It’s been getting progressively stripped back but there’s risk of breaking changes too. Lots of websites started breaking when Apple did something as simple as updating the OS version from 10 to 11 in the user agent.
The referer field has had the path removed or even dropped outright for some browsers.
> Lots of websites started breaking when Apple did something as simple as updating the OS version from 10 to 11 in the user agent.
Of course I know that in practice websites have been modifying their behavior based on the user agent string for years. But at least that information is supposed to be shared per the specs.
What I don't understand is why browsers are sharing lots of other information beyond the user agent string.
Because they pretty much all power some kind of actual functionality. Users want the website to show up in their timezone, in their language, and to respect the light/dark mode options. Those are all legitimate functions, which also get used for tracking.
Security and privacy focused browsers and tools like Apple Lockdown Mode make some pretty significant compromises to maximise security.
The referer field has had the path removed or even dropped outright for some browsers.