What Is the HTTP Referer Header?
When you click a link, your browser sends an HTTP Referer header to the destination site containing the full URL of the page you came from. Website owners use this to track traffic sources — but it also exposes private URLs and browsing context. Hide your referrer now →
When the Referer Header Causes Problems
- Sharing links from private company intranets or internal tools
- Linking from members-only forums or private communities
- Outbound links from pages containing sensitive URL parameters
- Marketing campaigns where you need to protect your traffic source strategy
- Personal research you do not want linked to your identity
Four Methods to Hide Your Referrer
1. Use a Referrer Removal Service (Easiest)
Our Hide Referrer Link tool wraps your URL in an anonymous redirect that strips the Referer header completely. Free, instant, no account needed.
2. Referrer-Policy HTTP Header
Website owners can add Referrer-Policy: no-referrer to their pages to prevent outbound referrers for all links.
3. rel="noreferrer" Attribute
Adding rel="noreferrer" to an HTML anchor tag prevents the referrer for that specific link only.
4. Copy and Paste Directly
Copying a URL and pasting it into the address bar instead of clicking a link removes the referrer entirely.
Does Hiding the Referrer Affect Analytics?
Traffic with no referrer appears as "direct" in Google Analytics. If you need campaign attribution without the Referer header, use UTM parameters — they work independently of the Referer header.
noreferrer vs noopener
rel="noreferrer" strips the referrer header. rel="noopener" stops the new tab from getting a script reference back to your page, which could otherwise redirect it to a phishing site. Use both together—fixing one doesn't fix the other.
Related Tools
- Dereferer — Full anonymous redirect with batch mode and UTM stripper
- My Referrer Checker — See what your browser currently sends
- Referrer Removal Tool — One-click referrer strip for any link
Referrer-Policy Values Compared
If you run a website, the Referrer-Policy header decides what every outbound click reveals. The most useful values are:
- no-referrer: nothing is ever sent. Maximum privacy, but your own analytics also lose internal navigation data.
- same-origin: the full URL is sent only to pages on your own site, and other sites receive nothing. A good balance for most privacy-focused sites.
- strict-origin: other sites receive only your domain, and nothing at all if a link goes from HTTPS to HTTP.
- strict-origin-when-cross-origin: the default in modern browsers. Your own pages get the full URL; other sites get only the domain.
You can set the policy as an HTTP header for the whole site, with a meta name="referrer" tag in a page's head, or on a single link with the referrerpolicy attribute.
How to Check That It Worked
Click through to the My Referrer Checker from the page you want to test, rather than typing its address. It shows exactly what the destination received. You can also open your browser's developer tools, choose the Network tab, click the request to the destination and look for a Referer line under Request Headers. If there is none, nothing leaked.
A Common Mistake
Hiding the referrer on your own links does not help if the link first passes through a tracking or shortening service. That service sees where the click came from before it redirects. Wrap the final destination directly, not a link that already goes through a third party.
