= phenomenon = Since release 35 of Firefox, Fedora is shipping it with a branded user agent string. This increases the fingerprint, distinguishing it from all other linux users. As a result, it is quite easy to track Fedora's firefox users, which can be a violation of their privacy.
= background analysis = Firefox has a distinct user agent unlike any other firefox distribution.
= implementation recommendation = Drop [https://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/rpms/firefox.git/tree/firefox-fedora-ua.patch firefox-fedora-ua.patch]. As a result, firefox' fingerprint will be the mozilla-provided default.
= additional information = I originally reported this as [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1343698 bug #1343698] at bugzilla. Martin Stransky told me to report it here.
Additional info: This anti-feature was proposed in [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1190774 bug #1190774] and rejected 4 years ago in [https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=824717 bug #824717] for the same reason I wrote above.
It would be nice to know if stransky has any particular opinion on the matter, since we generally give a significant amount of deference to maintainers. It is odd that he rejected it once and then implemented it later, but of course he's allowed to change his mind. Knowing the reasoning behind that might help.
@mstransky:
Replying to [comment:1 tibbs]:
@denodeftest: This is a policy question, not a technical one. If you have concerns here, I think they're best addressed by the Fedora Council, not FESCo.
Replying to [comment:3 sgallagh]:
Done: https://fedorahosted.org/council/ticket/60
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