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.

  • hardful9856@programming.devOPEnglish
    1·
    12 hours ago

    Could you explain the use case?

    user agent is not essential for the servers, server does not need to know which client or device I am using.

    Now that AIs are flooding the instances, some admins are blocking these kinds of requests.

    What AI request?

    • Tealk@rollenspiel.forumEnglish
      1·
      11 hours ago

      generally the bots that scrape sites for information. One of the easiest ways to exclude them is to read the user agent.

      yeah, this info isn’t necessary for technical operations, but some software uses it and shows the client under the post, for example; as an admin, that often helps me identify problems quickly.

      • hardful9856@programming.devOPEnglish
        1·
        11 hours ago

        Bots can easily fake their user agents, so using them to detect bots is not enough and mostly just puts regular users’ privacy at risk.

        • Tealk@rollenspiel.forumEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          They can, yeah. But they haven’t done it in ages and I don’t see the risk for the user; the IP is way more problematic.