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Android Fediverse client that does not send user agent to servers (programming.dev)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/fediverse@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/50677034

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for recommendations for an Android Fediverse client that does not send user-agent information (device or client details) to servers. Ideally, it should support both Mastodon and Lemmy, or other Fediverse platforms as well.

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[–] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (3 children)

How about a Privacy Web-Browser? For example IronFox is a privacy-oriented Firefox fork. By default it does send an user agent string. But you can make it install addons, for example an addon to change the user agent string to something generic (and fake).

To be honest, this is a very specific method, and I don't know which problem we're facing. So this might as well be some A-B problem. So what are you trying to achieve?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    Yes that would be an alternative. But I'm looking for a more user friendly client that could achieve the goal.

    To be honest, this is a very specific method, and I don’t know which problem we’re facing. So this might as well be some A-B problem. So what are you trying to achieve?

    user agent is not essential for the servers, server does not need to know which client or device I am using. So I don't want any server to fingerprint users.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 child)

    I have a suggestion and an explanation...

    We software developers tend to send that kind of information anyway. We tend to get bug reports "I didn't get a message" or "The button XY doesn't work properly" and now it's massively helpful information whether to look for the bug in Lemmy's codebase, or in Summit. Or any of the other 5 clients. It's also not what people usually complain about. I mean you're sending your entire username to the server, so you're 100% identifiable. And then the server operator knows when you're awake and scrolling, based on when you send requests to the server. What exactly you like to click on and read... So you pretty much have to trust your server admins anyway. A user agent string is more information. But sending it or not sending it both leaves you 100% identifiable once you log in.

    And Tealk is right as well. We've now come to use it in the war against the AI scrapers. They've nearly brought several Fediverse servers to their knees. It's only due to patterns in the traffic like this (and JavaScript to burn CPU cycles on your device) that still allows us to distinguish you from the AI companies so we can fulfill your requests instead of letting the bots use up all the bandwidth. The current situation is real bad. And turned out the user agent string, while technically not being essential for the servers, they're a real good telltale sign for this. It's my first line of defense, since blocking IP ranges got meaningless.

    As a suggestion: If it's not in any of the existing Apps: Request it. Find the one or two App(s) you like the most. Navigate to their bugtracker and feature requests. And ask politely whether they'd like to add that feature for you. Maybe other people are interested as well. Include a bit of info: what you'd like the app to do. why. and a few words about your specific use-case. Maybe you can get a conversation going.

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