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uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

addons.mozilla.org

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Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#371

Post by scarface74 »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #345
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blame government for not understanding unintended consequences when they pass laws regarding tech (GDPR)

Or, blame companies for throwing passive-aggressive shitfits that aim to mislead people. GDPR doesn't mean you have to have an intrusive confusing mess of a cookie banner, for example. In fact, a confusing banner that makes you play a minigame to get the respect for your personal information that you have a legal right to (in the EU) is explicitly disallowed. And if you don't want any banners, then don't collect any…

That’s not really comforting to me as an end user forced to deal with punch the monkey cookie banners everywhere.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#372

Post by bspammer »

coldpie wrote: post #174
bspammer wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is most likely sadly. There has been no working adblocker for twitch.tv for over a year now. As far as I know, they are splicing the ad directly into the main video stream while it’s playing, so there’s no way to differentiate it from the content at all. Surely it’s only a matter of time before youtube starts doing this too.

> Surely it’s only a matter of time before youtube starts doing this too. I recently learned about the SponsorBlock extension[1] for YouTube. It's a crowdsourced collection of the location and duration of in-band sponsorships in YouTube videos. The extension queries the database for each video, then skips over the sponsorship portion of the video. I don't use it myself, since I don't mind skipping sponsorships manual…

Oh yeah SponsorBlock is great! It reminds me of Wikipedia - it is surprisingly reliable given that it's crowdsourced.

It does rely on the sponsor being at the same location in the video every time though, so it's not a solution to twitch-style adverts.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#373

Post by adhesive_wombat »

scarface74 wrote: post #370
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't collect any information you don't actually have to, and if you do hold personal information, treat it basically like you'd want your own information treated, and you're basically good. It's really that simple. The only people who think it's particularly hard or onerous are the people referenced by "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

I don’t deal with the clusterf%%% of modern front end development. I’m just tired of seeing cookie banners everywhere. Did the law in anyway make my life better?

Obnoxious banners are not required under GDPR. In fact, unless denying consent is as easy as granting it, they're illegal.

It's not the law's fault that companies would rather implement such detrimental UX than either give up the teat of personal data or give people their rights.

It is, however, the fault of regulators for not stamping down on such behaviour when it is against both the letter and spirit of the law.

And, honestly, I consider the fact that so many websites are forced to admit that they are trying to take and sell my data to be positive.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#375

Post by paulryanrogers »

openknot wrote: post #235
hn_version_0023 wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making a science out of convincing people to buy things they don’t need is not only not important , it’s fundamentally dishonest. No amount of apologies or hand waving will change that fact. Marketing is a pox on the human mind that we’d all be better off without.

>”Marketing is a pox on the human mind that we’d all be better off without.” If you work, marketing pays part of your salary. A company can’t survive without it. Marketing includes the “Who’s hiring?” threads on the front page; word of mouth recommendations; and job postings on LinkedIn. If you’ve found a job that pays your bills, marketing played a role.

There is a spectrum here. Benign forms of marketing that are closer to outreach or education campaigns all the way to the darkest, borderline fraudulent techniques.

Then there is the question of what's being marketed. Could be 'concentration' pills bankrolling someone's four hour work week, or trying to help teens understand the risks of smoking, and everything else in between.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#376

Post by adhesive_wombat »

ericra wrote: post #360
meerita wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're two. It's so useful. I use it on those website who display the "accept all cookies", specially on those ones because I'm tired of denying cookie usage. I still don't understand why Firefox, champion of privacy, doesn't make a uBlock native.

Just to make people aware who may not be, you can block a lot of cookie banners and other annoyances that are not blocked in uBlock Origin by default by enabling more specific filter lists in the extension options. In the "filter lists" tab, I would recommended enabling the "Fanboy's Annoyance" list. It's a huge list that focuses on removing various annoying, recurring website components, and it's created by the main…

If a website fails to work if you don't click though the cookie banner, it's probably illegal in the EU. They cannot collect the covered data until you consent, but they also can't stop the website working if you don't. And if you didn't actively click the button, you can't have consented, and you definitely didn't consent if you deliberately hid the button.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#377

Post by adhesive_wombat »

scarface74 wrote: post #371
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or, blame companies for throwing passive-aggressive shitfits that aim to mislead people. GDPR doesn't mean you have to have an intrusive confusing mess of a cookie banner, for example. In fact, a confusing banner that makes you play a minigame to get the respect for your personal information that you have a legal right to (in the EU) is explicitly disallowed. And if you don't want any banners, then don't collect any…

That’s not really comforting to me as an end user forced to deal with punch the monkey cookie banners everywhere.

Indeed, having it repeatedly demonstrated that companies are willing to unapologetically break laws to attempt to trick me into permitting them to scrape up my personal data is not very comforting.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#378

Post by anothernewdude »

trts wrote: post #211
pessimizer wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's hard to forget to install it. The first time you open a browser on a new machine and for a moment, for probably the first time in a while, see how the internet really looks, that's the best ad for uBlock Origin.

The internet with no adblock is a little like driving through Breezewood, Pennsylvania https://imgur.com/a/qmAxHfk

Given that ads are a major vector of malware, it's more like raw dogging a prostitute.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#379

Post by paulryanrogers »

matheusmoreira wrote: post #262
mancerayder wrote: post #85

What kills me is even paid subscription sites like WSJ, Bloomberg, Seeking Alpha, show you ads even when you're a paying member. Why is it a war on our attention?

> Why is it a war on our attention? Entitlement. They literally think they have a right to our attention. The audacity of these people never fails to impress. Paying any amount of money will only make them bolder.

My guess is it's more that advertisers want paying customers the most, so they pay extra or otherwise pressure services to include ads into paid services.

I appreciate the option to pay more to go ad free. Though I also understand offering with ads to widen the audience at a free or lower price.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#380

Post by naniwaduni »

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #369
paulmd wrote: post #358

Earlier quoted context omitted.

completely false, it's trivially possible to create a website without needing to involve GDPR at all.

Don't collect any information you don't actually have to, and if you do hold personal information, treat it basically like you'd want your own information treated, and you're basically good. It's really that simple. The only people who think it's particularly hard or onerous are the people referenced by "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

The great "mistake" of GDPR is that it has consent provisions at all.

After previous cookie banners, they really should've known better. (Or, let's be real, absolutely did know, but left it in for corporate interests anyway.)

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