrevive...

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