Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#2To view this request through a different lens, in what ways could this information be used maliciously?
The immediate thought that comes to mind for me is a political party during opposition research on their competitors.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#3There is a famous, in Poland, quote from Stefan Kisielewski about communism: "Socialism bravely fights problems unknown to any other system." And this reads exactly like that.
Just block ads.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#4Or, best method is to block all ads, beacons, 3rd party cookies, and trackers. Keep it simple, just block anything that is not actual content. Everyone knows online ads are now the major vector for malware online along with bad apps.
Pi-hole, uBlock Origin, Privacy badger, Decentraleyes, Tracking Token Stripper, Neat URL, and No Coin. Set browser to block all HTTP/S referers, disable geo, css links history, fingerprinting, and you are well on your way to never having or seeing an issue. uBlock Origin also kills dead the adblock blockers.
Editing to say that it was my children's absolute frustration with waiting for ads in videos that led me to adopt the Pi-hole. Nothing so far has escaped the event horizon of the Pi-hole. It's great for TVs, too. Everything on the network benefits from the Pi-hole. Setting up a VPN will allow you to pass your mobile device through it while away from home.
One of my upcoming projects is to get a DO Droplet, set up the same and have less "infrastructure" in my house. Benefits remain. Google Cloud also allow this in the free tier. Why not? There is nothing to lose except annoyance.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#5Or, best method is to block all ads, beacons, 3rd party cookies, and trackers. Keep it simple, just block anything that is not actual content. Everyone knows online ads are now the major vector for malware online along with bad apps. Pi-hole, uBlock Origin, Privacy badger, Decentraleyes, Tracking Token Stripper, Neat URL, and No Coin. Set browser to block all HTTP/S referers, disable geo, css links history, fingerpri…
> just block anything that is not actual content
At this point the reverse approach (whitelist) becomes easier. Just pluck out the content, ignore the rest, and write your own simple UI. Most websites can be modeled quite easily as category->article(->comment) with some additional data.
Writing UI for that is quite trivial.
It can be done in browser via extensions/userscripts (without a database), or you can fetch the data into a database and view it via an electron app, or cli tools, or whatever.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#6There is a famous, in Poland, quote from Stefan Kisielewski about communism: "Socialism bravely fights problems unknown to any other system." And this reads exactly like that. Just block ads.
Ah yes, such a simple solution, just get everyone, everywhere to install adblocking software in their browser of choice.
Problem Solved!
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#7To view this request through a different lens, in what ways could this information be used maliciously? The immediate thought that comes to mind for me is a political party during opposition research on their competitors.
If all the parties have equal access, transparency should help all the parties and only hurt those who do something deviant.
It would become an equalizing factor I suppose.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#8Or, best method is to block all ads, beacons, 3rd party cookies, and trackers. Keep it simple, just block anything that is not actual content. Everyone knows online ads are now the major vector for malware online along with bad apps. Pi-hole, uBlock Origin, Privacy badger, Decentraleyes, Tracking Token Stripper, Neat URL, and No Coin. Set browser to block all HTTP/S referers, disable geo, css links history, fingerpri…
> just block anything that is not actual content At this point the reverse approach (whitelist) becomes easier. Just pluck out the content, ignore the rest, and write your own simple UI. Most websites can be modeled quite easily as category->article(->comment) with some additional data. Writing UI for that is quite trivial. It can be done in browser via extensions/userscripts (without a database), or you can fetch th…
> At this point the reverse approach (whitelist) becomes easier. Just pluck out the content, ignore the rest, and write your own simple UI.
This basically exists already. It's called Reader View in Firefox.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#9"Just block ads" isn't a useful answer here - this is about being able to see who is advertising to the people who aren't using ad-blockers (which is most users on the internet), and being able to do research into who is paying for advert and who they are targeting. As long as the advertising industry still has a presence on the internet, this information will be important.
Re: Mozilla and independent researchers publish guidelines for an ad archive API
#10There is a famous, in Poland, quote from Stefan Kisielewski about communism: "Socialism bravely fights problems unknown to any other system." And this reads exactly like that. Just block ads.
Ah yes, such a simple solution, just get everyone, everywhere to install adblocking software in their browser of choice. Problem Solved!
Actually, as a sysadmin/coder (devops, but I hate the term), I have a moral imperative to protect people on my network. I use the firewall at work to block ads via a subscription list. My next project is to run Pi-hole on a VM with proper specs to get almost everything. Does wonders for bandwidth and a clean corporate network.