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There are files I need from a heavy NAS user and they've given me a link of the form http://gofile.me/xxxxx/xxxxxxxxx If my laptop running the Chrome browser in macOS is connected to the internet via an iPhone hotspot and I download the data, what information about myself and my equipment is available to the NAS owner?

Do they get potentially identifying browser information like its version number, fonts, etc. What about information about my cellphone?

Since its http not https, is all of that potentially viewable by third parties as well?

Sending it through gmail would have made me happier but its apparently not an option in this case.

schroeder
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uhoh
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    You want to look up what info the browser's User Agent provides. – schroeder Mar 25 '22 at 08:30
  • @schroeder okay that will get me started, but I'm also wondering about hotspotting with my phone. I'm assuming it's transparent and doesn't share any information, but that's just a guess. I do have Safari open on the phone with a few dozen tabs in use, but after a few minutes the phone goes dark so I'm assuming (again without any basis) that power management suspends the browser's use of the internet. – uhoh Mar 25 '22 at 15:44
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    Nothing about the router (which is what your phone becomes) is passed along. – schroeder Mar 25 '22 at 16:24
  • @schroeder how do you know that to be true? (just curious) I think I'd left a similar comment here earlier to the same effect, but I don't see it now. Something along the lines of me being old fashioned and preferring SE answers that can be voted on over unsupported comments. Has that been covered in a previous Q&A here? Or might a new question provide the opportunity for a supported answer? – uhoh Jun 09 '22 at 19:41
  • This is just basic networking. It's not even a security concern. The routers process the traffic, they don't add their own bits to it, unless it is a proxy. – schroeder Jun 09 '22 at 20:01
  • @schroeder I understand that that is the model of what a router should do, and of course it's a model of a router not subject to security threats (which according to the news I read they are routinely compromised) But we're not discussing about how a theoretical model for how a router should be expected to work, but an iPhone's hotspot functionality. Have iPhones been actually demonstrated to always perform as ideal, theoretical routers? If yes, I'm asking how you know this to be true. – uhoh Jun 09 '22 at 20:06

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