A friend who webmasters a large site that is implementing referer-specific content sent me this when I mentioned the cpunks/cryptography thread of a few months back. I basically agree with the W3C. While user education on the potential privacy threat is essential, I do not believe that Netscape should violate published technical standards. There are also privacy and property issues from the server's perspective. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Subject: referers and W3 The following text was added to W3's page on HTML on May 8. If nobody else has noticed this, you might wish to share it with the cypherpunks, I don't know. HTML, Hypertext Links and Referer URLs In a vacuum, semantically neutral technology attracts meaning. If neutral technology is useful, commerce -- abhorring a vacuum -- uses technology in often-unforeseen ways to build new markets. Over the past year we have seen attempts to create meaning for HTML references where none existed before. Links have been argued to mean revenue streams, approval, a source of liability, endorsement, and ownership. The Web depends on hypertext links between resources. Links can act as references, or to embed material, both of which are concepts that have been around for a long long time. Whats new with the Web is the ability to follow links quickly. When a user clicks on a link, the URL of the page containing the link is passed to the server along with the requested URL. This gives Web sites the opportunity to customize the response according to the page the user clicked on. If someone jumps into a Web site without entering via the home page, a content provider may choose to turn them away or to redirect them to the home page. A smarter Web site could use partial string matches on the Referer and Requested URLs to customize the page it returns. One reason for doing this is to ensure visitors see the banner ads and promotions, a site is using to create revenue; another is to avoid broken links when people (or indexing engines) bookmark transitory Web pages. The Referer URL can also be used to determine how to honor requests for images or applets. For instance, you might decide to only provide images to sites which have signed a license agreement with you. http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/MarkUp/