{"id":1974,"date":"2025-05-21T09:42:43","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T07:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dimension-internet.com\/referrer-policy-control-referrer-sending-to-enhance-privacy-and-security\/"},"modified":"2025-07-02T14:34:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T12:34:49","slug":"referrer-policy-control-referrer-sending-to-enhance-privacy-and-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dimension-internet.com\/en\/referrer-policy-control-referrer-sending-to-enhance-privacy-and-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Referrer-Policy: Control Referrer Sending to Enhance Privacy and Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The HTTP <span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">Referrer-Policy<\/span> header allows you to decide what referrer URL information the browser sends when navigating between your pages or to external sites. By adjusting this policy, you limit sensitive data leaks, enhance user privacy, and prevent certain attack scenarios. <\/p>\n<h2>What is the Referrer Policy Header?<\/h2>\n<p>Specified by the W3C, <span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">Referrer-Policy<\/span> offers several directives to control the <em>Referer<\/em> field transmitted in HTTP requests:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>No referrer sent (no-referrer)<\/li>\n<li>Full referrer only in same-origin context (no-referrer-when-downgrade, same-origin)<\/li>\n<li>Partial referrer transmission (origin, origin-when-cross-origin)<\/li>\n<li>Strict origin transmission and in all secure contexts (strict-origin, strict-origin-when-cross-origin)<\/li>\n<li>Send full URL even to HTTP (unsafe-url \u2013 avoid)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why Implement Referrer-Policy?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Privacy Protection<\/strong>: Do not transmit sensitive paths or parameters to third parties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Information Leakage Limitation<\/strong>: Reduce the exfiltration of tokens, identifiers, or session data in URLs.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Security Enhancement<\/strong>: Coupled with HTTPS, prevents request downgrades and maintains a minimal referrer on insecure connections.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improved SEO Reputation<\/strong>: Some engines value privacy protection and good HTTP hygiene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Possible Referrer-Policy Values<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">no-referrer<\/span>: Never sends the referrer.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">no-referrer-when-downgrade<\/span> (default in some browsers): Sends the referrer unless you downgrade from HTTPS to HTTP.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">same-origin<\/span>: Referrer only for same-origin requests.<\/li>\n<li>origin: Sends only the scheme + host + port, without the path or query-strings.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">origin-when-cross-origin<\/span>: Full URL in same-origin, origin in cross-origin.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">strict-origin<\/span>: Origin only if secure request (HTTPS\u2192HTTPS).<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">strict-origin-when-cross-origin<\/span>: Full URL in secure same-origin, origin in secure cross-origin, nothing on downgrade.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">unsafe-url<\/span>: Always sends the full URL (not recommended).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Header Example<\/h2>\n<pre>Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin<\/pre>\n<h2>Deployment Examples<\/h2>\n<h3>Nginx<\/h3>\n<pre>add_header Referrer-Policy \"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" always;<\/pre>\n<h3>Apache (.Htaccess)<\/h3>\n<pre>&lt;IfModule mod_headers.c&gt;\n  Header always set Referrer-Policy \"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"\n&lt;\/IfModule&gt;<\/pre>\n<h3>WordPress (Functions.Php)<\/h3>\n<pre>add_action('send_headers', function(){\n  header('Referrer-Policy: strict-origin-when-cross-origin');\n});<\/pre>\n<h2>Our Implementation Services<\/h2>\n<p>At <strong>Dimension Internet<\/strong>, we support you from A to Z:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Audit of your URL paths and parameters,<\/li>\n<li>Definition of the most suitable <span style=\"background-color: #e0e0e0;\">Referrer-Policy<\/span> for your needs,<\/li>\n<li>Configuration on your servers (Nginx, Apache, CDN),<\/li>\n<li>Tests in <em>report-only<\/em> then transition to production,<\/li>\n<li>Ongoing monitoring and maintenance for any evolution of your infrastructure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>The Referrer-Policy header is a simple and powerful lever to control user privacy and limit sensitive data leakage. Adopt a strict policy today and gain confidence, compliance, and SEO performance. Dimension Internet helps you every step of the way for a flawless deployment.  <\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The HTTP Referrer-Policy header allows you to decide what referrer URL information the browser sends when navigating between your pages or to external sites. By adjusting this policy, you limit sensitive data leaks, enhance user privacy, and prevent certain attack scenarios. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","category-security"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Referrer-Policy: Control Referrer Sending to Enhance Privacy and Security - Dimension Internet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Control referrers with the HTTP Referrer-Policy header to limit data leakage and enhance your site&#039;s security. 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