Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
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Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#2> To help prevent third party data leakage while browsing privately, Firefox Private Browsing Mode will remove path information from referrers sent to third parties starting in Firefox 59.
Emphasis mine.
It only does it in private mode. I experimented with the referrer options mentioned in the article with mixed success. Not sending the referer header breaks some sites and often in a non-obvious way.
EDIT: referrer header -> referer header
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#3> To help prevent third party data leakage while browsing privately , Firefox Private Browsing Mode will remove path information from referrers sent to third parties starting in Firefox 59. Emphasis mine. It only does it in private mode. I experimented with the referrer options mentioned in the article with mixed success. Not sending the referer header breaks some sites and often in a non-obvious way. EDIT: referrer…
Maybe they could add it for an advanced setting, but having it opt-out for normal browsing might not be desirable for the average user (if not sending headers breaks popular sites).
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#4Are there any reasons not to get rid of referers altogether?
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#5Are there any reasons not to get rid of referers altogether?
I was wondering the same thing.
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#6In about:config, setting 'network.http.sendRefererHeader' to 0 (default is 2) will stop the referer header from being sent, and the document.referrer from being set. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendRefererHeader for more information.
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#7Are there any reasons not to get rid of referers altogether?
They are useful to prevent the hotlinking of images/video from third party domains, which can incur in significant bandwidth costs for smaller websites.
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#8Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#9In about:config, setting 'network.http.sendRefererHeader' to 0 (default is 2) will stop the referer header from being sent, and the document.referrer from being set. See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Network.http.sendRefererHeader for more information.
Disabling the referrer header completely can prevent you from signing into some sites unfortunately. Another option in Firefox is to use network.http.referer.spoofSource.
In the URL bar, type:
about:config
Search for the following setting:
network.http.referer.spoofSource
Double-click to set its value to true. This basically sends the destination or target URL as the referrer.
Re: Firefox 59 to strip path information from referrer values for 3rd parties
#10Interesting, this is what the Referrer-Policy header is supposed to do, site by site. It make sense to enable it private browsing mode, though... and then you'll see how many sites break because they use the Referrer as some kind of authentication mechanism (yes, seen in practice multiple times).