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This doesn't make sense. The browser provides the user agent as a header in HTTP requests. They can't detect if or how the server is using that information. Or

• re-thc 3y ago
  > The browser provides the user agent as a header in HTTP requests. They (Chrome) are taking it away [0]. [0]: https://developer.chrome.com/en/docs/privacy-sandbox/user-agent/ https://developer.chrome.com/en/docs/privacy-sandbox/user-ag...
  • infogulch 3y ago
    I'm all on board calling Google out for slowly implementing a user data protection racket, where Google owns all the data and everyone else is squeezed out and has to go through Google as The central data broker. At the same time this user agent reduction thing seems like a decent idea at first blush and good for users privacy.
    • dpkirchner 3y ago
      TBH I'm surprised the User-Agent header has survived as long as it has. Referer, too.
      • ravenstine 3y ago
        That header and Referer were always a mistake. I don't think The Google's motivation is pure, but I agree in principle. A lot of sites will break for people as a result, though. Maybe that's what The Google wants, though.
        • satvikpendem 3y ago
          > Referer were always a mistake Yeah, it's even spelled wrong!
      • jamesfinlayson 3y ago
        I agree that user agent is not the best idea but it helps endlessly when you need to find out what browser a non techy person is using - just ask them to go to one of the endless sites that tells you what browser you're using based on the user agent string.
      • elashri 3y ago
        My web development knowledge is very limited. But isn't this the main method where simple websites (most static generators) used to decide if the user is browsing from a mobile or not and serve a version based on that? I would appreciate it if someone explain what other things people do to tackle this, or if I'm completely wrong?
        • deleted 3y ago
          [deleted]
        • jrajav 3y ago
          Most responsive design is based on screen dimensions with CSS media queries these days, not on the actual class of device.
          • eru 3y ago
            Though I can see justifications for giving people a different UI depending on whether they use a touch screen or a mouse.
          • dbbk 3y ago
            Although really they should be using a pointer media query. Lots of sites I see randomly turn into mobile versions on desktop as soon as you resize the window narrow.
        • rascul 3y ago
          I think media queries have been the way to do that for awhile. Or I think there's some javascript trick to do it.
        • yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
          That's mostly done client-side these days; having the server treat clients differently doesn't happen as much anymore.
        • asu_thomas 3y ago
          [dead]
        • 3y ago
      • xref 3y ago
        Without Referer how will jwz dot org troll HN users?!
      • omoikane 3y ago
        Referer is not quite the same as how it was. In recent years, the default behavior in most cases is for the browser to either send just the origin, or no referer at all. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Re... "Origin" means no path, so the referer might tell me which search engine the user used, but not what search query was done. It's much better than in the old days, where I might even see someone's session ID in the referer.
        • judge2020 3y ago
          YouTube got around this in the earlier days since the referer header didn’t sent query strings. Maybe if referer hadn’t existed, YouTube urls would look like /watch/ViDeOID
    • soulofmischief 3y ago
      If that were really their motive, a better strategy would be making user agent string customization a first-class feature.
      • fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago
        No, because approximately nobody would customize it.
        • soulofmischief 3y ago
          Then generalize it by default. I just can't buy that Google really has this motive when they simultaneously are introducing WEI.
          • fiddlerwoaroof 3y ago
            I think it’s a mistake to assume consistent intentions from a company as big as Google and a product as big as Chrome
            • soulofmischief 3y ago
              Yes, you shouldn't assume consistent intentions from a behemoth like Google. However, in large and fragmented companies, leadership's moral compass often faces numerous pressures, and on average will trend downward in an economic system with perverse incentives such as the one we have today.
      • hedora 3y ago
        They could also use the user agent: "", or omit the http header entirely.
      • eru 3y ago
        You can already do that with extension, can't you?
        • 3y ago
    • ben-schaaf 3y ago
      Will that finally bring an end to having to use user-agent-switcher to get some sites to work on Firefox?
  • matheusmoreira 3y ago
    Excellent. Sites shouldn't know what user agent we're using anyway. Pretty much the only thing they use this for is to lock us out when we use "unsupported" browsers. The less information they get, the better. Hopefully they'll get rid of referrer too and weaken fingerprinting methods. I have no doubt Google has self-serving motivations here but the result is still a win for us. I wish Firefox had enough leverage to force decisions like this down people's throats whether they like it or not but it just ain't so. Reality is imperfect so I'll take what I can get.
    • SoftTalker 3y ago
      There are plugins for Firefox that can make the user agent string anything you want.
      • matheusmoreira 3y ago
        It doesn't matter. Actually those plugins are straight up counterproductive. The best user agent is the one that offers them the fewest identifying bits. In other words, the user agent of the most popular version of Chrome. The ability to set it to "anything we want" is actually a trap. What we really want is for everyone to use the exact same user agent so they can't tell us apart. If everyone has the same user agent, it's nothing but a waste of bandwidth and it should be removed. Google is actually achieving our objective here.
        • eru 3y ago
          Firefox has plugins to set your user agent to Chrome.
          • matheusmoreira 3y ago
            Pointless. Firefox should just pretend to be Chrome by default without the user having to install plugins or even do literally anything. As should all the other browsers. Anything that leaks out the fact it's not Chrome should be considered a bug and fixed.
• deleted 3y ago
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