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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

#401

Post by adhesive_wombat »

scarface74 wrote: post #382
adhesive_wombat wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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”.

CNIL, the French regulator, did just (last month) fine Google and Facebook 150 and 60 million euros, so there is some level of enforcement, but I agree it's not enough.

There are some big ones here: https://www.tessian.com/blog/biggest-gdpr-fines-2020. Ironically, that site also has a cookie banner that attempts to trick you into thinking that the highlighted button will save the default preferences shown (it won't, it'll turn them all in, then save that). This is illegal too.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#402

Post by adhesive_wombat »

_abox wrote: post #389
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

Enforcing the rules for handful of "normal" websites that have illegal cookie banners would cause all the others to magically discover that it's actually not very hard to have to buttons next to each other with the same colour.

Brussels might have a corporate lobby problem, but they did create the regulations in the first place, so they're already ahead of a lot of national governments (which run the regulators).

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#403

Post by aembleton »

cuteboy19 wrote: post #315
tiffanyh wrote: post #287

Librewolf I’m surprised LibreWolf doesn’t get more attention. [0] It’s stock Firefox, with uBlock Origin preinstalled and a bunch of Firefox configs adjusted to more privacy oriented settings. It ranks as the most private browser experience, even better than Brave. [1] https://librewolf.net/ https://privacytests.org/

Entropy increase is bad for privacy, so using more obscure browsers would make you stand out more often right?

Depends on the user agent. Maybe they appear as Chrome.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#404

Post by matheusmoreira »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #379
matheusmoreira wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

> I appreciate the option to pay more to go ad free.

You shouldn't. In practice that option is nothing but free market research for advertisers. They get to see not only who has disposable income but who's willing to spend it. They will offer even more money for your attention and eventually some executives will realize they're leaving money on the table by not taking advantage of it.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#405

Post by woldemariam »

frankharv wrote: post #63
telchior wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Have a thought for the maintainers of the various lists. These lists are everything. This can't be emphasized enough." So you can fund the project -- by donating to the lists it relies on.

While I agree on supporting the things you use. I don't think "the lists are everything". Quite the opposite, Its the blocking features. For me I like uBlocks disabling Javascript with an easy click and the other granularity (popups, multimedia) it allows on a site by site basis.

how do you block popups?

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#406

Post by scarface74 »

_abox wrote: post #389
scarface74 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 :(

So now you want the government making laws about how to design your website?

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#407

Post by superkuh »

throw872291 wrote: post #400
superkuh wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not talking about Google's Manifest v3 or anything recent. I'm talking about Firefox 57 (~2018) and onward when they abandoned XUL and all the extensions/add-ons had to be re-written as chrome-style web extensions. Unfortunately many of the most complex extensions could not and lost features at best.

If FF didn't do that, it would still be a security nightmare. XULs are available in some FF forks, which are security nightmares.

It's amazing that Sea Monkey, Palemoon, and all the other forks which support XUL have managed to do so securely with incomparibly smaller teams. Multiple proofs of the falsehood of your claims already exist.

Mozilla got rid of XUL because it wouldn't work with the multi-process model of Chrome they were copying in order to speed up the browser for running complex javascript applications. The security justifications were nonsense. The real security problems are in supporting all the new attack surfaces that modern browsers do in the form of exposing bare metal (or just above) functionality for acting as an OS (webgl, websockets, etc) instead of a browser.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#408

Post by iLoveOncall »

caymanjim wrote: post #243
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?

This annoys me too, because I dislike ads, but to be fair, newspapers and magazines have always had ads as their primary revenue source, and also almost always charged for the print copy as well. About 30 years ago, when physical newspapers were still more popular than virtual newspapers, you'd pay about 50 cents for the daily edition and $1.50 for the Sunday edition. That adds up to more than the current monthly fee…

It's almost like delivering a physical newspaper costs more than a digital one. Who would have thought?

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#409

Post by helph67 »

ericra wrote: post #359
helph67 wrote: post #357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please explain how you are able to disable Javascript.

To disable javascript for specific site in uBlock Origin, click the extension icon, then click the "more" button in the menu several times until all options are displayed (you only have to do this step once total, not per site). Once the 5 top menu icons are visible, click the one to the right that looks like to disable javascript for the site you're on.

Thanks, I did search through uBlock before asking.

Re: uBlock Origin becomes top addon on Firefox

#410

Post by fmmlp »

barnbuilder wrote: post #385
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

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

Why advertisements are legal at all is incomprehensible.
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