Following links from the MSE comping forum

RAP_2

Firstly, fair play to all you tech savvies, I have read through all your comments and am still none the wiser. Apologies if these have already been answered, but if they have it's gone right over my head;-

When I open a link to a comp I right click and open in new tab (firefox). Is this adviseable? Does it include a referrer link?

I have added the referrer block app recomended above. It was set to remove but I have changed it to target domain. Is this the right setting?

weeowens

Hi,RAP


Personally I just drag the links but maybe it makes not a lot of difference in the end.
Just a habit with me now.

RAP_2

PS. Firefox users - you can block tracking in your privacy options. I have just ticked the "tell sites that I don't want to be tracked" option, which I didn't even know existed til I checked my options after reading this thread.

Apologies if this is nothing to do with this thread, but as I said before, I am a bit clueless.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/dnt/

LadyMorticia

sleepyjones wrote: »

Without reading all of the posts above ... would removing the referral link not just be a waste of time because there won't be a referral link.
Surely, if someone does look at this information then they'll be looking to see that you came from their facebook post, or from a link from their homepage / competition partner etc.

If they're bothered about where you came from, then if you simply came from "nowhere" then it looks like you must have just copied and pasted the URL from somewhere and pasted it into a new browser ... so surely is just as bad as coming from a forum like MSE.

The only real way to get around the problem would be to go to the site, find the link to the competitions page and navigate to it that way?

Unless they just search their database for "forums.moneysaving..." and delete all the entries, but if they are THAT bothered about it, then I would assume they would delete all entries with no referral URL's too?

If you use RefControl for FF, you can set it so that the site thinks you came from their parent URL.

RAP wrote: »

PS. Firefox users - you can block tracking in your privacy options. I have just ticked the "tell sites that I don't want to be tracked" option, which I didn't even know existed til I checked my options after reading this thread.

Apologies if this is nothing to do with this thread, but as I said before, I am a bit clueless.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/dnt/

I thought that just stopped them adding unnecessary tracking cookies and stopped sites seeing your browsing behaviour so they can't target ads at you, not stopped showing the referrer?

sleepyjones

LadyMorticia wrote: »

If you use RefControl for FF, you can set it so that the site thinks you came from their parent URL.

Ahh ok, maybe that's the way to go then (although I can't see that many people bothering to check, so I don't think it's a big deal if you choose not to bother. There'll be games / apps / sites that will require to check the referral address to process a competition entry, I'm sure .... and if you're over writing that then you might find some comps will no longer work or not submit your information properly (ie if a competition needs to check that you got to Page 2 of the form / questions from page 1) ... If we had a list of people that did check the referral URl, then that'd be handy, but that's obviously not gonna happen.

LadyMorticia wrote: »

I thought that just stopped them adding unnecessary tracking cookies and stopped sites seeing your browsing behaviour so they can't target ads at you, not stopped showing the referrer?

Yeah, pretty much. It's like if you go to amazon or ebay or something and are looking at, for example, a new Toaster .... all the ads you'll see on pages for the next week will be new toasters (assuming you're not running ad-blocker and can see the ads). Interestingly though, website's aren't required to actually accept this setting, they can ignore your setting and track your browsing anyway and if there's no "legal" reason to make them accept your setting and not track your browsing, the chances are none of them will care or check if you've said "Don't track me".

Enigmatic_Me

I too drag links and I use Chrome.

There was a similar thread a couple of weeks ago re how the drag and drop no longer hides referrer.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5259973

I can see a fix for those using Firefox but I too would like a fix for Chrome. I did try an extension "Referrer Control" in Chrome but do not really understand it and cannot find where to check on Chrome the referrer.

mjm3346

sleepyjones wrote: »

Yeah, pretty much. It's like if you go to amazon or ebay or something and are looking at, for example, a new Toaster .... all the ads you'll see on pages for the next week will be new toasters (assuming you're not running ad-blocker and can see the ads). Interestingly though, website's aren't required to actually accept this setting, they can ignore your setting and track your browsing anyway and if there's no "legal" reason to make them accept your setting and not track your browsing, the chances are none of them will care or check if you've said "Don't track me".

When I am looking up something for other people I just use incognito so I don't end up getting totally irrelevant ads or "suggestions based on my browsing history" on Amazon.

RAP_2

Thank you both, I have referrer control for firefox, but which options should I use?

skip, remove, source host, target domain, target host, target domain or target url?

brownhandbag

I always just click on links within the threads, if anyone is interested in following my web footprint, they will have a very confusing time working me out click and comp works for me xxx

The_3rd_Zebu

I think it is wise to blank out your referral link when entering the puzzler magazine comps.


I remember reading on this forum, a while ago now, about one puzzle mag ( I think it was Take a Break) that contacted another website owner and told them in no uncertain terms NOT to publish the answers. From memory I think that website took notice and no longer published the answers from then on.


Whether that puzzle magazine every approached Money Saving Expert with the same ultimatum I never found out.


However I would not be surprised if some puzzle magazines effectively dump all entries showing an MSE referral link.
They would probably feel justified in doing that as it would be fairer to those who actually bought the magazines and solved the puzzles for themselves.


( I just wish I could find the reference to that report on here)