Quite a lot of confusion about this.
Here is a very short thread explaining it a bit.
Here is a very short thread explaining it a bit.
Historically when you went from Website A to Website B, an http referer header told Website B 'This visitor came from WebsiteA.com, and they were looking at a page at '/category/dresses/?sort=low-to-high' (called the 'path', but most users think of it as the page).
For years that was absolute norm; Google even allowed sites to see which keywords users had searched for before reaching their site. (still do if you pay for ads)
When more sites started moving to https, in most cases, visits between https & http, the 'page' info would be hidden
When more sites started moving to https, in most cases, visits between https & http, the 'page' info would be hidden
Now Chrome will by default only let Website B know that a user has come from Website A. It will no longer say they came from the page '/category/dresses/?sort=low-to-high' unless Website A updates to explicitly share that information.
For some publishers that's annoying: eg, They want the sites they link to to know whether traffic is coming from /style/ or /business/.
For some websites that's annoying: They want to know which page on The Guardian a spike in traffic has come from.
For some websites that's annoying: They want to know which page on The Guardian a spike in traffic has come from.
So some websites may update to pass the info (or even to pass it via other analytics tags - for example utm parameters).
The browser has therefore handed responsibility of what gets shared to the publisher.
The browser has therefore handed responsibility of what gets shared to the publisher.
But there are other odd issues to think about:
Most large websites are packed with tracking code. If Website A has a page '/am-i-having-a-heart-attack-faqs/' & sends traffic to Website B, which can see that, the Facebook code (& any other tracking code) may be able to see that.
Most large websites are packed with tracking code. If Website A has a page '/am-i-having-a-heart-attack-faqs/' & sends traffic to Website B, which can see that, the Facebook code (& any other tracking code) may be able to see that.
Suddenly a machine learning algorithm drops the user into a 'medical issues: heart attack' bucket, they start seeing ads for related info, the data is passed between ad exchanges where one of them matches it up with identifiable info & the user's medical insurance quote increases
So with worries like that in mind, and recognising responsibility (or blame) has been handed to them, the minority of publishers that even think about this stuff may be less likely to share this info, and therefore websites will no longer know which pages sent visits to them.
As a final note - outside of privacy: This of course has a benefit for Google. If Chrome can see which pages are passing visits to one another, and all of those companies with tracking code across some websites have blind spots, that gives Google an extra competitive advantage.
