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-<!--
- Copyright © 2016-2020 Soren Stoutner <soren@stoutner.com>.
-
- This file is part of Privacy Browser <https://www.stoutner.com/privacy-browser>.
-
- Privacy Browser is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
- it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
- the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
- (at your option) any later version.
-
- Privacy Browser is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
- but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
- MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
- GNU General Public License for more details.
-
- You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
- along with Privacy Browser. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>. -->
-
-<html>
- <head>
- <meta charset="UTF-8">
-
- <link rel="stylesheet" href="../css/dark_theme.css">
- </head>
-
- <body>
- <h3><img class="title" src="../shared_images/devices_other_blue_dark.png"> Browser Identification</h3>
-
- <p>When web browsers connect to websites, they send a user agent, which identifies the browser and the rendering capabilities it possesses.
- The web server can use this information to decide which version of the website to send to the browser.
- For example, many websites have different versions for desktop and mobile browsers.</p>
-
- <p>By default, Privacy Browser uses its own user agent, which is <code>PrivacyBrowser/1.0</code>. This sends a minimum of information to the web server.
- Because web servers do not recognize this to be a mobile user agent, they typically display the desktop version of the site.</p>
-
- <p>By comparison, WebView’s default user agent divulges a large amount of information about the hardware and software of the device.
- On the <strong>Settings</strong> screen, selecting <strong>WebView Default</strong> as the <strong>User agent</strong> displays the user agent that will be sent.
- The screenshot below shows a Pixel 2 XL running Android 10 with Android System WebView 84.0.4147.125 installed.
- Most web servers will recognize this as a mobile browser and will display the mobile version of the site if they have one.</p>
-
- <img class="center" src="images/user_agent.png">
-
- <p>There is enough information in the user agent that sometimes only a few visitors to a website will be the same.
- If the user agent is combined with another piece of non-unique identifying information, often it results in a unique fingerprint.
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation created a tool called <a href="https://panopticlick.eff.org/">Panopticlick</a> to demonstrate how much information can be gleaned from these sources.
- If this test is run with JavaScript enabled the amount of information that is disclosed increases greatly.
- <a href="https://www.browserleaks.com">Browser Leaks</a> and <a href="https://amiunique.org/">Am I Unique</a> are also good sources of information on this topic.</p>
-
- <img class="center" src="../shared_images/panopticlick.png">
-
- <p>There are several preset user agents that match common browsers and operating systems. For browser fingerprinting purposes, anything that is rare is easier to track.
- If Privacy Browser becomes common and many people use <code>PrivacyBrowser/1.0</code> as their user agent, it will be a good choice for privacy.
- Firefox or Chrome are the most common user agents, but they auto-update and their version numbers change so quickly that it is likely the user agents included in Privacy Browser
- will often be out of step with the majority of user agents in the server logs.</p>
-
- <p>Some websites <a href="https://www.stoutner.com/user-agent-problems/">do not function correctly</a> if they do not recognize the user agent.
- Using domain settings to set the user agent to <strong>WebView Default</strong>, or another user agent that is commonly recognized, usually resolves the problem.
- Android’s WebView does not allow the user agent to be blank. If it is, WebView simply sends the default user agent to the server.</p>
- </body>
-</html>
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projects / PrivacyBrowserAndroid.git / blobdiff