Block ads
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can develop ad blocking here.sometimes ads disturb. users can reports ads.
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Highly recommend uBlock Origin, but do not be confused and mistakenly install "uBlock" with no Origin in its name. It is not nearly as good and comes with preinstalled white lists for advertisers that the developers have a relationship with.
Also, be sure to take the time to read tthe documentation available on the project's GitHub wiki. It takes a little time to digest it all, but once you do you can make much more effective use of the extension, providing yourself increased protection against trackers. Once you've gotten comfortable with uBlock Origin and probably increased the blocking mode to medium, the developer also makes an extension called uMatrix. Use together these extensions provide as complete a protection as you can find. There are few other things that could provide any further privacy protection. But to do it properly requires that you invest the time to learn how the extensions work and how to manage them. Nobody else is going to take responsibility for your privacy, so it's worth it.
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@ bonetone
Hi !
I wholeheartedly agree with your advice to use uBlock Origin but I'd like to add a couple of points. [1] When using uBlock Origin, also install "uBlock Extra". This contains additional lists for uBlock to use and it expands the efficiency considerably. However, it does not relate to any other extension. [2] In addition to uBlock, I have also installed an extension called "Disconnect". This combination zaps just about every Ad that exists.Naturally, one must expect that such strong blocking will break some sites. So, as a work-around, when I first fire up Vivaldi each day, I set up a tab listing all the extensions that I have installed. Now I can easily temporarily switch off an offending blocker and put it back on again when I move to other sites.
uBlock Origin (with its Helper file) plus Diconnect, stops just about every Ad there is. However, if you are concerned about Privacy and Tracking, you should also be removing all the cookies that sites put on your machine. So, additionally, I have installed an extension called "Click&Clean". This is a bit complicated at first sight but it contains a tool called "Cookie Wiper" which allows you to delete cookies (or keep a selection that you want).
I have found that I can collect a dozen or more cookies from a site and some of these will definitely be Trackers (possibly third-party cookies, which read my details from the next site I visit, also). By frequently deleting cookies, you will disappear when you leave a site and not carry with you any history .
As a final point, I always surf using a VPN, which hides my IP number so, one way or another, there is not much for the Trackers to capture. I am not doing anything reprehensible but I believe most strongly that my privacy should be respected and not used to set up some marketing campaign.
HTH -- Best regards,
hatrack. -
i find 'out of the box' Adguard gets better results
i hope Vivaldi do develop a tracker / advert blocker. web tracking is a to important issue to be left to third party extensions, and all the big browsers (apart from the advertising company Google) are offering some kind of blocking in-built. Edge / Firefox / Brave / Opera all do something
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Thanks for bringing up uBlock Origin Extra. I agree that this is a useful extension to install along with uBlock Origin. It doesn't add any extra blocking lists exactly. What it does is defend against sites that use anti-blocking technology, that are intended to bypass content blockers like uBlock Origin. It only works against a limited set of sites, but worthwhile for these sites. Other sites using anti-blocking blockers aren't circumvented by uBlock Origin Extra. You see on which sites it works by visiting [this wiki page on GitHub]. This anti-anti-blocker blocker (yeah, we're really there now) can be extended using Nano Defender as well, which can help on sites where uBlock Origin Extra doesn't work.
If you're using uBlock Origin, there is no need for Disconnect, you can enable Disconnect's filter list in uBlock Origin. Having both installed does make your fingerprint more unique and thus you're easier to track, and then there's the wasted system resources on the unnecessary extension. I would uninstall Disconnect, actually, I did uninstall Disconnect. The best extension to run in combination with uBlock Origin for controlling what is being sent over the wire by your browser is uMatrix. It is sort of like a firewall for the browser. Both extensions require that users do a bit of reading to get the most out of them, but that's because they offer so much blocking potential. Any blocker that's powerful enough will require similar understanding. The wikis for both, on GitHub, are quite extensive and useful.
I have found that I can collect a dozen or more cookies from a site and some of these will definitely be Trackers (possibly third-party cookies, which read my details from the next site I visit, also). By frequently deleting cookies, you will disappear when you leave a site and not carry with you any history .
I don't get any cookies that I don't approve beforehand. I pretty much never have any third-party cookies at all, unless you're counting stuff like Microsoft cookies across different domain names for using OneNote & Outlook, or Google cookies to login to Gmail & YouTube. Those are technically third-party as they come from a different site, but it's the same entity. That cookie data does not get sent to Google's tracking domains, however, so there is no privacy exposure there.
With uMatrix, you can block all cookies from being sent over the wire except those which you desire, and you can set it to periodically clean up the approved session cookies if you want, and you can always use the browser settings to remove all cookies on exit if you want. Since I only allow cookies I want, I like to keep the non-session cookies, it enhances the usability of the web.
With the combination of uBlock Origin & uMatrix, there are few other things that could provide further privacy protection. (Adding UBO Extra/Nano Defender of course, not for privacy enhancement but for unbreaking sites that block content blockers.)
As a final point, I always surf using a VPN, which hides my IP number so, one way or another, there is not much for the Trackers to capture.
I also almost always have my VPN on as well, but your IP address is only one little piece of data and largely irrelevant to tracking. Sometimes there are numerous users who (without using any intentional VPN service) are show the same IP address to the sites they visit (e.g. schools). Those users are still highly vulnerable to tracking though, as you and I are when we're connected to our VPNs.
@ultraviolet said in Block ads:
i find 'out of the box' Adguard gets better results
Compared to what? uBlock Origin has AdGuard's lists built-into it, and it's defaults include some other lists not included in AdGuard. Also, you don't have to go and disabled AdGuard's permissive "self-promotion" ads whitelist either. Personally, I don't want anybody else creating a whitelist deciding which ads are ok to display on my system, and that the whitelist is enabled by default requiring the user to disable it is just the wrong approach for any privacy-minded extension to take.
If someone is truly serious about their privacy, they won't be using any blocker in "out of the box" settings anyways. As I am always reminding my friends & family, nobody else will take responsibility for your privacy.
modedit fixed link
Edit: Thanks mod. Not sure what I did wrong, but I appreciate the assist. I forgot to test after posting.
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@ultraviolet I still don't know what that means. If a user turns on the AdGuard filters, all the sites blocked by those filters are also blocked in uBlock Origin. A few years ago after similar claims were made on Twitter, I saw data from performance profiling with uBlock Origin and AdGuard running similar configs (UBO had additional filters enabled). AdGuard actually consumed like 3x CPU and just a tad more memory. Nobody on published any data showing the opposite.
I would recommend to novice users that are going to use AdGuard to do the same as you and disable the preinstalled whitelist, rather than use out-of-the-box settings. Novice users are exactly the type of people who get this whitelist forced on them by AdGuard, often unaware that it even exists. That's a big reason why opt-out is so offensive to privacy advocates.
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I just installed uBLOCK Origin and I love it. Things are SO much faster!
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@Teadrinker Right on. I highly recommended working your way through the [wiki documentation] the developer has on GitHub. That's the official "site" for the project, but don't create issues on GitHub for support, there is a [subreddit] for support questions. It takes bit of time to get fully up-to-speed, but it's not very difficult and worth understanding how to use your privacy & security tools most effectively.
As you get more comfortable you'll likely increase the blocking mode, hardening your browser further. I run something similar to Hard Mode. Easy Mode is the default, and I think that Medium blocking mode might be the most common among people who do tweak it.
To begin, make sure to look at the filter lists in the settings and enable any additional filter lists you want. I've enabled everything above the Regional & Language lists. That might be overkill for what you want, everyone has aa different threat model and ideal balance point between hardening and convenience. Make sure you understand the different between the two coloumns of color switches on the extensions dialog (global vs local) and the difference between whitelisting something there (making it green) and a "noop" rule (grey). You'll also probably want to learn how to write AdBlock Plus filters, and the few extensions/differences UBO brings. Lastly, but importantly, learn how to use the logger. That's how you figure out what needs to be done to "unbreak" more complicated pages while still blocking undesirable stuff. I created a web panel for the logger which makes it so much easier to use in my opinion. If you're ever in a hurry and don't have time to deal with fixing a site, just click the big power button to whitelist the site, you can turn it back on when you've got the time.
Happy surfing.
Edit: Oh, one other important detail. When you make changes, like enabling scripting, or creating a rule, those changes are temporary. The next time you restart your browser the changes will be gone. For sites you regularly visit you'll want to make those changes permanent by clicking the lock icon that appears after making a change. This is useful because you might make a few incorrect changes initially, so you can play with the settings and when you've got it the way you want it to stay, lock it. For sites you almost never visit, you're not cluttering your filter & rules lists with stuff you never use, making it easier to work with them directly when you want to.
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You can use this one in Vivaldi
https://github.com/CacheBrowser/cachebrowser
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/cachebrowser/dimjobhopkpfnbojomeldpkmdekchboh -
@Catweazle that is cool, and makes me miss Amherst, but it's a different thing than blocking ads and trackers. MassBrowser (into which Cache Browser has been merged) is about circumventing internet access censorship by proxying through other users with the extension, and optimizing the traffic by utilizing CDNs. At least that's my understanding. Less about protecting your privacy, more about enabling access to the full internet for those who lack it.
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@bonetone , yes, this is the main task, although it also blurs any other data, as I could see with cache browser extension in Panopticlick. The only thing it got right, was that I am in Spain and I use some generic Chromium browser. He did not even correctly determine the OS. With this and QUAD9 DNS, I think I have enough protection. As an extension I use uBO and Trace. As a second browser I am currently testing the UR browser, this is almost as armored as TOR, but much faster and with many more functions. Better than Brave. Epic Browser would be the other alternative that I will try soon.
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@bonetone
Hi !
I thank you for commenting on my post and would like to add a few further points - -[1] You criticise my use of "Disconnect" together with uBO. I have enabled different filter sets in each extension and these appear to compliment each other. You suggest installing uMatrix with uBO so it would seem that you, like me, feel that uBO benefits from the presence of an additional extension. I have no experience of uMatrix although I remember seeing a reference to it some years ago. I remember it was claimed to be hard to configure, so I chose "Disconnect" instead. On the time-honoured principle - "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" - I have left well alone, ever since.
[2] When writing about cookies, I used the term - "third-party cookies" - and you quite rightly picked me up upon this matter. Now, I know about these and in Settings > Privacy for my browser, these cookies are blocked. I know that many sites use components which they have scavenged from others and I was thinking of these when I wrote my text, not true 3rd-party items. I apologise that my 86-year old brain does not always select the best word or phrase.
[3] I also forgot to mention that I always run my browser sand-boxed, using the "firejail" utility. This is not immediately relevant to Adblocking but it does add another layer of protection which stops "nasties" from sneaking in.
[4] So, in summary, my browser setup is :-
Latest current stable version of Vivaldi with uBO and Disconnect, running sand-boxed through a VPN. Cookies are deleted frequently. So far, I've only broken one site (my bank) so it's easy to switch off blocking temporarily for that site alone.I never see ads (either the random ones forming part of the site or directed to me) so I guess I'm just about as invisible when on the 'web as it is possible to be.
Best regards,
hatrack -
In order to benefit from using an additional privacy/security extension used together with uBlock Origin that extension needs to be a different kind of extension, like uMatrix or Decentraleyes. By making your fingerprint more unique, using Disconnect alongside UBO is actually harmful to efforts against tracking. It is broke, that's why I fixed it on my system.
The filter sets do complement each other but they don't require different extensions. The filter lists you have enabled in Disconnect can be enabled in UBO. In addition to enhancing your privacy, uninstalling Disconnect will remove the unnecessary resource consumption. Bonus points! That's reason enough to get rid of Disconnect without even getting into its issues unrelated to performance.
uMatrix advertises itself as "for advanced users," not hard to configure. It's actually very easy to configure, perhaps even easier than uBlock Origin. Many people think so and prefer to use it instead for that reason. Originally both UBO & UM were contained in a single extension, called HTTPSwitchboard. They were separated for several reasons, the different blocking paradigm being one of them. In its default configuration, it's expected that uMatrix will "break" sites, and users are expected to know how to "unbreak" those sites themselves. This keeps novices from cluttering the the project's repo by filing endless issues whose solution is contained in the documentation.
I personally am running UBO & UM in a not-so-efficient configuration and wouldn't recommend anyone use the same setup. I have both locked down pretty hard, so that when I visit a site for the first time I have to create filters & rules for any necessary fixes in both of them. As I am the IT/Helpdesk for my family, my in-laws and several friends, this creates filter & rule sets I can install on their system whichever they use and however they want to use them.
I'm a bit confused as to what you're trying to say about cookies and tracking now. It seems you might be conflating a few different things. The term "cookie" has unfortunately been overloaded, often not referring to HTTP cookies. It can sometimes mean any persistent data, super cookies aren't even stored on the local machine. So that may be leading to confusion here.
Seeing ads and being tracked are driven by different underlying processes and techniques; although the latter is used to make the former more persuasive and effective, blocking visible ads is only a tiny piece of blocking tracking. Collecting information to build their profile on you the sd networks use numerous methods that aren't visible to the end user, such as etags or single pixel images for two basic examples. Whether or not you're seeing ads cannot be used as an indication of how successfully your mitigating against tracking.
Just to sum up, not only would I get rid of Disconnect, I did get rid of it, as well as Privacy Badger and a couple others that escape my memory now. If you're looking to enhance your privacy and security while using uBlock Origin, the first place to start would be in UBO itself.
Increase the blocking mode to at least medium, and enable all the filter lists that are above the regional & language filter lists in three settings. There are a few more changes that could be made but it's a personal decision as to where the line should be drawn between increased privacy & security and decreased ease of use.
Other extensions that can be beneficial to use alongside uBlock Origin include Decentraleyes. You'll want to disable some of its conflicting features, but its CDN mirroring is popular among many UBO & UM users including gorhill himself. Once you've become proficient using uBlock Origin in the increased blocking mode, the experience using uMatrix will be a familiar one. The documentation for both UBO & UM are thorough, and are helpful to enable effective use of the extensions. There are of course other extensions that do other things, but these are two of most popular.
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@ultraviolet said in Block ads:
i find 'out of the box' Adguard gets better results
i hope Vivaldi do develop a tracker / advert blocker. web tracking is a to important issue to be left to third party extensions, and all the big browsers (apart from the advertising company Google) are offering some kind of blocking in-built. Edge / Firefox / Brave / Opera all do something
I actually very much hope they don't integrate a basic adblocker. I consider brave to be useless BECAUSE of the integrated adblocker. Ublock origin or Umatrix is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much better than it, it's simply not in the same league. I couldn't downgrade that far and continue to use a browser that integrated a junky adblocker like those have.
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@tlmiller76 , Brave is a good as a second browser, but in my opinion, if you want to have a second private browser with an efficient adblocker, try UR Browser (also for Android). This is almost brutal in cutting everything undesirable in the network. It is not TOR, but almost and because it is also based on Chromium, fast and compatible with possible extensions of the Store, if you still need it. Made in the EU with the standards of privacy of this.
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@Catweazle said in Block ads:
@tlmiller76 , Brave is a good as a second browser, but in my opinion, if you want to have a second private browser with an efficient adblocker, try UR Browser (also for Android). This is almost brutal in cutting everything undesirable in the network. It is not TOR, but almost and because it is also based on Chromium, fast and compatible with possible extensions of the Store, if you still need it. Made in the EU with the standards of privacy of this.
Eh, don't really use my phone to ever do anything online. Screen too small for my tastes. If it was available on linux, I would try it out.
As to Brave, definitely disagree. I wouldn't use Brave as a second, third, or even fourth browser. Firefox + umatrix, Vivaldi + umatrix, Chromium + umatrix would be my 3 browsers. After that I'll actually say I've been testing Edge (chromium based) at work, and it's surprisingly not bad, and umatrix works on it. And has possibly the best looking icon for any browser. -
@tlmiller76 , sorry, Ur Browser, like Epic Browser, only for Win, Mac and Android.
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@Catweazle said in Block ads:
This is almost brutal in cutting everything undesirable in the network. It is not TOR, but almost
With uMatrix you could cut everything on the network from third-parties if you wanted, whether desirable or not. Default settings are so strict it is expected to break most sites. Even if you choose to say allow CSS & images from third-parties by default, they will only be accessed from sites that have not been blacklisted, either by you or by one or several of the popular lists that people use for blacklisting thousands of known bad domains. This lets you visit a new site you've never been to safe in the knowledge that everything known to be undesirable is blocked. Even accessing known bad domains as a first-party is blocked.
As for UR Browser, I wouldn't compare it to Tor, you're not using an overlay network or layered encryption. It's more akin to Vivaldi with my configuration -- a very hardened Chromium-based browser.
@tlmiller76 said in Block ads:
Firefox + umatrix, Vivaldi + umatrix, Chromium + umatrix ... Edge (chromium based) and umatrix works on it.
TMil knows the power of UM. Nothing locks it all down like uMatrix. If I could only run 1 extension, this would be it.
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@BoneTone , naturally UR is not like TOR, he just said it because I don't know another more armored between TOR and UR (without extensions, of course). (Nice the inbuild AV for downloads)