uBlock Origin 1.39+ has this options in settings: "Block remote fonts" and "Disable JavaScript" (disabled by default)
Font blocking setting has been there long before that, considering even the original article from 2016 mentions it.
Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
111–120 of 146 posts
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#112This is a very shortsighted view from developer who forget a web page is not only a bunch of text. Designer also play an important role to provide the subtle design element that developers don't value. By blocking all web fonts and fallback to only system font, you may still be able to read the text, but will completely missed the design.
Screw designers. They have ruined so many things over the years. It's time to take back control.
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Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's a difference between something being provent theoretically possible in a laboratory environment and actually making it out in the real world. Fingerprinting using IP address, running scripts, canvas fingerprinting, using installed fonts, and checking what resources are cached/blocked are all things that are being widely used in many websites, and are not just "theoretically possible". They are even being so…
> Look at their customers - https://fingerprint.com/ . Welp that's scary, can detect me when I'm on VPN, off it, in private browsing mode, different country in private browsing mode...
that's nice claim, but for it to work you need to leak enough entropy, and you can check that on various sites.
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#114The main privacy breach is Referrer HTML header in request for fonts, which feeds browsing history to Google.
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Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
they do have the advantage of being easy to recolor even as an external resource. I personally don't use them and instead use SVGs and there's always the decision of whether to add a bunch of inline svgs, which you can do cool effects and even transitions on for hover effects or light/dark mode, or using external images, which are nicer in terms of separation of concerns, re-use without having to update multiple plac…
You can literally do all of that with SVGs sprites when the fill is set to currentColor.
Only with inline svgs, not if they're included via , I believe.
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
+1, that guide is a beacon of light in the sea of misinformation about what extensions to use. I agree with almost everything on it.
Yes "we" (privacyguides.org) consult with the authors of that project as well as a few others. It was nice to see they quoted our blog article https://www.privacyguides.org/blog/2021/12/01/firefox-privac... We've been on a bit of a mission of trying to dissuade people from "old thinking" of installing a gazillion "privacy extensions".
Are the abbreviation tooltips written by hand or generated programmatically? In "Total Cookie Protection (TCP)" it says TCP stands for Transmission Control Protocol.
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
> provide the subtle design element that developers don't value Does anybody apart from designers actually care?
with the a/b testing we’ve done in our admittedly niche market - yeah it matters
Doesn't that depend on what the A/B test is measuring? A/B tests can measure the wrong thing. "Engagement" is often seen as a good thing in and of itself and is not investigated for errors.
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
LocalCDN provides no meaningful privacy gains over enabling Total Cookie Protection (i.e. dynamic FPI, already enabled by default in modern versions of Firefox) and disabling cross-site referers, which you should do anyways.
This, it's also why it's in the category of "don't bother" https://github.com/arkenfox/user.js/wiki/4.1-Extensions#-don... not only that it will make your browser easier to fingerprint as one of the Tor developers pointed out.
Yes, within the context of Tor.
Outside of Tor, I'm not going to be held hostage by trackers such that I'm forced to allow fonts in a way that makes me look average. By using any amount of ad blocking, script blocking, no-opping, href cleansing, and so on, I'm making myself more identifiable by any tracking that still manages to work. Whatever. At least I've reduced the amount of time it takes for a page to render.
Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#119> While they deny the practice, these services have the ability of profiling your browser (using browser fingerprinting with your IP address and HTTP referer header) to track what sites you visit, building a valuable profile about you that they could sell to marketers. As a person who works in martech it's patently bizarre to read this stuff. There's a difference between something being provent theoretically possible…
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Re: Blocking web fonts for speed and privacy (2016)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There's a difference between something being provent theoretically possible in a laboratory environment and actually making it out in the real world. Fingerprinting using IP address, running scripts, canvas fingerprinting, using installed fonts, and checking what resources are cached/blocked are all things that are being widely used in many websites, and are not just "theoretically possible". They are even being so…
To add to this, basic fingerprinting is trivial. And more advanced fingerprinting isn't much harder. I'm so confused by GP post. We were doing fingerprinting 15 years ago.
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