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GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

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Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#21

Post by wlll »

NullPrefix wrote: post #11
wlll wrote: post #6

The day I added an ad blocker (Adblock Plus, Ghostery and uBlock origin) was the day my CPU fans stopped spinning almost constantly, my battery life improved, web pages loaded faster and were more responsive. My experience of the web is about a thousand times better than it used to be. I will remove all these when the ad companies and websites start to behave themselves, which will be never.

>Ghostery You surely aren't using it anymore, are you? They are now owned by an ad company.

I haven't signed up for an account or given them any data (and specifically made sure that I don't share usage or diagnostic data with them).

They are a German company very much covered by GDPR, so I think it's relatively safe to use the tool this way. I'd be happy to hear otherwise though.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#22

Post by baseethrowaway »

hashkb wrote: post #15
sigmonsays wrote: post #8

i have often thought at what point do you start rendering web pages remotely and simply send back the (ie 'png') image to the client. A single png image of a entire web page is definitely under 5.2MB. Personally, I can't wait for a shift in business practices. Ads have ruined my confidence in privacy. Most sites share your data with over a dozen different ad tracking vendors. I've seen twice that for a specific class…

Do you enjoy clicking links? Selecting text? Any interaction at all?

Let alone scrolling.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#23

Post by pwg »

Forge36 wrote: post #13
AlexeyBrin wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is cheaper to block the ads and tracking scripts.

Does the site degrade gracefully? What's the easiest way to train non technical users how to step through and configure each site they use? While the technical people have ability to implement solutions. I suspect many are short on time. I think a VPN despite it's cost is a better solution for many (provide websites don't restore the js/bloated functionality)

> Does the site degrade gracefully?

Surprisingly many do.

With that said, a fair number also require some tweaking and it is that tweaking that non-technical users will be unlikely to understand nor be patient enough to work through in order to get a particular site to work.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#24

Post by dman »

wlll wrote: post #6

The day I added an ad blocker (Adblock Plus, Ghostery and uBlock origin) was the day my CPU fans stopped spinning almost constantly, my battery life improved, web pages loaded faster and were more responsive. My experience of the web is about a thousand times better than it used to be. I will remove all these when the ad companies and websites start to behave themselves, which will be never.

If you liked the effect of installing an adblocker give disabling Javascript a try. (You can selectively whitelist a small number of websites). Did this a couple of years back and the difference is astounding.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#25

Post by dmead »

dman wrote: post #24
wlll wrote: post #6

The day I added an ad blocker (Adblock Plus, Ghostery and uBlock origin) was the day my CPU fans stopped spinning almost constantly, my battery life improved, web pages loaded faster and were more responsive. My experience of the web is about a thousand times better than it used to be. I will remove all these when the ad companies and websites start to behave themselves, which will be never.

If you liked the effect of installing an adblocker give disabling Javascript a try. (You can selectively whitelist a small number of websites). Did this a couple of years back and the difference is astounding.

Is there a list somewhere of what websites actually work without JavaScript enabled?

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#26

Post by JohnTHaller »

simon_acca wrote: post #16
DougBTX wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not an apple to apple comparison. Hm, what if you’re a reader looking for journalistic text articles, is the same content available on both?

I'm not a regular USA today reader, but from a brief look it seems like in the EU version only the most recent ~30 articles are "reachable" by clicks from the home page. p.s. the EU version is on it's own subdomain, maybe you can reach it from the US too: https://eu.usatoday.com/

Nope, it redirects back to the regular one for US users.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#27

Post by seba_dos1 »

wlll wrote: post #21
NullPrefix wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Ghostery You surely aren't using it anymore, are you? They are now owned by an ad company.

I haven't signed up for an account or given them any data (and specifically made sure that I don't share usage or diagnostic data with them). They are a German company very much covered by GDPR, so I think it's relatively safe to use the tool this way. I'd be happy to hear otherwise though.

With Privacy Badger, uBlock Origin, DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials and Firefox' Tracking Protection available, there's little reason to keep using Ghostery (and Adblock Plus as well, FWIW).

I also recommend Decentraleyes, Smart Referer, First Party Isolation and Facebook Container. Plus of course HTTPS Everywhere.

It's hard for me to imagine productive browsing without most of those addons now.

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#28

Post by wlll »

dman wrote: post #24
wlll wrote: post #6

The day I added an ad blocker (Adblock Plus, Ghostery and uBlock origin) was the day my CPU fans stopped spinning almost constantly, my battery life improved, web pages loaded faster and were more responsive. My experience of the web is about a thousand times better than it used to be. I will remove all these when the ad companies and websites start to behave themselves, which will be never.

If you liked the effect of installing an adblocker give disabling Javascript a try. (You can selectively whitelist a small number of websites). Did this a couple of years back and the difference is astounding.

That's a great idea, I'll give that a go!

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#29

Post by MBCook »

simon_acca wrote: post #7

For all that cannot access both versions, keep in mind that the EU one is a vastly simpler UI, it almost looks like just a blog archive, while the US one is a more feature full typical newspaper homepage. Not saying that either one is better, just that it's not an apple to apple comparison.

This tweet shows the difference with screenshots:

https://twitter.com/alexhern/status/999998807856242688

Re: GDPR Version of USA Today Is 500KB Instead of 5.2MB

#30

Post by wlll »

dmead wrote: post #25
dman wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you liked the effect of installing an adblocker give disabling Javascript a try. (You can selectively whitelist a small number of websites). Did this a couple of years back and the difference is astounding.

Is there a list somewhere of what websites actually work without JavaScript enabled?

I reckon that the number of websites I regularly visit is small enough that whitelisting them over a few days will get most of them. HN, Reddit (for the articles), a few work sites, a couple of news sites. Everything else I'll just see how it pans out. It will be an interesting experiment.
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