• @FreeloadingSponger
    link
    11 year ago

    I still don’t see why my open source browser can’t just lie when it’s sending a description of itself to the third party. The only way I could see it working is if that description needs to be encrypted by a key that’s compiled in to a closed source browser, and then websites only accept requests from a few closed source browsers.

    Is that what you’re saying? That unless I have one of a couple accepted clients which are proprietary and closed source, websites just won’t work?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      It seems logical to assume that there would be no point to the whole thing if it was so easily avoided just by modifying your browser. Someone who’s, for example, selling fake engagement (e.g., fake reviews), which is listed as one of the things Ben Wiser at al. want to prevent, will probably have enough technical expertise to use a modified browser that will circumvent WEI, so why would Google even bother?