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Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

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Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#21

Post by phito »

asterios33 wrote: post #16

"There are a few alternatives available. Unfortunately, moving to Firefox may not be a viable option for her, especially given Mozilla’s recent behavior." The world has gone crazy. So this relative has casually used the most bloated spyware disguised as a browser for literally a decade, but she can't switch to firefox because 'Mozilla’s recent behavior'.

It's crazy the mental gymnastics people will go through to justify not using Firefox. They should just be honest and say they're too lazy to switch.

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#22

Post by nijave »

asterios33 wrote: post #16

"There are a few alternatives available. Unfortunately, moving to Firefox may not be a viable option for her, especially given Mozilla’s recent behavior." The world has gone crazy. So this relative has casually used the most bloated spyware disguised as a browser for literally a decade, but she can't switch to firefox because 'Mozilla’s recent behavior'.

Isn't the simple middle ground to use a Chrome fork that doesn't block uBlock?

Edit: Chromium forks/derivatives

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#23

Post by everdrive »

nijave wrote: post #17
irjustin wrote: post #14

I'll go against the grain and say this is not a security threat. if missing ublock is a true security concern you shouldn't be using chrome. Because the opposite is not true - that chrome+ublock is keeping you secure from tracking. We just don't want to see ads. Isn't that enough?

Not a big deal on the desktop and a small deal on the laptop, ad blocking gives a noticeable performance gain on Android. Years ago when I had one of those Intel Atom netbooks you could tell a pretty big difference since it was pretty RAM constrained.

This is unpopular every time I say it, but by in large people just shouldn't be browsing the web on mobile. Every single aspect of the experience is worse, and is likely to continue to get worse over time:

- tiny phone screen

- objectively worse mobile-site

- far worse touch-screen-based UI

- the entire iOS side of things has far fewer choices for any sort of effective ad blocking

Is it possible for a savvy technologist to overcome these problems? Yes, but it's like disabling junk in Windows: you're playing a game of cat and mouse and slowly losing the battle over time.

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#24

Post by ewenquim »

irjustin wrote: post #14

I'll go against the grain and say this is not a security threat. if missing ublock is a true security concern you shouldn't be using chrome. Because the opposite is not true - that chrome+ublock is keeping you secure from tracking. We just don't want to see ads. Isn't that enough?

> if missing ublock is a true security concern you shouldn't be using chrome

Dude there are ads on every browsers. And the goal here is to protect her from malwares, not trackers (well at least that's not a priority).

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#25

Post by solardev »

TekMol wrote: post #10

I guess it would be easy to block ads via a proxy? An http proxy in Python is just a few lines of code. It could simply drop the requests to known ad servers. And in Chrome, there is a setting to use a proxy. So all one had to do is run ./my_ad_blocking_proxy.py and set the proxy in Chrome to something like 127.0.0.1:8080?

No, it takes way more than that. That's basically what running a Pihole does, which barely blocks anything these days.

Good ad blocking requires you to be able to look at decrypted HTTPS traffic and remove content from the DOM, including stuff added after the fact by Javascript. That's why uBlock Origin works better than Adguard (which is a https MITM ad blocker) and why Adguard works better than Pihole (which doesn't usually MITM HTTPS).

Simple hosts blocking used to work OK two decades ago but these days so many ads are served directly from the same servers within the same HTTPS connection that it's just not enough.

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#26

Post by Havoc »

It's probably a threat to your mind & sanity more than security. This is very obviously aimed at streaming more ads into your head. I don't doubt google's security/engineering chops but if google could prop up your eyelids with toothpicks to ensure continuous ad watching they would...

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#27

Post by eek2121 »

everdrive wrote: post #23
nijave wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not a big deal on the desktop and a small deal on the laptop, ad blocking gives a noticeable performance gain on Android. Years ago when I had one of those Intel Atom netbooks you could tell a pretty big difference since it was pretty RAM constrained.

This is unpopular every time I say it, but by in large people just shouldn't be browsing the web on mobile. Every single aspect of the experience is worse, and is likely to continue to get worse over time: - tiny phone screen - objectively worse mobile-site - far worse touch-screen-based UI - the entire iOS side of things has far fewer choices for any sort of effective ad blocking Is it possible for a savvy technolog…

Disagree. Most of my web browsing is done on mobile (iPhone).

iOS has many different ad blockers, including system wide ones that are VPN based. I use a good one that even blocks Youtube ads.

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#28

Post by baq »

nijave wrote: post #22
asterios33 wrote: post #16

"There are a few alternatives available. Unfortunately, moving to Firefox may not be a viable option for her, especially given Mozilla’s recent behavior." The world has gone crazy. So this relative has casually used the most bloated spyware disguised as a browser for literally a decade, but she can't switch to firefox because 'Mozilla’s recent behavior'.

Isn't the simple middle ground to use a Chrome fork that doesn't block uBlock? Edit: Chromium forks/derivatives

define 'simple'. if chrome ripped the whole extension framework out of the source code, a 'simple' fork will suffer the same fate. (notably Edge also doesn't support uBlock Origin anymore.)

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#29

Post by tjpnz »

irjustin wrote: post #14

I'll go against the grain and say this is not a security threat. if missing ublock is a true security concern you shouldn't be using chrome. Because the opposite is not true - that chrome+ublock is keeping you secure from tracking. We just don't want to see ads. Isn't that enough?

Google has shown itself to be perfectly happy taking money from criminals and their ad network does push malware. To that end their ad business is a security threat.

Re: Chrome disabling uBlock Origin is a serious security threat

#30

Post by ewenquim »

Havoc wrote: post #26

It's probably a threat to your mind & sanity more than security. This is very obviously aimed at streaming more ads into your head. I don't doubt google's security/engineering chops but if google could prop up your eyelids with toothpicks to ensure continuous ad watching they would...

Yeah but that's another topic (maybe more important, but less immediate and actionnable). yesterday my relative just downloaded a malware. That's something we can do something about!
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