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* IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
@ 2018-05-13 10:21 Peter Neidhardt
  2018-05-13 11:12 ` Clément Lassieur
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Peter Neidhardt @ 2018-05-13 10:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: help-guix@gnu.org

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The complete user-agent:

	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0

That can't be true on GuixSD, right? :p
Packaging error?

-- 
Peter Neidhardt

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
  2018-05-13 10:21 IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1 Peter Neidhardt
@ 2018-05-13 11:12 ` Clément Lassieur
  2018-05-13 11:21   ` Pierre Neidhardt
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Clément Lassieur @ 2018-05-13 11:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Peter Neidhardt; +Cc: help-guix@gnu.org

Peter Neidhardt <pe.neidhardt@googlemail.com> writes:

> The complete user-agent:
>
> 	Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; rv:52.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/52.0
>
> That can't be true on GuixSD, right? :p
> Packaging error?

It's not a packaging error.  I think it's a feature: Windows computers
are more common so it makes the browser less identifiable.  It can be
changed in about:config (search for "useragent").

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
  2018-05-13 11:12 ` Clément Lassieur
@ 2018-05-13 11:21   ` Pierre Neidhardt
  2018-05-13 12:19     ` Nils Gillmann
  2018-05-13 17:56     ` IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, " Chris Marusich
  0 siblings, 2 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Pierre Neidhardt @ 2018-05-13 11:21 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Clément Lassieur; +Cc: help-guix@gnu.org

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Sounds like a misfeature to me: lots of website use it to display the
right content depending on the OS the user is running (tutorials,
downloads, etc.).  Disclosing the OS family the user is running is
hardly a threat to privacy in my opinion.

Besides, isn't it deceptively advertising the dominance of a non-free
OS?  Doesn't sound quite GNU to me...

--
Pierre Neidhardt

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
  2018-05-13 11:21   ` Pierre Neidhardt
@ 2018-05-13 12:19     ` Nils Gillmann
  2018-05-13 17:56     ` IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, " Chris Marusich
  1 sibling, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Nils Gillmann @ 2018-05-13 12:19 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Pierre Neidhardt; +Cc: help-guix@gnu.org, Clément Lassieur

Pierre Neidhardt transcribed 981 bytes:
> 
> Sounds like a misfeature to me: lots of website use it to display the
> right content depending on the OS the user is running (tutorials,
> downloads, etc.).  Disclosing the OS family the user is running is
> hardly a threat to privacy in my opinion.

This is to reduce fingerprinting. With Guix it's even more crucial because
the user base is (probably) rather small. Compare to what you can find about
Torbrowser's reasons for displaying the same string.

> Besides, isn't it deceptively advertising the dominance of a non-free
> OS?  Doesn't sound quite GNU to me...

Reducing fingerprinting is hardly advertisment.

> --
> Pierre Neidhardt

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
  2018-05-13 11:21   ` Pierre Neidhardt
  2018-05-13 12:19     ` Nils Gillmann
@ 2018-05-13 17:56     ` Chris Marusich
  2018-05-13 19:31       ` Nils Gillmann
  1 sibling, 1 reply; 6+ messages in thread
From: Chris Marusich @ 2018-05-13 17:56 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Pierre Neidhardt; +Cc: help-guix@gnu.org, Clément Lassieur

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Nils Gillmann <ng0@n0.is> writes:

> Reducing fingerprinting is hardly advertisment.

I agree with Nils: the IceCat default user agent string is accomplishing
its intended purpose, which is to protect users' privacy by default by
obscuring your fingerprint.  You can change it if you want to.

Pierre Neidhardt <ambrevar@gmail.com> writes:

> Sounds like a misfeature to me: lots of website use it to display the
> right content depending on the OS the user is running (tutorials,
> downloads, etc.).  Disclosing the OS family the user is running is
> hardly a threat to privacy in my opinion.

On this topic, you might find the following humorous article to be
interesting:

https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/

The meaning of the user agent string is pretty muddy in today's world!

-- 
Chris

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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

* Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, Re: IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1
  2018-05-13 17:56     ` IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, " Chris Marusich
@ 2018-05-13 19:31       ` Nils Gillmann
  0 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Nils Gillmann @ 2018-05-13 19:31 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: Chris Marusich; +Cc: help-guix@gnu.org, Clément Lassieur

Chris Marusich transcribed 1.8K bytes:
> Nils Gillmann <ng0@n0.is> writes:
> 
> > Reducing fingerprinting is hardly advertisment.
> 
> I agree with Nils: the IceCat default user agent string is accomplishing
> its intended purpose, which is to protect users' privacy by default by
> obscuring your fingerprint.  You can change it if you want to.
> 
> Pierre Neidhardt <ambrevar@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Sounds like a misfeature to me: lots of website use it to display the
> > right content depending on the OS the user is running (tutorials,
> > downloads, etc.).  Disclosing the OS family the user is running is
> > hardly a threat to privacy in my opinion.
> 
> On this topic, you might find the following humorous article to be
> interesting:
> 
> https://webaim.org/blog/user-agent-string-history/
> 
> The meaning of the user agent string is pretty muddy in today's world!
> 
> -- 
> Chris


Offtopic, but gmail seems to have broken Mailinglist / Thread interaction now.
You are sending every reply with a double subject. Not that it's distracting,
but it would be great if it could be avoided.

^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2018-05-13 22:40 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 6+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2018-05-13 10:21 IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1 Peter Neidhardt
2018-05-13 11:12 ` Clément Lassieur
2018-05-13 11:21   ` Pierre Neidhardt
2018-05-13 12:19     ` Nils Gillmann
2018-05-13 17:56     ` IceCat's user-agent reports Windows NT 6.1, " Chris Marusich
2018-05-13 19:31       ` Nils Gillmann

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