Browsers set required values for this header according to their active user interface language. Users rarely change it, and such changes are not recommended because they may lead to fingerprinting.
The content of Accept-Language is often out of a user's control (when traveling, for instance). A user may also want to visit a page in a language different from the user interface language.
There are a million metrics that can be used for fingerprinting, the notion of avoiding language detection because fingerprinting seems a bit weak - it’s pretty hard to fingerprint me if I’m not willing to fumble your site to configure my language, and I assume for non English speakers hard locking browser resolution to 1920x1080 to prevent resolution fingerprinting would presumably be a more usable limitation.
Edit: and ‘a user might not be the owner of the computer and therefore the accept language might be wrong‘ sounds like a UI problem that a ‘file -> set language’ workflow would solve.
Comments
MDN doesn't like it
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Ac...
:shrug:
There are a million metrics that can be used for fingerprinting, the notion of avoiding language detection because fingerprinting seems a bit weak - it’s pretty hard to fingerprint me if I’m not willing to fumble your site to configure my language, and I assume for non English speakers hard locking browser resolution to 1920x1080 to prevent resolution fingerprinting would presumably be a more usable limitation.
Edit: and ‘a user might not be the owner of the computer and therefore the accept language might be wrong‘ sounds like a UI problem that a ‘file -> set language’ workflow would solve.
Agreed
Accept-Language is far more under my control while traveling than my IP address. Especially for services that actively block VPNs.