Given the lack of plugins on ios and sand boxing, how does this help ios apps per the disclaimer on the site linked to?
(Currently browsing on my iPhone, so searching a bit tedious)
Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
31–40 of 77 posts
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#32Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#33I have long since switched to Ghostery ever since Disconnect frequently broke YouTube videos and nothing was ever done to fix it. Does anyone know if this problem still persists?
hmm, been using Disconnect for a while in FF and Chrome, haven't noticed any issues with YouTube videos.
Same here. Chromium on Fedora without any issues.
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wait developers should test extensions that make arbitrary changes to their javascript? That doesn't seem reasonable.
I’m the developer of Disconnect and agree with you, but … To back up the op and gp, I’m seeing more and more sites that don’t degrade gracefully when their analytics service doesn’t load. I do think devs should check that their site still works when non-essential services fail to load because, even when the user isn’t running Disconnect or a similar app, this scenario is bound to happen — e.g., when there’s a network…
As the developer of Disconnect, if you're removing chunks of functionality the site developers expect to be there, you should be doing it in a way that doesn't break that functionality so absolutely.
You could cloak the cookies so they're pageview specific. Or inject your own functions in place of the ones that are being blocked.
Whether analytics is an essential service or not is a pretty up in the air question.
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would never, ever, spend time testing something that changes my code. Today it changes it one way, tomorrow another. That's like trying to replace the screen on your phone and then complaining that it doesn't work and that Samsung/Apple should test their devices with your screen installation skills.
According to addons.mozilla.org, Adblock Plus for Firefox has almost 20 million users. You would "never, ever" perform tests using popular browser extensions that have tens of millions of users? How does your co-founder/employer/client feel about your position?
I'm my own employer and I'm doing pretty well/decent.
I would rather spend my time making what I have better rather than fixing bugs caused by someone else.
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#36You can achive a lot of this without using any browser extensions by simply using a hosts file such as the one at http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm (that one is Windows-oriented but it works fine in linux also). Or you could run your own dns but that's a bit more complicated to set up.
Have you noticed how this affects websites/apps breaking? meaning, certain websites won't play video unless an add plays first (hulu/comedy central sometimes) do those sites not work if you enable this?
oh no! not hulu .... wait I can't use that US centrict service anyway :p
Thanks for pointing this out though. ;)
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#37I've been using Abine's DoNotTrackMe for a while. Is this any different/better?
I am wondering as well. Using https://github.com/RequestPolicy/requestpolicy on Firefox as a more aggressive way to control which website request can get through.
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#38The source is at: https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect
I recently tried to switch from Ghostery to Disconnect. It was basically a wash in terms of frequency of broken pages. However two things did bother me a little:
- The default settings had Disconnect fighting with HTTPS Everywhere and caused resource contention in Chrome. Please follow the Unix philosophy and just recommend users install HTTPS Everywhere instead of having a naive implementation embedded in your unrelated product.
- It was unintuitive that the number incremented on the button is the total number of requests and not the number of requests blocked.
I look forward to the days that these types of extensions work well enough that I can install them on my parents computers and not have to worry about pages being broken, but them still having their privacy. Keep up the good work.
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#39You can achive a lot of this without using any browser extensions by simply using a hosts file such as the one at http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm (that one is Windows-oriented but it works fine in linux also). Or you could run your own dns but that's a bit more complicated to set up.
I like the clean approach, but hesitate to use my hosts file for blocking unwanted stuff on my development machine.
It is 3:00 am the app breaks in production while the development version magically works. You question your ability as a developer and a human being in general while blaming your browser, your os, your DNS secretly knowing in the back of your head, that that you must have done something really, really stupid. Why could you not have waited until tomorrow to push?
Finally the mixed feeling of relief and thinking you are the dumbest person in the world, when you remember your hosts file while hacking over SSH on production files, which you totally should have considered instantaneously.
I remember reading a story, where the legal department of a company in Germany sent hundreds of cease-and-desist orders to websites, which where all displaying their images. Strangely the image just appeared on company computers …
Re: Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m the developer of Disconnect and agree with you, but … To back up the op and gp, I’m seeing more and more sites that don’t degrade gracefully when their analytics service doesn’t load. I do think devs should check that their site still works when non-essential services fail to load because, even when the user isn’t running Disconnect or a similar app, this scenario is bound to happen — e.g., when there’s a network…
As the developer of Disconnect, if you're removing chunks of functionality the site developers expect to be there, you should be doing it in a way that doesn't break that functionality so absolutely. You could cloak the cookies so they're pageview specific. Or inject your own functions in place of the ones that are being blocked. Whether analytics is an essential service or not is a pretty up in the air question.
What? Do you really believe that your website should grind to a halt if a 3rd party analytics service isn't available?