uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox • Hacker News Board

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#381

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 11:47 PM UTC

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #373

scarface74 wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. A…

Why do I care whose “fault” it is? Did government intervention make my life better or worse?

As Reagan said the most dangerous words in the English language “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#382

Post by scarface74 » Fri, Mar 11, 2022, 11:48 PM UTC

adhesive_wombat wrote: post #377

scarface74 wrote: post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So maybe the government shouldn’t pass a law that it can’t or won’t enforce? See also “The War on $x” or “because terrorism”, “think of the children”.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#383

Post by wyclif » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 12:04 AM UTC

skrtskrt wrote: post #356

trts wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

that picture only captures, like 5-10% of what you see as you pass through there. I think it's always ridiculously represented as "hurr this is what America is!" It has every chain business there because it's the intersection of major highways where there's no other meaningfully-sized rest stops around for hours.

Indeed, people outside the US (especially Europeans) don't really grasp the scale of the US interstate highway system. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, "The United States is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."

It's so big, that if you're driving long distances over the middle of the country you have to make sure you stop for fuel and food and a biology break whenever you get the chance, because there's no guarantee you're going to be able to find a place in flyover country.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#384

Post by fhd2 » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 12:14 AM UTC

Disclaimer: Former ABP developer.

Mozilla worked surprisingly hard to make uBO number one - for years they've actively promoted it, marked it as recommended and similar things, added weird warnings for the unwashed masses of "unrecommended" extensions, made them harder or even impossible to install on some platforms. Generally incredibly shady practices I was shocked to see from Mozilla, who I thought had above average integrity - not in the last five years or so I guess. Not even Google pulls stuff like that from what I can tell.

That said, uBO is cool and I'm happy it's still growing.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#385

Post by barnbuilder » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:11 AM UTC

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

What makes Breezewood unique is that you are forced off of a freeway to drive through that strip. Otherwise it looks like many other American roads.

I think the internet without Adblock is more like these heinous digital video billboards in Los Angeles that appear above the road, directly in the line of vision of drivers. Why these are legal is incomprehensible to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ZeROERRrg

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#386

Post by throw872291 » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 2:22 AM UTC

fhd2 wrote: post #384

Disclaimer: Former ABP developer. Mozilla worked surprisingly hard to make uBO number one - for years they've actively promoted it, marked it as recommended and similar things, added weird warnings for the unwashed masses of "unrecommended" extensions, made them harder or even impossible to install on some platforms. Generally incredibly shady practices I was shocked to see from Mozilla, who I thought had above avera…

Whoa whoa talk about AdBlock Plus and integrity!

AdBlock Plus seems to whitelist your ads if you pay them millions [1][2]. The euphemism ABP (and their parent company Eyeo) uses is 'acceptable ads'. Acceptable to Eyeo I guess. It's opt-out at the users end.

OP knows all about this [3][4].

I'm not a fan of some of Mozilla's policies but I'm thankful if it's true that Ublock Origin is shown preference over the shady, user-disrespecting ABP.

[1] Google paid AdBlock Plus to get its ads whitelisted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5995140

[2] gorhill, UbO developer on Eyeo https://nitter.net/gorhill/search?f=tweets&q=%22eyeo%22

[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6818307

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5946892

[5] Eyeo on HN https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

[6] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28746231

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#387

Post by boogies » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 3:03 AM UTC

Nextgrid wrote: post #253

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.

> I still don't understand why Firefox, champion of privacy, doesn't make a uBlock native. Mozilla's "commitment" to privacy is all talk and no action.

Enabling Google as the default search engine, or the proprietary Pocket plugin, arguably isn’t innocent inaction. It’s actively anti-privacy action.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#388

Post by GekkePrutser » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 3:14 AM UTC

matheusmoreira wrote: post #228

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.

> I still don't understand why Firefox, champion of privacy, doesn't make a uBlock native. That's the best technological solution but there are inherent conflicts of interest since Firefox depends on Google for money.

Not just that but due to their search for independence from Google they are increasingly relying on their own ads as well, like on the New Tabs screen :(

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#389

Post by _abox » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 3:19 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #199

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.

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

The problem is that GDPR didn't go far enough.

They should have added a provision that if the user has Do Not Track turned on, the site may not present a cookie barrier and may not serve any cookies except essential ones. I know many browsers have removed DNT but they sure would bring it back in a heartbeat if it actually did anything.

This is what you get when corporate lobbying gets as big as it is in Brussels :(

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#390

Post by GekkePrutser » Sat, Mar 12, 2022, 3:21 AM UTC

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…

> 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.

It is. So are the ones defaulting to "yes". And the ones where there is just a popup telling the user to install some blocker in their browser without giving them a choice (like https://npr.org ). Or telling them to take a subscription if they don't want to be tracked.

All these things are illegal but unfortunately they are not enforced.