Vivaldi browser partners with DuckDuckGo for Tracker blocker

iAN CooG

@dcmargo54 You don't need to enable Vivaldi internal blocker if you already use uBO, it's redundant.
You can try disabling uBO and use just the internal blocker and see if it fits your needs.

snlj

As a single point of comparison, here's what I see comparing Brave with uBlock Origin and PrivacyBadger to Vivaldi with the same extensions:

Brave:

Vivaldi:

While it's unclear if Vivaldi's "do not track" settings are more effective than Brave's, it does seem like Brave is catching way more trackers and ads, based on the number of items uBlock and PrivacyBadger are catching in each browser.

As things stand now (y'know, on day 1), I don't feel good about relying solely on Vivaldi's blocking tools (which is what I have to do on Android). Hopefully the protections will continue to expand.

mossman

@dcmargo54 said in Vivaldi browser partners with DuckDuckGo for Tracker blocker:

I use the uBlock Origin extension. Does adding the Vivaldi blocker amount to overkill?

I think it probably does. I can't remember if it was me or the Vivaldi installer, but I realised that uBlock is inactive on a couple of my installs and I hadn't even noticed! So the Vivaldi blocker certainly seems as good as uBlock for me.

I've decided to switch the uBlock extension off for a while and will delete it if the Vivaldi blocker continues to satisfactorily do the job.

sirfredrick

Using the group of domain lists that uBlock has and adding them to the tracker blocker in the Vivaldi settings under Privacy got me this!

snlj

@sirfredrick That's a super-clever idea, thanks!!

sirfredrick

@snlj Thanks, let me know if you need help adding them!

greybeard

Great job. Partnering with DDG Radar is much better than re-inventing the wheel on your own ;).

paul1149

This is an excellent move, and it's good to see V. working closely with Duck. If it works well enough, I can get rid of the dedicated anti-tracker I was using, and fewer extensions is a good thing. The compiled code should work faster, I am told.

Catweazle

The adblocker works perfectly, but I think not so much the tracking blocker. Despite having both activated in Vivaldi, I still have Privacy Badger active, which still shows 2-6 intercepted trackers on some pages.

Perhaps it would be desirable to add some more filters, apart from DDG and Easy List

npro

How could one block fonts.googleapis.com easily though? Or otherwise called "remote fonts". Very sneaky tracking via fonts.

julien_picalausa

@dcmargo54: uBlock Origin supports an extended list format, which allow them to block some things that we don't block yet. Hopefully, we will support at least some of that in the future.

julien_picalausa

@catweazle: Privacy badger operates altogether differently from list-based blocking. In general, Privacy Badger will be able to tailor its blocking based on your browsing habits, which can allow it to detect trackers that are not very well known.

I'll of course look at improving our abilities to block all trackers in the future.

snlj

@julien_picalausa Are there plans to allow users to add Ad and Tracker sources to the Android app the way we can on desktop?

julien_picalausa

@snlj said:

Hopefully the protections will continue to expand.

That's the idea

mrbeckham666

if you consider yourself a browser for advanced users please do not make sense without the built-in blocker in the browser because nano adblocker with nano defender 100 times better blocks ads. You are only wasting work on reinventing the wheel, why do you not need such treatments?

on android do so that you can install nano adblocker and nano defender just like it does for example yandex browser you can install any extension from the desktop on it. In general, you better focus so that extensions such as nano adblocker work well. Because for now you are a browser, you don't even know who, neither advanced nor amateur. I write this what a good criticism because I count on you to handle it I wish you health

julien_picalausa

@snlj: Probably yes. The option is basically just missing from the UI on android at the moment.

Catweazle

@julien_picalausa , with calm, the adblocker is perhaps not as efficient at certain points yet as uBO or nano, but at least it cuts any ad well, even on YT.
While Vivaldi can use extensions like Privacy Badger and others, it is easy to 'fill in the gaps'.
With your magnificent work it is anyway less necessary to have to use extensions in each update, being most of the extensions of the Chrome Store superfluous and redundant for Vivaldi. coffee

Komposten

@npro said in Vivaldi browser partners with DuckDuckGo for Tracker blocker:

How could one block fonts.googleapis.com easily though? Or otherwise called "remote fonts". Very sneaky tracking via fonts.

I believe this should be enough:

Create an empty text document somewhere on your computer.
Write fonts.googleapis.com in that document.
Open Vivaldi Settings > Privacy > Manage Sources
Click the + under Tracker Blocking Sources.
Click the folder icon in the popup and choose the text document you created.

I tried this and pretty much all fonts in the list on https://www.w3schools.com/howto/howto_google_fonts.asp were replaced with a default font.

npro

@Komposten hehe I wrote "easily", I know a couple of ways already for example with the chromium switch --disable-remote-fonts to the target line, so I meant it for the non so tech-savvy user, provided by Vivaldi. Besides, that example covers only google

danielson

@julien_picalausa: Maybe Open Source "Block-This" can be of assistance? https://block-this.com/

So far, i've replaced Adguard with it and it seems to be doing just fine.
Haven't checked to see memory usage for both, but my hunch is Block This is probably lower.