What is the rl_page_init_referrer cookie?
Stores the initial referrer of the page when a user visits a site for the first time. All the subsequent event payloads will contain this data.
Our October 2026 scan found it on 6 sites (0% of the 2,450 we scanned), set before any consent.
- Purpose
- Analytics
- Belongs to
- Rudderstack
- Set as
- First-party (under the site's own domain)
- Typical lifetime
- 12 months (vendor says: Session)
Sites that set rl_page_init_referrer before consent
The highest-ranked 6 of 6 sites.
- tailscale.com7 tracking companies
- laravel.com7 tracking companies
- simplisafe.com31 tracking companies
- acorns.com20 tracking companies
- sanity.io3 tracking companies
- foreignpolicy.com22 tracking companies
How to stop it
Declining non-essential cookies in a site's consent banner should stop rl_page_init_referrer being set on later visits. Blocking third-party cookies in your browser settings stops the third-party kind everywhere, and clearing cookies for a site removes any it already set.
Description from the Open Cookie Database (Apache 2.0).
Understanding this page
- How cookie lifetimes work, and why a 13-month _ga matters
What a cookie's "expires" field actually controls, why Google Analytics ships a 2-year default that many sites cut down to 13 months, and how Safari's 7-day cap on script-set cookies changes the picture.
- First-party vs third-party cookies (and why "first-party" still tracks you)
What the distinction actually means technically, why browsers only block one of the two, and how CNAME cloaking, server-side tagging and cookies like _ga let sites keep tracking under their own domain.
- How to block or limit trackers
Browser privacy settings, content blockers, Global Privacy Control and clearing cookies compared honestly — what each one actually stops, what it doesn't, and what it costs you in return.