Re: [w3ctag/design-reviews] Partial freezing of the User-Agent string (#467)

@yoavweiss you wrote above:

> Beyond the privacy benefits of this change, it has an explicit goal of discouraging unreliable UA sniffing, as well as problematic UA sniffing patterns such as allow and block lists. So its intent is to discourage patterns that harm browser diversity.

You've stated that, indirectly, the goal is to increase browser diversity. If we agree that browser diversity is a good thing, could an explicit goal to be to increase browser diversity, not indirectly but directly? 

I remain concerned about the ability for non-mainstream browsers to be able to measure their reach and the ability for web sites to measure traffic by browser. Two years ago, we (Samsung) worked with the Google Analytics team to get them to split out Samsung Internet traffic from Chrome traffic in the analysis and reports they provide their clients. This had the effect of making it more visible to web site owners, [such as UK Government Digital Service](https://technology.blog.gov.uk/2018/02/26/weve-added-samsung-internet-to-our-browser-testing-recommendations/), when our browser was being used. This had the impact (see the link) if GDS adding our browser to their testing recommendations – which in the end benefits end users of UK government services. (Also see their note on that blog post in support of browser diversity.) How would this same story play out in a post-UA world?

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Received on Saturday, 8 February 2020 11:17:07 UTC