Re: [w3ctag/design-reviews] User-Agent Client Hints & UA Reduction (#640)

We read that Google is proceeding with this programme as of release M101 which we understand to be scheduled for the start of Q2 2022. We are very concerned about the timeframe for this introduction and its implications on our customers and their users and the Web in general. As we describe below, we consider the timeframe to be reckless.
 
We operate a “device detection” service which our customers use for various purposes including enhancement of their users’ experience, fraud detection, analytics and other similar benign activities. Our customers tell us that they have not heard about or know little about the proposals. While we have adapted our product to work according to what we understand the proposals to be, our customers require time to implement any changes to their Web infrastructure and the practicality of doing so soon is very limited.
 
Our understanding of Google’s proposals is in any case “at a point in time”, the stability of those proposals has not yet been established (the latest version of [User-Agent Client Hints](https://wicg.github.io/ua-client-hints/) is dated Feb 9) and they have not yet achieved consensus as to their nature in any standardisation forum. We were pleased to hear about the recently announced (Jan 13) [User-Agent Reduction Deprecation Origin Trial](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d-K43rzfDGxNM4H6Yzh5lV08KJwLsae06i4Q0A8snME/edit) that would allow maintenance of the current UA for some time, however we don’t think that our customers will have time to introduce this before Q2 given current engineering schedules and processes. 
 
To summarise, the market is not ready for these changes. Significant parts of the Web - for example OpenRTB - which use the User-Agent header value have not been changed. The changes have the potential to cause wholesale disruption and will at least cause a considerable level of dysfunction in the established Web environment. We therefore ask Google to postpone the changes they propose, while the basis of those proposals stabilises, some form of standardisation consensus about them emerges and giving the market reasonable time to prepare for them.
 
We will be grateful if the TAG will please note our further views in its considerations.
 
Many thanks
Jo Rabin
CTO 51Degrees

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