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Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

bugzilla.mozilla.org

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Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#121
post #111
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes, how well this works depends on what sites you tend to use. The vast majority of the sites I frequent either degrade gracefully in the absence of JS, or never used it in the first place. I think there are three or four that both require Javascript and that I want to use badly enough to allow JS. When I encounter a web site that doesn't work without JS, I just move on. But I understand that others may not wa…

I have an ephemeral container (systemd-nspawn with -x switch) with almost-default configuration of firefox (only uBlock Origin added) for such websites. After I'm done, I close the browser and everything gets deleted.

That sounds very cool! Do you have that setup documented somewhere, or perhaps even pushed it to some public repo?

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#122
post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> flash of unstyled content means 10% of your traffic leaves the site after less than a second Really? Why does this happen at all? After all the "visible=false" is a styling..

Some people decide whether or not a site is worth looking at extremely quickly - if it looks "old" or "broken" they hit the back button immediately. They will wait for the first paint though, so it can be better to delay anything appearing until everything is ready. The impact depends a lot on demographics.

And the second part - where does the bug lie that this happens at all?

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#123
post #111
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes, how well this works depends on what sites you tend to use. The vast majority of the sites I frequent either degrade gracefully in the absence of JS, or never used it in the first place. I think there are three or four that both require Javascript and that I want to use badly enough to allow JS. When I encounter a web site that doesn't work without JS, I just move on. But I understand that others may not wa…

I have an ephemeral container (systemd-nspawn with -x switch) with almost-default configuration of firefox (only uBlock Origin added) for such websites. After I'm done, I close the browser and everything gets deleted.

I do approximately the same in macOS:

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox" --no-remote --profile "$(mktemp -d)

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#124
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a DNS server that makes every ad and tracking domain route to nothing. It speeds everything up and uses an almost undetectable amount of resources. It could be done in the router with different software I'm guessing, but I use tomato firmware which isn't great for huge DNS block lists.

I mean, yes, I know what Pi-Hole does. I just fail to see why it's better than a hosts list on your computer, for example: that works wherever you are and you don't need fancy software for it. Plus it's "infinitely worse" than a normal adblocker when browsing the internet.

Not much of what you said is actually true. Having it on your local network allows any wireless device to have a huge amounts of ads and trackers blocked automatically. Some sites were unusable on phones before and now they load fast and are readable.

Then there are things like 'smart' tvs sending data back, apps sending all sorts of data out etc. It is quite a game changer.

Also you can do both, but dns blocking for the whole network is always on for everything once you set it up.

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#125

I wouldn't mind going back to a JavaScript-less web experience. I know not all tracking is based on JS, but the browser provides so many heuristics this way: screen size, cursor location, installed plugins. Give me reasonably formatted HTML, and something a little bit more powerful than curl.

I wish there was simply a way where ad-supported sites I visit could collect their revenue without having me submit to advertiser surveillance. I don't mind seeing ads. I hate being tracked.

The reason it's worth it for advertisers to pay sites for placing ads is because of the data they collect.

You only buy something because of an ad occasionally. But data is collected each and every time.

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#126
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An argument for non-interactive semantic html is an argument against the front-end/back-end dichotomy. That is to say your application should directly generate the page you want the user to see and you shouldn’t need to spend all your time designing custom JavaScript for it.

There's nothing wrong with non-interactive html web pages just like there's nothing wrong with JS rich web applications. The web is big enough for everyone.

There absolutely is a place for the interactive web. But this is rare, and it’s done well even less often.

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#127
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ephemeral container (systemd-nspawn with -x switch) with almost-default configuration of firefox (only uBlock Origin added) for such websites. After I'm done, I close the browser and everything gets deleted.

I do approximately the same in macOS: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox" --no-remote --profile "$(mktemp -d)

Isn't it what the "private browsing" option of Firefox does?

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#128
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ephemeral container (systemd-nspawn with -x switch) with almost-default configuration of firefox (only uBlock Origin added) for such websites. After I'm done, I close the browser and everything gets deleted.

That sounds very cool! Do you have that setup documented somewhere, or perhaps even pushed it to some public repo?

I do not, sorry. I have to set up a blog some day, but I have been putting it off because most of the time I can't think of anything interesting to say. :)

Anyway, I was mostly inspired by an article on how to set up Steam in a container - it has all the details, including how to pipe Pulseaudio inside (so in my case, Youtube videos in Firefox can have sound). Except mine is debian-based (so debootstrap instead of pacstrap to populate the container).

http://ludiclinux.com/Nspawn-Steam-Container/

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish there was simply a way where ad-supported sites I visit could collect their revenue without having me submit to advertiser surveillance. I don't mind seeing ads. I hate being tracked.

I pay for the LA Times, and I also block ads. A couple weeks ago they updated the site so that I got a giant “you are blocking ads!!” banner even when I was logged in. I complained to them (directly), saying that I pay for a subscription so that I can give them money without viewing ads. And... they agreed that paying readers should not see those warnings! And they updated the site within the same day. I thought that…

I just block the “you’re not seeing my ads!” div itself. Some of us have issues that prevent us from focusing on the content when there are highly contrasting alerts screaming something.

Re: Purge site data when site identified via old tracking cookies

#130
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an ephemeral container (systemd-nspawn with -x switch) with almost-default configuration of firefox (only uBlock Origin added) for such websites. After I'm done, I close the browser and everything gets deleted.

I do approximately the same in macOS: /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox" --no-remote --profile "$(mktemp -d)

Mine has the advantage of the browser processes not having access to anything important, in case of a RCE vulnerability. An attacker would just see a vanilla debian install with no juicy user data, and only the ~/Downloads directory linked from my "real" system.
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