Newest firefox versions on X11 linux distros used to spoof the user agent to this Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0. Now it doesn’t spoof it and reveals linux as the true OS. Sure all websites can find the real os with JS. however, there was an element of casual spoofing before in that it showed windows as the OS so users did not stick out as much for being linux users. The user agent switcher extension can’t even be used as intended.
someone else mentioned the same problem.. Is it a bug or what? What about wayland?
It allowed firefox users to blend in as windows firefox or chrome windows users …wayland and x11 is still linux and its a way lower user base than the crowd. What about wayland? does it spoof as windows? or does it show as wayland linux? X11 and wayland are small user based compared to windows. the user agent swither can’t even be used. x11 distros are still the most popular on distrowatch. wayland users would be sticking out even more. Most linux users are on x11. if you supported privacy you would defend spoofing
Blend in is a bit of an overstatement as it worked at a very basic level and any JS would reveal it was spoofed. There are other options to spoof that work better but are not foolproof.
Considering that the person you are responding to has been here for some time, I highly doubt your lashing out with this statement holds any validity. If you believe this removal of spoofing is detrimental please provide your argument in a more readable and sensical manner. This way we can understand why this effects privacy and can spark a proper discussion.
User agent spoofing is only effective against ‘naive’ tracking. Against any sophisticated tracker, it will look weird that your browser environment sounds like a penguin but pretends to be a duck. Naive tracking is not really a problem imo as most websites that will want to profile you will use far better methods from the start. Some level of honesty is required to blend in persuasively, strange as that might sound. But that is my opinion. On top of that I would rather normalize the appearance and inclusion of non-windows identifiers on the internet, but that is not from a privacy perspective.
From what I can find Mullvad has done similar, except it has a toggle. Perhaps this is something you could look into and suggest Librewolf adopt, if that’s true. You might be able to spoof anyways, but this might require turning off ResistFingerprinting for the about:config override or an extension to be effective which have their own concerns.
I have a funny feeling nobody will be persuaded because they were called an ignorant shill. Perhaps you could drop that part, and work on the actual argument. There is a fair point there, some sites are naive and still flag on user agent alone.
Dream on. Desktop Linux distros will never get up to windows user base. Linux users have the right not to stick out from the crowd. That’s why useragent switching tools have merit… not all websites will use hard fingerprinting techniques looking for the real OS and many websites accept the spoofed browser string.. as valid.
Latest versions of Librewolf have been downgraded. At least in previous versions it would spoof linux as windows 10.