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The link is interesting. Looks like it checks for the HN's user logged in cookie and redirects to imgur.
by ktta 9y ago
The link is interesting. Looks like it checks for the HN's user logged in cookie and redirects to imgur.
- distances 9y agoNo, it's checking the referrer. Cookies can't of course be read by other sites, that would break everything.
- ktta 9y agoI wasn't thinking about the cookies part. I just learnt about Referer. How doesn't this compromise privacy? Looks like I'm woefully uninformed about web security/privacy. Also, found this[1] for anyone who just learnt about this like me. For firefox, go to about:config and set Network.http.sendRefererHeader to 0 [1]:https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hnkcfpcejkafcihlgbojoidoihckciin https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/referer-control/hn...
- yoz-y 9y agoNot sending a referer can sometimes break sites though. For example some image hosting sites will not display content if you are not coming from their domain (to avoid hotlinking) and some web-apps will kill deep linking like this. Granted it is not very secure but some people will go to great lengths to break the open web. This is also how Google Analytics knows where people come to your site from, for example.