Adblocking innovation

oldschool

Level 81
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Mar 29, 2018
7,044
I'm trying Privacy Badger + Privacy Possum on one browser and I must say I'm impressed how ad-free my surfing is. One benefit is it doesn't trigger adblock warnings but the downside is there is no way to deal with annoyances like cookie notices. Still, very impressive if a user wants zero configuration and very little or no site breakage (none for me so far). Of course, YMMV!

Edit: Check that, Privacy Badger may trigger some anti-adblock warnings (1 so far here). In these cases Privacy Possum is the clear winner but you will see some ads.
 
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F

ForgottenSeer 85179

I'm trying Privacy Badger + Privacy Possum on one browser and I must say I'm impressed how ad-free my surfing is. One benefit is it doesn't trigger adblock warnings but the downside is there is no way to deal with annoyances like cookie notices. Still, very impressive if a user wants zero configuration and very little or no site breakage (none for me so far). Of course, YMMV!

Edit: Check that, Privacy Badger may trigger some anti-adblock warnings (1 so far here). In these cases Privacy Possum is the clear winner but you will see some ads.
And now a comparison with ghostery please :)
 

Outpost

Level 5
Verified
Well-known
Jan 11, 2020
220
I'm trying Privacy Badger + Privacy Possum on one browser and I must say I'm impressed how ad-free my surfing is. One benefit is it doesn't trigger adblock warnings but the downside is there is no way to deal with annoyances like cookie notices. Still, very impressive if a user wants zero configuration and very little or no site breakage (none for me so far). Of course, YMMV!

Edit: Check that, Privacy Badger may trigger some anti-adblock warnings (1 so far here). In these cases Privacy Possum is the clear winner but you will see some ads.

You're right, the Badger + Possum pair is superior to Ghostery.
 

oldschool

Level 81
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Mar 29, 2018
7,044
You're right, the Badger + Possum pair is superior to Ghostery.

I don't know that it's superior but it's worth checking out. I just did a quick test on Edge opening my tech sites and Ghostery was OK but seemed sluggish. I still loathe all of its graphics! It also ran into a couple of adblock messages. Honestly, on Edge you can use PB + PP or built-in adblocking (on strict) + PP. You will get cookie notices but not (so many?) adblock warnings. Edge maybe has optimized its anti-adblock protection. (?) These options assume that you won't be making any custom rules like element blocking.

This is why I like Brave - because its Shields are well optimized while allowing element blocking and/or granular script blocking. I still pair it with PP for etag tracking, referer headers, etc. and for the very occasional site where I wish to allow adblocking.
 

codswollip

Level 23
Content Creator
Well-known
Jan 29, 2017
1,201
For browsing, I use a mix of Brave and Edge (the former with Windscribe VPN). But I need a whole LAN solution that lives beyond the browser and manages all LAN devices. At present, I'm using Adguard Home. Privacy Badger has been largely quiet recently, so I am likely to disable that in the near future.
 

Evjl's Rain

Level 47
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Malware Hunter
Apr 18, 2016
3,684
thankfully, with some regional and cosmetic filters, I manage to view most websites like that without ads, or just a minimal amount of ads

I prefer adding filters which have many generic rules (work with all websites) rather than the ones with specific rules. I always search for small but effective filters instead of big ones.
for example, 1hosts mini only has around 38k rules but it's noticeably more effective than hphosts or energized

a lot of sites use some tricks to bypass ad blockers
 
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Lenny_Fox

Level 22
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Oct 1, 2019
1,120
Closing words ....

First and most important, good to see Oldschool having his Frank Zappa 'blown in the wind' avatar again.

Secondly thank to all members contributing to this thread

Thirdly and most trival my own preferences are as follows: on Edge-chromium I use Microsoft anti-tracking, on Opera (which I use for dodgy browsing) I use Policy Control for third-party blocking (uMatrx does not see websocket connections) and on Chrome (which I keep for backup) I use uMatrix with Steven Black's host file as only blocklist and these rules:
---------------------------------------------------------------
matrix-off: about-scheme true
matrix-off: behind-the-scene true
matrix-off: chrome-extension-scheme true
matrix-off: chrome-scheme true
noscript-spoof: * true
* * * block
* * css allow
* * image allow
* * media allow
* 1st-party * allow
* com * allow
* de * allow
* inf * allow
* io * allow
* net * allow
* nl * allow
* org * allow
* uk * allow
nos.nl adcdn.ster.nl * block
nu.nl talpatvcdn.nl * block
____________________________________
In uMatrix settings I have eneabled 'block hyperlink auditing' and 'delete cookies and local storage of blocked domains'
 
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Handsome Recluse

Level 23
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Well-known
Nov 17, 2016
1,242
Oh, but hold on.... spies and spying are antithetical to our MT community values. We want to round up spies, and throw them in the river.***
Not my spies! My spies are for the greater good!

Edge maybe has optimized its anti-adblock protection. (?) These options assume that you won't be making any custom rules like element blocking.
Experience tells me that adblock warnings are a case-by-case basis. Edge could've bypassed it because it's obscure or it has no 'cosmetic filtering'. uBlock Origin is getting too popular, too.

Disclaimer: when you believe in large blocklists with 100.000 rules or more
To all the Pareto rule naysayers out there, I counter with Goodhart's law.
 
F

ForgottenSeer 85179

Privacy Possum looks unmaintained:

One quote from:
The developer addressed this in the Firefox Extension release notes:
Release notes for 2019.7.18
First update in a while! Sorry, having a full-time job does that. I welcome all the help I can get at cowlicks/privacypossum
I'm always happy to help folk contribute at any skill level. There is always some way to help.
This is mostly a release that improves testing and developer workflow stuff, which should help me make more frequent releases in the future.
There are also several minor bugfixes and updates.
4 month's are a very long time for such a addon.

Privacy Badger is more active:

I'm still don't trust Ghostery (from Cliqz)
Also they - for example, even track you on their own site:
If you remove the "utm" tracking stuff, the site still works. "?utm" is always used for tracking. Only.

So this say everthing about the addon and the company('s) behind for me. No Ghostery.
 

oldschool

Level 81
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Well-known
Mar 29, 2018
7,044
Privacy Possum looks unmaintained:

Possibly, but my guess is that it doesn't need frequent updating. Privacy Badger OTH breaks sites, etc. and requires more work with their AI or whatever they use. But this much is true: A one man operation (PP) vs. a group of developers (PB --> EFF).
 
F

ForgottenSeer 85179

ublock origin + adguard DNS + 1457 entries in hosts file
websites to watch streaming football loaded with tons of ad, mostly unpopular adservers, in my language or in russian

1 example:
my ublock showed 82 blocks
Today i test this Keo site and this is my result:
crapsite.jpg

AdGuard block 7 elements, uMatrix 10, Edge Anti-Tracking 1 and rest is blocked by browser settings & PiHole :)
Site loads also in 1 seconds.
 

Lenny_Fox

Level 22
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Well-known
Oct 1, 2019
1,120
With 1 site permission rule (95% of all serious websites are HTTPS in West EU) and 1 My Filter/User rule this website also loads in 1 sec on my G4600 dual core celeron out of 2010

Site Permission: Javascript (block first party scripts on HTTP websites)
1586759649649.png


Adguard User rules (works with any ABP rules compatible blocker): block insecure (HTTP) third-party except stylesheets, image and media
1586759726924.png


I realize these two rules are of no use when your region still has many http websites (why http when the https certificates are free now?), but it shows how easily you can block 95% malware websites when living in North America/West Europe with just two settings.
 
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ForgottenSeer 85179

Site Permission: Javascript (block first party scripts on HTTP websites)
View attachment 237144
Are you sure only first party scripts are allowed? Last time i checked, all scripts on the allowed sites are allowed. Including 3th party

Adguard User rules (works with any ABP rules compatible blocker): block insecure (HTTP) third-party except stylesheets, image and media
View attachment 237145
Why only content and not (most important!) scripts and more? I prefer:
Code:
HTTP://*^$all
 

rdsu

Level 1
Oct 25, 2014
11
Adguard User rules (works with any ABP rules compatible blocker): block insecure (HTTP) third-party except stylesheets, image and media
View attachment 237145

I realize these two rules are of no use when your region still has many http websites (why http when the https certificates are free now?), but it shows how easily you can block 95% malware websites when living in North America/West Europe with just two settings.

I'm using this:
http://*^$third-party,~image,~stylesheet,$domain=~*.com|~*.edu|~*.es|~*.eu|~*.gov|~*.io|~*.net|~*.pt|~*.uk
 

rdsu

Level 1
Oct 25, 2014
11
I'm using this:
http://*^$third-party,~image,~stylesheet,$domain=~*.com|~*.edu|~*.es|~*.eu|~*.gov|~*.io|~*.net|~*.pt|~*.uk
Actually, by @Yuki2718 advice, this script could be greatly improved to:
|http://$third-party,~image,~stylesheet,domain=~com|~edu|~es|~eu|~gov|~io|~net|~pt|~uk

Remember that next to domain, you should set the TLD's that you want to avoid to be blocked.
 

Lenny_Fox

Level 22
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Well-known
Oct 1, 2019
1,120
:) @rdsu good example of loosening this block third-party to domains not in the listed TLD's

:) @security123 good example of tightening the block-third-party to everything, but as far as I know $all only works with
uBlockOrigin

I may change my general block rules to
HTTP://*$third-party,~stylesheet,~image,~media
HTTPS://*$third-party,object,script,subdocument,websocket,webrtc,ping,domain=~nl|~eu|~uk|~io|~com|~inf|~org|~net|
 
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