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Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

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Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#21
post #3

So what's a good alternative (Firefox)? I'm using GlimmerBlocker, but due to being a proxy, it can't filter HTTPS pages. Adblock Edge looks like a decrapified fork of Adblock Plus.

I just founds this, it's a fork of Adblock Plus:

https://addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/?sr...

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#22
post #19

I'm struggling to fully understand the article due to the poor Google Translation. Anyone offer some concise clarification as to what ABP is actually doing? Is it "just" that they are changing Amazon referral links on websites to their own referral links so they get money instead, or is there more to it than that? Are they even actually doing that? (Or is it just that they aren't blocking referral links made with sof…

They are also allegedly not filtering a set of white-listed ads, most of which come from companies that pay 30% of their ad revenue to the company behind AdBlock Plus.

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#24
post #15
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ghostery. Can't recommend it highly enough; also works on Chrome, Safari, Opera and IE.

Ghostery users should be aware of: http://www.businessinsider.com/evidon-sells-ghostery-data-to... (no judgement on the practice implied, just flagging it as something for potential users to consider).

Ghostery alternative: https://disconnect.me

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#25
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are talking about AdBlock, Adblock Plus is different.

Are those two programs made by different people? I thought one was just the paid version of the free one.

Adblock Plus - company in question.

AdBlock - Donationware. They also run this http://chromeadblock.com/catblock/download/ It replaces ads with pictures of cats. Hilarious

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#26
post #19

I'm struggling to fully understand the article due to the poor Google Translation. Anyone offer some concise clarification as to what ABP is actually doing? Is it "just" that they are changing Amazon referral links on websites to their own referral links so they get money instead, or is there more to it than that? Are they even actually doing that? (Or is it just that they aren't blocking referral links made with sof…

Allegedly they are changing Amazon referral links and on top of that they automatically convert non-affiliate links to affiliate links with their own ID wherever possible.

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#27
post #13

A blog post on the Adblock Plus-website from 44 days ago mentions a "joint campaign" by several German newspapers against ad blockers. I imagine this is part of it, although that's doesn't necessarily mean that they are wrong and/or exaggerate their accusations. See here: https://adblockplus.org/blog/our-thoughts-on-the-unity-of-ge...

no that is something different. (at least the joint campaign had pretty much no arguments, whereas the submission raises a few doubts, to say the least.)

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#28
post #14

Is this in any way related to the "AdBlock" extension (not "...plus")? https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adblock/gighmmpiob...

Apparently not: "AdBlock is not to be confused with Adblock Plus. The developer of AdBlock for Chrome claims to have been inspired by AdBlock Plus, which is a community supported development effort, but otherwise the two efforts are unrelated."[1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdBlock_(Chrome)

Huh... well that clears up a lot.

I've tried both and was curious as to why the "Plus" version of an extension allowed tons of ads when the regular "AdBlock" did a perfect job of never showing me ads. I guess that answers that question.

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#29
post #3

So what's a good alternative (Firefox)? I'm using GlimmerBlocker, but due to being a proxy, it can't filter HTTPS pages. Adblock Edge looks like a decrapified fork of Adblock Plus.

The easiest to audit is to change /etc/hosts to send malware sites to 127.0.0.1. I use Dan Pollock's hosts file, which is well-commented:

http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/

I keep a Git repository with the contents that I update from time to time - this makes it easier to do diffs against past versions: https://github.com/chalst/pollockhostsfork

Re: Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to links

#30
http://adblockplus.org/en/features :

"Adblock Plus will always block annoying ads. Still, many websites rely on advertising revenues so we want to encourage websites to use plain and unobtrusive advertising instead of flashy banners. That's why the Adblock Plus community has established strict guidelines to identify acceptable ads, and Adblock Plus allows these out of the box. You can always disable this feature if you want to block all ads."

Could this be related?

Link to the guidelines: http://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads#criteria

Edit: I just contacted Till Faida about this, will keep this post updated.

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