Chrome's new referrer policy

[nk271]

Hello,

I have a site www.abc.com and a sub domain www.xyz.abc.com . I am currently capturing the main site as a referring domain for sub-domain site hence it's not included in the internal url filters. When I look at the referrer traffic, most of the values passed are www.abc.com instead of the actual page customers are coming from www.abc.com/entireurl

This may have something to do with the Chrome's referrer policy that was implemented in 2020 https://plausible.io/blog/referrer-policy Do you think this could have anything to do with the value I am seeing in the report. Is there a workaround to see the entire url for referrer traffic instead of just the main domain? I searched in the community but quite surprised to not see any content related to this. Is anyone else impacted by this?

I look forward to your responses.

Thank you.

[amgup]

@nk271 Are you looking at the Referrer dimension or the Referring domain dimension ? Referring domain will tell the domains from where the visitor landed on the website. Referrer value comes from "r" query string parameter in the image requests. You can check what is being exactly populated in that parameter. 

You can also override this referrer parameter value by implementing s.referrer via AppMeausrement.js or by using referrer option in Launch (whichever applicable on your site).

Check the below doc :-

https://experienceleague.adobe.com/docs/analytics/components/dimensions/referrer.html?lang=en

[nk271]

Hi amgup, let me look into this. Will have to see how it's set up.

[yuhuisg · Accepted solution]

You can double-check if you're impacted by the new Referrer policy by using your browser's console. Start at www.abc.com, then follow a link to xyz.abc.com. Now, in your browser's console, run "document.referrer" and see what the browser reports. That is what gets tracked to AA's Referrer.

[nk271]

Hi yuhuisg, our document.referrer shows www.abc.com so it looks like we've been impacted. Do you know if there is a workaround?

[yuhuisg]

You can try appealing to the makers of Google Chrome. Otherwise, nope, you (and the rest of us) have to live with it.

[jantzen_b]

Do any of the answers below answer your initial question? If so, can you select one of them as the correct answer? If none of the answers already provided answer your question, can you provide additional information to better help the community solve your question?

[Ronny3]

Does your site have its own referrer policy? According to https://developer.chrome.com/blog/referrer-policy-new-chrome-default/ the Chrome policy would only be used if no site policy exists.