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This post knows where you're viewing it from (Lemmy doesn't proxy external images) [ARCHIVED]
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this post was submitted on 11 Aug 2023
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"You are viewing this from Firefox on Windows."
I should worry that this info is exposed?
Probably not. Every time your web browser makes a request to a server, it always transmits some "user agent" describing itself. By default, it'll be something that boils down to "Safari version X on macOS version Y" or "Firefox version A on Windows version B" or something similar. You can often change your user agent (on desktop browsers at least) of you care.
What can someone do with this specific info? Well, not a huge amount. It can be used as a sort of a fingerprint - the more unique a browser's user agent, the more easy it is to target you as a demographic or individual. It could be used in phishing, to legitimize spam - think, "I know you use Firefox on Windows, you don't want to know what else I know!" But honestly, for the vast majority of people (in my opinion) the reality is that letting the server know your user agent isn't going to be doing much.
To be fair, user agent is one of many ways that remote services can track you and identify you.