this post was submitted on 22 Jun 2025
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Should I Disable WebSocket Connection on My Web Browser (in terms of privacy)?

Considering disabling WebSocket connections for security reasons. Any experience or thoughts? Have you disabled WebSockets? Any notable issues or performance changes?

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[–] nazgul666@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

You say that you want to do this for "privacy" and "security" reasons. Those two are not the same. What is the exact use-case which you want to prevent?

Disabling WebSockets will cause some Websites not to work properly anymore. Especially such which rely on live updates without reloading the site (most common use-case for WebSockets).

[–] happeningtofry99158@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Sorry about the confusion I am referring to "privacy"

Disabling WebSockets will cause some Websites not to work properly anymore. Especially such which rely on live updates without reloading the site (most common use-case for WebSockets).

I have disabled WebSockets for past 2 years without knowing it and in my memory only 3 sites wouldn't work and I'm not sure it's because I disabled websocket.

I am really confused why websites for instance outlook still function while websocket is disabled

[–] mundane@sh.itjust.works 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

They probably have a fall back to long polling or similar.

What privacy concerns do you want to address by disabling ws? It's just another protocol that is more efficient for certain use cases. The information that can be sent via ws or normal http requests is the same, so from a privacy standpoint it doesn't really make a difference.