Chrome 41 Beta Includes Flag To Reduce Referrer Information From HTTP Headers

Chrome 41 beta includes flag to reduce referrer information from HTTP headers

BY Evan Selleck

Evan Selleck

Evan's a lover of all things technology, and he's got a major soft spot for the mobile industry. Give him some time and he'd be more than happy to talk your ear off about all the new and shiny things....

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Published 5 Feb 2015

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Tracking data from one website to another is pretty common, especially for those who don’t alter any security settings in the browser of their choice.

For anyone that’s looking to get a bit less information passed around about them as they browse their favorite websites, Chrome 41, which is currently in its beta stage, now features a flag that will help to reduce the amount of referrer information passed from one site to another within the HTTP header. Without this particular flag, Chrome will pass on any information, mainly the previous website you visited before heading to the next one, to whichever place you visit next.

With the flag enabled, though, the information that gets passed on isn’t as specific as it normally is, which should reduce the amount of information the next site gathers about you and your browsing habits.

It’s a small update, indeed, but it’s a welcomed addition to the Chrome browser on Android, even if it is only in beta for now. Recently, Chrome 41 beta was introduced to a new “pull-to-refresh” feature, so it looks like Google is committed to bringing new features to the beta browser in a timely fashion.

[via Android Police]