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The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

standard.co.uk

21–30 of 445 posts

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#21
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know most people trash on Brave, but honestly, if you disable its crypto features (which is just a click away), it's actually a decent browser that blocks almost all ads I see, even on iOS! For example, YouTube has no ads in iOS Brave. Since iOS doesn't allow real browsers and extensions, Brave has been a sanity-saver for me. Pair that with uBlock on desktop and you're golden. 98% of the sites don't break at all ei…

Safari on iOS does allow extensions. It also is a “real” browser, whatever that means. iOS does not, however, allow _alternate rendering engines_, which is different.

I find Safari extensions inferior than Chrome/Firefox extensions. Who thought it's a good idea to show extensions as apps on the springboard/launchpad??

I now have 68 extensions on my Brave (desktop). Imagine seeing 68 additional icons on my macOS launchpad!

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#22
post #16
post #3

Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions to take?

https://nextdns.io and then UBlock Origin, uMatrix, Noscript at least.

I think I found NextDNS here on HN and I've been really happy with it.

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#24
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know most people trash on Brave, but honestly, if you disable its crypto features (which is just a click away), it's actually a decent browser that blocks almost all ads I see, even on iOS! For example, YouTube has no ads in iOS Brave. Since iOS doesn't allow real browsers and extensions, Brave has been a sanity-saver for me. Pair that with uBlock on desktop and you're golden. 98% of the sites don't break at all ei…

Safari on iOS does allow extensions. It also is a “real” browser, whatever that means. iOS does not, however, allow _alternate rendering engines_, which is different.

Acting like you don't know what a real browser means in this context just so you can be mock offended.

Oh you Apple users.

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#27
post #3

Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions to take?

If you're on Android also use Blockada to block ads in app. It's a local VPN server that filters out requests to ad servers. I think there are other apps like that but I never used anything else.

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#28
post #3

Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions to take?

It ultimately depends on what your threat model is, what are you trying to defend against? I use Qubes dispvms (whonix if possible) for personal browsing, but that's pretty far toward the extreme end of the scale.

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#29
post #16
post #3

Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions to take?

https://nextdns.io and then UBlock Origin, uMatrix, Noscript at least.

NextDNS + Ublock Origin (or Brave Browser, since it uses the UBO lists by default) is a really good combo on its own, and easy enough for my self-proclaimed "tech illiterate" friends to set up and use.

Also, it's pretty cool that NextDNS has this: https://github.com/nextdns/nextdns/wiki

Re: The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web

#30
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use adnauseam ( https://adnauseam.io/ ), which is built on top of ublock origin, and it works pretty well. The generic nuclear option to hide terrible web design, bypass (some) paywalls, and improve performance 1000x is to disable javascript. ublock and adnauseam both have a button to disable all javascript on a page, which is handy when reading articles on sites filled with garbage.

>both have a button to disable all javascript on a page Be slightly careful, there's a known issue (limitation of Chrome really) where requests and javascript are not blocked in the first few seconds of launching a browser or an incognito window (you can test this yourself). And this is true even with "Suspend network activity until all filter lists are loaded" enabled, because I think it's some limitation on Chrome…

I'm going to just read "limitation on Chrome" as "purposely defective by design" as there's sufficient incentive to delay disabling to let a few telemetric squeaks escape.
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