New Update Kees1958 EU-US most used blocklist for uBlockOrigin and AdGuard

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

@oldschool

On my wife's laptop, I have uBO unbreak enabled with my "EU-US most used" and AdGuard EasyList optimized.

I personally use only my own list plus the Youtube scriplets of uBlock (don't remember from which uBo list)

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

Gert (Zelo72) on Github has taken over the host version maintenance of my Most used EU-US list in HOST format. Changed in the ABP format will be automatically copied in the host version.

Regular HOST not available anymore · Issue #59 · Kees1958/W3C_annual_most_used_survey_blocklist

I use the file TOP_EU_US_Ads_Trackers_HOST for my PiHole installation. Since a couple of hours, this is not available anymore. Will the current ABP-file be converted to a HOST-file and used next to...

github.com

Gerd has informed Wally3K and 1Host so maybe they start using his version again (when Security Nightmare left the project I stopped maintaining it and some Pi-Hole users were disappointed).

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

Last week my list with around 5000 most used ad & tracking neyworks, got its 14th fork. Even a DNS is using it, this higher usage cleared out another false positives, making the list better and better.

I still recomnend to use Adguard's optimized ads blocklist (AG base and EasyList) and Easyprivacy whitists (with less than 500 allow exceptions in total) and Adguards remove URL parameters list. In above setup my list acts as an replacement for EasyPrivacy.

I am using my list as an replacement for both EasyList and EasyPrivacy. I only use AG remove tracking parameter and LennyFox youtube ads block (he has a uBO and AG version). To prevent False Positives I have added the EL and EP whitelist (together less than 1000 allow rules). My personal setup uses less than 7500 rules.

 

[rdsu]

@Kees1958 ,

Any reason to not use the Adguard English and Tracking whitelists?

Because they have more exceptions?

 

[wat0114]

Hi kees, is it recommended, or even needed, to use Peter Lowe's Ad and Tracking lists with these?

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

AdGuard has the best filterlists IMO.

@Kees1958 ,

Any reason to not use the Adguard English and Tracking whitelists?

Because they have more exceptions?

It is incorporated in the AdGuard anti tracking list.

No you can add it also when you are outside Western Europe and US/Canada when you use my list as a anti-tracking replacement

I prefer the AdGuard moderated lists of EasyList and EasyPrivacy over the original ones. Because Brave puts much effort in cleaning up EL and EP, with AG's filters plus the AG versions of EL&EP you get the best sanitized filterlists.

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

Hi kees, is it recommended, or even needed, to use Peter Lowe's Ad and Tracking lists with these?

PeterLow uses the same approach (blocking the adnetworks who serve ads on the websites you visit in stead of adds on websites). In the past I have suggested many websites to him.

When I send him a list of 200 ad networks, he asked me which ones were already included in his list. Now I maintain a list my self, therefor I now better understand his question, but then I found his reaction a bit disappointing. At the same time the developers of Smart(ad)Block added my list to their extension options and explained how easy it is to create your own list at Github.

This is the reason I started a similar to Peter's Low list blocklist, only directed to uBlockOrigin and AdGuard (ABP does not yet support .* wildcards as far as I know). I also wanted to make my list to block third-party for compatibility reasons (Peter Low's also blocks first-party).

I think it has little extra value using our lists side by side. Either use Peter's list or my list.

 

[wat0114]

I think it has little extra value using our lists side by side. Either use Peter's list or my list.

Thanks Kees! I will just use your lists, because I trust you

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

Thanks Kees! I will just use your lists, because I trust you

Although I feel very honoured by your comment, I would like to explicitely mention that Peter Low is a trustworthy (and nice) guy (based on the contacts I had with him).

 

[toto_10]

Hey @Kees1958,

Any specific reason you are not using 'Legitimate URL Shortener' over 'AdGuard URL Tracking filter'?

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

@toto_10

I started using it because some respected forum members used it.

Sometimes I keep the logs (of AG and uBO) to see how many hits/usage a particular lists generates with my internet surfing.

After two consequetive longruns on a sunday on my wife's laptop and my desktop the legitemate URL shortener had only 1 hit, so I decided to drop it again.

 

[oldschool]

@Kees1958 I'm using a very slight variant of your minimalist setup with Edge strict tracking protection, NextDNS CNAME blocking and 18,134 network filters ＋ 47 cosmetic filters (including @Lenny_Fox 's YouTube filters. No YT ads!

 

[ForgottenSeer 92963]

@oldschool Nice

Most used tracking methods are cookies, tracking pixels and tracking parameters and server side tracking.

Server side tracking is for tracking users across sessions and devices for a single website. Google is 'helping' us with our privacy by reducing the client side tracking options. No surprise that Google already offers server side tracking solution (link). By increasing our privacy Google is in fact making it harder for their competitors to offer similar level over cross session and cross device user tracking (remember Google = Android).

Edge anti-tracking on default blocks storage and access for Cryptomining and Fingerprinting and blocks storage for Advertising and Content (link). Blocking storage access (client side) Edge also blocks tracking cookies and tracking pixels (and ads). When blocking third-party storage access, you also block content which is served from content delivery networks and other websites belonging to that same organisation (e.g. cnn.com and cnn.io, turner.com). To prevent website breakage Edge uses the Disconnect organisation entities and measures your site engagement (e.g. when you visit it a lot, or have that website bookmarked Edge allows more). In default Edge blocks a lot (some fingerprinting and most tracking cookies, pixels and advertising content), while preventing website breakage.

I use Edge in default, because this blocks the hard to deal with cross website tracking pixel for different organizational entities. I use AdGuard or UBlockOrigin to block access to advertising and tracking networks (does not matter what anti-tracking blocklist you use) AND I enable AG's remove URL tracking parameters to prevent parsing tracking parameters using the URL to third-party websites. This appproach also blocks tracking across websites belonging to the same entity and blocks more trackers than Edge in STRICT because Edge is afraid to break websites it has a conservative approach to what (Disconnect) categories to block. When I encounter a problem, I simply disable AdGuard or uBlockOrigin to fall back to EDGE anti-tracking in default.

Note:
Because I expect server side tracking to grow, I have removed Google tagmanager from my Kees1958 list (which only blocks third-party and does not block server side tracking) and I have added it to MyFilter as first-party to break the Google server side tracking chain and to see how much websites break with this extra rule. When thise pans out alright, I will remove other tag-management services from my Kees1958 list (which are third-party blocks) and move them to a separate list where they will be blocked as first-party. So when people are on Firefox or Edge using the browsers build-in adblocker in default mode, they can add this more aggressive first-party blocklist to AG/uBO (and set allow exceptions in AG/uBO when they encounter website breakage).

 

[n8chavez]

Does anyone use the oisd filter list, in any variation? I'm trying to find out just what lists are included with its full domain wildcard list, but even on the site I can't get a direct answer (just the paths to the lists themselves).

 

[superleeds27]

You mention nextDNS too, which I use for adblocking on mobile.

Is it worth enabling 'Enable AI-Driven Threat Detection'

 

[n8chavez]

You mention nextDNS too, which I use for adblocking on mobile.

Is it worth enabling 'Enable AI-Driven Threat Detection'

To be honest, I don't really know. It would be cool, if it actually works. I have no idea that it does, since it doesn't show up in analitics. But I assume it does. If nothing breaks, why not add it?

 

[Kongo]

To be honest, I don't really know. It would be cool, if it actually works. I have no idea that it does, since it doesn't show up in analitics. But I assume it does. If nothing breaks, why not add it?

It does show up in analytics:



It does work, but Threat Intelligence Feeds does a better job at blocking malicious sites.

 

[n8chavez]

It does show up in analytics:

View attachment 264537

It does work, but Threat Intelligence Feeds does a better job at blocking malicious sites.

Odd. I've never seen any entries. I guess I've had that feature activated.

 

[Kongo]

Odd. I've never seen any entries. I guess I've had that feature activated.

NextDNS only shows the blocklists with the most blocks. So if you have 10 active blocklists it will only show the ones with the most blocks in analytics.

 

[n8chavez]

NextDNS only shows the blocklists with the most blocks. So if you have 10 active blocklists it will only show the ones with the most blocks in analytics.

True. But if you look at the blocked entries in the log, and hover over the red "i" you'll see why something was blocked. I've never seen AI block anything. But maybe that's because my filters are blocking it first.