5 ms·

I am fairly sure that the issue is the browser passing on the referrer, not that Google is making websites aware of any additional information. I might be wrong

by sorbus 16y ago

I am fairly sure that the issue is the browser passing on the referrer, not that Google is making websites aware of any additional information. I might be wrong, of course; there's a lot of FUD about this floating around.

seabee 16y ago
The browser does it, and did it long before Google existed.
- epi0Bauqu 16y ago
  That doesn't mean Google couldn't or shouldn't prevent the browser from doing it. When this all started, no one envisioned ad networks and data companies aggregating all this personal information, or even that search terms would be a central part of the Internet. So now that we know what is going on, why allow this personal information to leak? As far as I can tell, the only reason is so Webmasters can do better at Google SEO. And that reason can be wholly mitigated through the use of Google's Webmaster Tools.
  - dedward 16y ago
    Maybe not "when it all started" but we envisioned massive data gathering and analyzing pretty early on.
  - dedward 16y ago
    Maybe not "when it all started" but we envisioned massive data gathering and analyzing pretty early on.
  - Matt_Cutts 16y ago
    "And that reason can be wholly mitigated through the use of Google's Webmaster Tools." No, Google's webmaster tools only provide a sampling of the data. We used to provide info for only 100 queries. Now we provide it for more queries, but it's still a sample: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-data-and-charts-in-top-search.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-data... Please don't make the argument that the data in our webmaster console is equivalent to the data that websites can currently find in their server logs, because that's not the case.
    - rsingel 16y ago
      Hi Matt. Is there any technical reason why that tool can't provide full information? Clearly Google isn't opposed to not sending referrer data, given the existence of https search, but doesn't DDG have a point about third parties having access to the referrer data? (Full disclosure: I wrote this article)
- j_baker 16y ago
  I'm curious if it's possible to write a Firefox plugin that would block the HTTP-REFERRER header for certain sites.
  - lysium 16y ago
    RefControl https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ I'm using it since years and I don't understand all that referrer-privacy hype. Just don't send the referrer.
    - mike-cardwell 16y ago
      I recently started using RefControl to get around the nytimes.com block which comes up if the referer isn't google. For privacy reasons, I set it so it forges the referrer to be the root of the destination site if the domain is different too. So when I go to google.com and click on http://www.example.com/foo http://www.example.com/foo, the referer it sends is http://www.example.com/ http://www.example.com/ instead of http://www.google.com/searchterm http://www.google.com/searchterm. I haven't found any sites which this breaks yet...
      - T-hawk 16y ago
        You do realize this breaks the ability of www.example.com to track its traffic? They have now lost the information as to how their search rank is performing on Google, and have acquired incorrect information that they think you typed in www.example.com directly. You're entirely within legal rights to do this, of course. But if everyone did, then sites would have no idea where their traffic is coming from. Morally it is a bit questionable: your browser is blatantly and directly lying to www.example.com about how you got there.
        mike-cardwell 16y ago
        You think a website has a right to track where I came from. I think a user has a right to privacy.
- chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
  Yep - if you don't want people seeing your bieberqueries, you should use SSL Google: https://encrypted.google.com/ https://encrypted.google.com/ ... or if you're super paranoid, disable sending referrer in your browser.
  - sp332 16y ago
    Firefox (at least) will still send referrer info when you navigate to a https: site from encrypted Google. You can change this in about:config by changing network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer to false. Source: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferr...
  - VMG 16y ago
    This. Its silly to rely on trusting the search engine provider to be secure, better be secure on the client side.
spooneybarger 16y ago
If it is from an adwords campaign, you get the search terms.

by sorbus 16y ago

seabee 16y ago

The browser does it, and did it long before Google existed.

epi0Bauqu 16y ago
That doesn't mean Google couldn't or shouldn't prevent the browser from doing it. When this all started, no one envisioned ad networks and data companies aggregating all this personal information, or even that search terms would be a central part of the Internet. So now that we know what is going on, why allow this personal information to leak? As far as I can tell, the only reason is so Webmasters can do better at Google SEO. And that reason can be wholly mitigated through the use of Google's Webmaster Tools.
- dedward 16y ago
  Maybe not "when it all started" but we envisioned massive data gathering and analyzing pretty early on.
- dedward 16y ago
  Maybe not "when it all started" but we envisioned massive data gathering and analyzing pretty early on.
- Matt_Cutts 16y ago
  "And that reason can be wholly mitigated through the use of Google's Webmaster Tools." No, Google's webmaster tools only provide a sampling of the data. We used to provide info for only 100 queries. Now we provide it for more queries, but it's still a sample: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-data-and-charts-in-top-search.html http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2010/04/more-data... Please don't make the argument that the data in our webmaster console is equivalent to the data that websites can currently find in their server logs, because that's not the case.
  - rsingel 16y ago
    Hi Matt. Is there any technical reason why that tool can't provide full information? Clearly Google isn't opposed to not sending referrer data, given the existence of https search, but doesn't DDG have a point about third parties having access to the referrer data? (Full disclosure: I wrote this article)
j_baker 16y ago
I'm curious if it's possible to write a Firefox plugin that would block the HTTP-REFERRER header for certain sites.
- lysium 16y ago
  RefControl https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/refcontrol/ I'm using it since years and I don't understand all that referrer-privacy hype. Just don't send the referrer.
  - mike-cardwell 16y ago
    I recently started using RefControl to get around the nytimes.com block which comes up if the referer isn't google. For privacy reasons, I set it so it forges the referrer to be the root of the destination site if the domain is different too. So when I go to google.com and click on http://www.example.com/foo http://www.example.com/foo, the referer it sends is http://www.example.com/ http://www.example.com/ instead of http://www.google.com/searchterm http://www.google.com/searchterm. I haven't found any sites which this breaks yet...
    - T-hawk 16y ago
      You do realize this breaks the ability of www.example.com to track its traffic? They have now lost the information as to how their search rank is performing on Google, and have acquired incorrect information that they think you typed in www.example.com directly. You're entirely within legal rights to do this, of course. But if everyone did, then sites would have no idea where their traffic is coming from. Morally it is a bit questionable: your browser is blatantly and directly lying to www.example.com about how you got there.
      - mike-cardwell 16y ago
        You think a website has a right to track where I came from. I think a user has a right to privacy.
chrisbroadfoot 16y ago
Yep - if you don't want people seeing your bieberqueries, you should use SSL Google: https://encrypted.google.com/ https://encrypted.google.com/ ... or if you're super paranoid, disable sending referrer in your browser.
- sp332 16y ago
  Firefox (at least) will still send referrer info when you navigate to a https: site from encrypted Google. You can change this in about:config by changing network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer to false. Source: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferrer http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendSecureXSiteReferr...
- VMG 16y ago
  This. Its silly to rely on trusting the search engine provider to be secure, better be secure on the client side.

spooneybarger 16y ago

If it is from an adwords campaign, you get the search terms.