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B2G/User Agent/Partner Changes Policy: Difference between revisions
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{{note|The Firefox OS user agent, along with the rationale behind its selection, is [[B2G/User_Agent|documented on the Mozilla wiki]].}} | {{note|The Firefox OS user agent, along with the rationale behind its selection, is [[B2G/User_Agent|documented on the Mozilla wiki]].}} | ||
Mozilla partner organizations that make use of Mozilla branding must not modify the Mozilla specified Firefox OS User Agent string ("UA") or headers that have a similar effect. | Mozilla partner organizations that make use of Mozilla branding must not modify the Mozilla-specified Firefox OS User-Agent string ("UA") or add/modify headers that have a similar effect (e.g. Device-Stock-UA, X-Original-User-Agent, X-Device-User-Agent or X-OperaMini-Phone-UA). | ||
The rationale for this requirement can be divided into pragmatic and principled reasons. | The rationale for this requirement can be divided into pragmatic and principled reasons. | ||
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====Pragmatic reasons:==== | ====Pragmatic reasons:==== | ||
:; [[#Risk_of_individual_site_regressions|Risk of individual site regressions]] : Changing the UA may result in a site sending desktop instead of mobile content to Firefox OS | :; [[#Risk_of_individual_site_regressions|Risk of individual site regressions]] : Changing the UA may result in a site sending desktop instead of mobile content to Firefox OS | ||
:; [[#Risk_of_framework_regressions|Risk of framework regressions]] : Changing the UA may result in required | :; [[#Risk_of_framework_regressions|Risk of framework regressions]] : Changing the UA may result in updates being required for commonly used Web UA detection and media frameworks | ||
:; [[#Future_compatibility_issues|Future compatibility issues]] : Changing the UA may cause compatibility problems for future Firefox OS devices | :; [[#Future_compatibility_issues|Future compatibility issues]] : Changing the UA may cause compatibility problems for future Firefox OS devices | ||
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:; [[#Effect_on_the_Web|Effect on the Web]] : Relying on specific tokens for UA detection is a barrier to entry for new Web clients | :; [[#Effect_on_the_Web|Effect on the Web]] : Relying on specific tokens for UA detection is a barrier to entry for new Web clients | ||
For sites that cannot adapt in the short term, Firefox OS includes a [[#Short_term_work-around|short term work-around]]. | For sites that cannot adapt in the short term, Firefox OS includes a [[#Short_term_work-around|short term work-around]] that can be enabled on a per-site basis. | ||
This document includes a list of [[#Resources|resources]] for testing sites and documentation about alternative methods to UA detection. | This document includes a list of [[#Resources|resources]] for testing sites, and documentation about alternative methods to UA detection. | ||
==Pragmatic reasons for not modifying the Firefox OS UA== | ==Pragmatic reasons for not modifying the Firefox OS UA== | ||
Mozilla suggests that it is not in the best interest of any partner to modify the Firefox OS UA for the devices that they ship | Mozilla suggests that it is not in the best interest of any partner to modify the Firefox OS UA for the devices that they ship, for the following reasons: | ||
===Risk of individual site regressions=== | ===Risk of individual site regressions=== | ||
Mozilla has been informing sites about the chosen default Firefox OS UA since [http://lawrencemandel.com/2012/07/27/decision-made-firefox-os-user-agent-string/ the decision was made] in July 2012. Mozilla and our partners have worked with a large number of sites, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to ensure that the correct content (i.e. mobile content) is delivered to Firefox OS. Due to the widespread use of UA detection, a change to the UA risks sites no longer detecting Firefox OS as a mobile device and reverting to sending desktop or feature phone content to Firefox OS. | Mozilla has been informing sites about the chosen default Firefox OS UA since [http://lawrencemandel.com/2012/07/27/decision-made-firefox-os-user-agent-string/ the decision was made] in July 2012. Mozilla and our partners have worked with a large number of sites, such as Google, Facebook, and Twitter, to ensure that the correct content (i.e. mobile content) is delivered to Firefox OS. Due to the widespread use of UA detection, a change to the UA risks sites no longer detecting Firefox OS as a mobile device and reverting to sending desktop or feature phone content to Firefox OS, leading to a worse user experience. | ||
Mozilla has also worked with media companies, such as YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud, to ensure that content that is frequently embedded within sites is functional on Firefox OS. | |||
===Risk of framework regressions=== | ===Risk of framework regressions=== | ||
Mozilla has worked with UA detection frameworks, such as WURFL, Categorizr, and 51Degrees, and they all now recognize Firefox OS. Changing the Firefox OS UA would require going back to all of these companies to make further changes. Assuming all of the companies do make the requisite changes, there can be significant lag time in the adoption of these changes by sites that make use of these frameworks. | Mozilla has worked with UA detection frameworks, such as WURFL, Categorizr, and 51Degrees, and they all now recognize Firefox OS. Changing the Firefox OS UA would require going back to all of these companies to make further changes. Assuming all of the companies do make the requisite changes, there can be significant lag time in the adoption of these changes by sites that make use of these frameworks. In the mean time, users may get inappropriate content. | ||
===Future compatibility issues=== | ===Future compatibility issues=== | ||
Mozilla wants to encourage the use of detection methods which will work on all Firefox OS devices, both ones that currently exist and ones which have not yet been invented. Specifying a different UA string for each Firefox OS device provides a site | Mozilla wants to encourage the use of detection methods which will work on all Firefox OS devices, both ones that currently exist and ones which have not yet been invented. Specifying a different UA string for each Firefox OS device provides a site with a mechanism to, accidentally or deliberately, design their code to work with only a subset of Firefox OS devices. This is a bad for the Firefox OS ecosystem and for the open Web. | ||
==Principled== | ==Principled== | ||
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===User Privacy=== | ===User Privacy=== | ||
Mozilla strives to provide greater privacy for users. Therefore, we have been working to reduce the level of "fingerprintability" of different browser configurations - that is to say, how uniquely identifiable a particular user's browser is to sites through detection methods of which the user is unaware. (i.e. server-side methods) Adding hardware information to the UA reduces privacy by increasing fingerprintability. | Mozilla strives to provide greater privacy for users. Therefore, we have been working to reduce the level of "fingerprintability" of different browser configurations - that is to say, how uniquely identifiable a particular user's browser is to sites through detection methods of which the user is unaware. (i.e. server-side methods) Adding e.g. hardware information to the UA reduces privacy by increasing fingerprintability. | ||
===Effect on the Web=== | ===Effect on the Web=== | ||
A request to add hardware information to the UA supports the use case of a site tailoring its content to the hardware in use. However, the Web platform already provides an alternative method for feature detection through the use of on-device feature testing in JavaScript, which does not rely on large, fragile and slow-to-update databases mapping hardware identifiers to capabilities. This method is more reliable than the database-backed way and is also future-proof. | |||
The database-backed method also puts up market barriers to entry for new Web client/browser/platform participants. | The database-backed method also puts up market barriers to entry for new Web client/browser/platform participants, whose user agent strings and device characteristics will not be in the database. | ||
Another request is that we add an operating system indicator. We do not specifically identify devices as running Firefox OS in the UA because "the Web is the platform". In this broader context, the underlying OS is irrelevant. Having no OS indicator in the UA is in line with this dictum. | |||
Mozilla's mission is to make the open Web a better place. That mission is better served when mobile sites are served to any mobile browser. Ubiquitous access to mobile content increases user choice in terms of practically viable mobile clients. It is contrary to Mozilla's mission to enable mobile content for Mozilla's products alone. Having to code for a specific browser or UA, on either the client or the server side, is something Mozilla has historically campaigned against and worked to eliminate. We dissuade people from saying "Best Viewed with Firefox" in favour of "Best Viewed With Any Standards-Compliant Browser". | Mozilla's mission is to make the open Web a better place. That mission is better served when mobile sites are served to any mobile browser. Ubiquitous access to mobile content increases user choice in terms of practically viable mobile clients. It is contrary to Mozilla's mission to enable mobile content for Mozilla's products alone. Having to code for a specific browser or UA, on either the client or the server side, is something Mozilla has historically campaigned against and worked to eliminate. We dissuade people from saying "Best Viewed with Firefox" in favour of "Best Viewed With Any Standards-Compliant Browser". | ||
==Short term work-around== | ==Short term work-around== | ||