Websites know that you came from MSE - "Referrer" revisited 2024

One-Eye

It's 8 years since this topic was last discussed so I thought it was time to be revisited.

When you use links posted on MSE to enter a competition the destination website might know that you came from MSE due to function called "referrer". Many websites don't collect this data and in the large majority of cases it will not matter, but in a few cases, the T&C may state they don't allow entrants from competitions websites or something similar.

There are many ways to open a webpage from a link on MSE. Some methods hide the referrer and others do not. A summary of what happens is shown in the results below. I have used the following link to test this. You can use this link to test what your favoured method does.

https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-is-my-referrer

Results:

1) Clicking directly on the link does NOT hide where you came from.
2) "Open in New Tab" (and CTRL+Click and clicking central mouse button/scroll wheel) does NOT hide where you came from.
3) "Open in New Window" (and Shift+Click) does NOT hide where you came from.
4) Many browsers have add-ons that can hide (or adjust) the referrer automatically for the above cases. (see below)
5) Dragging a link to a new tab or window hides where you came from.
6) Opening a link "incognito" hides where you came from.
7) Right click and "copy link address" and pasting it in a new tab or window hides where you came from.


** add-ons such as "refcontrol" can hide or change the referrer. The last time we looked at this topic a few people using these add-ons found they needed to adjust their settings to make it work correctly. If you are using an add-on it is worth checking it is working correctly using the link above.

marcia_

 Very useful ty 

CloWithTheFlow23

Thank you that's very handy to know

DullGreyGuy

One-Eye said:
Many websites don't collect this data

Can you show me a single website that doesn't collect this data?

All webservers record it and its key data for anyone in the marketing function to understand how people are find the website. Many will go further and analyse the differing behaviour for customers from different sources as clearly you want to focus on driving more customers from those that have a positive interaction than those that visit and bounce. 

What you are talking about however is the basic function of how webservers/browsers work. That isn't the only method open to companies, third party tracking via the likes of Google Analytics would still track on some of your stated methodologies to avoid tracking. 

phoenix76x

@One-Eye Thanks for linking me to this.  I have been comping for several years now and never even realised this.  Do most compers try to hide where they have come from? I had got into a great rhythm of CTRL and click for entering.  Would you advise changing my methods?
Thanks again

mjm3346

Referral or not this sort of data was available (not necessarily used). Several years ago the "backend" of a site (local pub/hotel) with one competition (that was not worth travelling any great distance for) was left accessible and it was possible to see everyone's entry details to the competition inc phone, e-mail addresses etc, the surprise to me is it showed what website everyone had come from including, where applicable, the search engine and the terms that had been used, the originating thread on MSE etc (the site had also been flooded with about 20K entries from a "pay to enter for you site") Don't know what difference GDPR makes to available info now.
I remember at one point for a short while some magazines blocked entries direct from MSE so at the time they clearly knew where entries were coming from.

dh1981

Could this be why I don't win 

I'll have to try incognito and see if that improves anything! 

DullGreyGuy

mjm3346 said:

Referral or not this sort of data was available (not necessarily used). Several years ago the "backend" of a site (local pub/hotel) with one competition (that was not worth travelling any great distance for) was left accessible and it was possible to see everyone's entry details to the competition inc phone, e-mail addresses etc, the surprise to me is it showed what website everyone had come from including, where applicable, the search engine and the terms that had been used, the originating thread on MSE etc (the site had also been flooded with about 20K entries from a "pay to enter for you site") Don't know what difference GDPR makes to available info now.
I remember at one point for a short while some magazines blocked entries direct from MSE so at the time they clearly knew where entries were coming from.

Even if the entry log hadn't the web server log would have; it's a basic function of how normal web browsers work along with various analytics tools. Sure you'd need to be explicitly capturing it or IP if you're a company having millions of unique visitors a week but your average but the competition getting 20k applicants a month is one every 30 seconds which is plenty well spaced enough to have a good match on most visitors to the server logs. 

GDPR is predominately about what personally identifiable information can be stored. It doesn't stop the storage of data but simply requires people to be informed and require justification for data storage. Its not hard to argue a legitimate business need to understand where visitors of your site are originating from to optimising marketing etc

CloWithTheFlow23

Hello all, so late last night I posted a comp and didn't notice 😳 that t&c's contained a clause disqualifying compers - here's my post:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6539945/e-18-07-win-500-i-escape-500-nobodys-child-vouchers-nl-or-sm#latest

"Note to compers: This promotion is run in good faith for bona fide users of i-escape. We reserve the right to disqualify a winner who, according to our analytics, has come to this promotion from a dedicated competition- or prize-finding website or referrer.  Sorry, compers."

Many thanks to @marcia_ for spotting it!

Should I:
i) request to delete from the forum entirely?
ii) edit to contain a 'dead' link that you can only copy & paste into a browser??
iii) both???
iv) or something else entirely????

Please advise....

One-Eye

CloWithTheFlow23 said:

Hello all, so late last night I posted a comp and didn't notice 😳 that t&c's contained a clause disqualifying compers - here's my post:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6539945/e-18-07-win-500-i-escape-500-nobodys-child-vouchers-nl-or-sm#latest

"Note to compers: This promotion is run in good faith for bona fide users of i-escape. We reserve the right to disqualify a winner who, according to our analytics, has come to this promotion from a dedicated competition- or prize-finding website or referrer.  Sorry, compers."

Many thanks to @marcia_ for spotting it!

Should I:
i) request to delete from the forum entirely?
ii) edit to contain a 'dead' link that you can only copy & paste into a browser??
iii) both???
iv) or something else entirely????

Please advise....

Leave the post "live" with a comment about the "no compers" rule

It is up to MSE users to decide if and how they enter comps like this.

I always drag links to a new tab, and many others user browser add-ons to hide referrer, so the website does not know that we came from MSE.

gdmoney

"it is illegal to disqualify a group of people from winning".

What about competitions that say entrants must be under 16 or entrants must be 18-35?