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Comment by trombuance | Hacker News Reader

How come? I never use private mode and assumed it simply clears cookies and history after the session ends. Is there more to it?

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Every time you click on a link, your browser helpfully tells the website that the link goes to, where you come from.

Try clicking this link and see what it says :) https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/what-is-my-referrer/

It's a little more complicated than that. Even pasting the link into a new window (so no referrer) shows the image, at least after visiting the site for the first time.

> It's a little more complicated than that

Keyword being "a little". It's a cookie set on previous visit.

    $ document.cookie
    > HN=1

Delete the cookie, then open new tab, copy-paste the link and it works just fine. It's not rocket science, at least it didn't used to be :)

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