Do I really need an ad / tracking blocker?

[Guest JWW]

I'm interested in some views here and I guess a bit of a poll on what people use for ad and/or tracker blocking, if anything. For myself I'm fed up with working my way through all of the Chrome extensions: Adblock, Adblock+, Adblock clones, Adguard, Ghostery, Disconnect etc etc etc etc. They all slow things down or break sites or both to some degree and I'm left thinking, 'Hey, I'm on AirVPN, this is not my real IP, no-one knows who I am, I clear all cookies and local storage when I close the browser so there are no persistent cookies at all, so....do I really care? Isn't it better to have a fully functional web page without the annoyance of trying to work out why a site doesn't work? If I'm using a site that is really aggravating me I'll just disable javascript on the page and probably solve the problem. I use DuckDuckgo as my only search engine and https sites wherever possible.

 

I'd really welcome your thoughts, so can we have a  'bit of banter' on the subject?

 

Cheers, oh, and 'Happy Christmas'! 

 

 

[Guest]

It's wise to keep in mind that your IP address is not the only means of tracking your online activity. Browser fingerprinting and cross site trackers are pretty ruthless these days. I suggest using Firefox with the following extensions:

 

Adblock Plus (or Edge) with EasyList and EasyPrivacy blocklists

NoScript (block scripts globally and whitelist trusted domains)

Cookie Controller (block cookies globally and whitelist trusted domains)

HTTPS Everywhere

 

Disable all plugins including flash and java.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

NoScript, Disconnect and Self-Destructing Cookies.

Further, all plugins are disabled to close vulnerabilities through Flash, Java and other addons.

[InactiveUser 188]

"this is not my real IP, no-one knows who I am"

I wouldn't be so definitive about that.
As you know, browsers are usually very fingerprintable:
http://panopticlick.eff.org/

Consider this scenario:
- You use AirVPN
- You don't block ads / trackers (but regularly delete cookies)
- You use Facebook/Twitter/Google/ other services that know your identity
- You browse the web

In this case, and as far as my understanding goes, trackers on Facebook etc. would be able to link your fingerprint (no cookies needed for that) to your identity and track your fingerprint around the web.

----

For your "poll", I'll detail my browsing setup. Most of my precautions are aimed at improving security; as a side effect, some of them also help against tracking.

hostsblocks - this tool auto-updates my /etc/hosts file to block most ads / trackers. Very configurable. You mentioned that common  adblockers slow you down - you may want to try this one instead!
http://gaenserich.github.com/hostsblock

Sandboxing via firejail - Firefox does not see any other processes on the system and can't access certain personal directories (my web browser does not need access to my bank receipts, does it?)
The same can be achieved by properly using SELinux but firejail is easier to configure (I know, shame on me).
http://l3net.wordpress.com/projects/firejail/
 

No Flash/Java plugins installed. YouTube still works just fine with HTML5.

 

Firefox addons:

Adblock Edge + Element Hiding Helper
I already block ad/tracker servers via hostsblock, but it's still useful for hiding certain parts of websites that I don't ever want to see.

NoScript
I only enable JavaScript for very few sites, never for 3rd parties.

Self-Destructing Cookies
If a site no longer has any open tabs, delete its cookies.
 
Cookie Monster
I use it to whitelist a few cookies so they won't get auto-deleted. Works great in combination with Self-Destructing Cookies.

HTTPS-Everywhere
Automatically switches from http to https whenever possible.

RefControl
No website needs to know how I got there. Some sites protect against hotlinking - RefControl can be used to send a forged referer to those sites, pointing to the site itself (or actually sending the real referer).

RequestPolicy

All requests to 3rd-party domains get blocked by default. I imagine this would be very annoying for most people, but I don't want any 3rd parties while I'm browsing a 2nd party. Many sites use centralized services or CDNs - you can't use them wihout selectively enabling 3rd parties - that will definitely slow you down your browsing experience, similar to the frustrations of running NoScript.

----

Rant on why I use such a frustrating setup, including NoScript and RequestPolicy:

It's not just about privacy or security. I hate the modern web. I don't ever want to login to sites using some social network. I don't need fancy. I want information. The amazing property of the world wide web used to be the fact that everyone has the power to host their own site. Nowadays, sites flock towards centralized services like Wordpress, Cloudflare, Google.  I want the internet to be decentralized and independent.

Another one of my related pet peaves:
JavaScript should be an addition to, not a replacement for HTML.
If you host a website, you must provide a basic version via pure HTML and if you think it's necessary, go nuts and improve it using JavaScript. Sites that can't even display basic information without the use of (often embedded, 3rd-party) JavaScript (or, even worse, Java/Flash) can go to hell.

 

----

 

Happy Christmas!

[Guest JWW]

Perhaps I should have clarified - I'm running Windows 7 so sadly hostsblock is not appropriate.

[Clodo 176]

hostsblocks - this tool auto-updates my /etc/hosts file to block most ads / trackers. Very configurable. You mentioned that common  adblockers slow you down - you may want to try this one instead!

http://gaenserich.github.com/hostsblock

Interesting project. It seems that they don't have a list of hosts to block, their script mixes third parties lists.

blocklists=(
## HIGHLY RECOMMENDED LISTS
'http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.zip'			# anti-ad and anti-malware list (winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm)
'http://pgl.yoyo.org/as/serverlist.php?hostformat=hosts&mimetype=plaintext' # anti-ad (pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/)
'http://hosts-file.net/download/hosts.zip'		# hpHosts main anti-ad and anti-malware (hosts-file.net/)
'http://www.malwaredomainlist.com/hostslist/hosts.txt'  # anti-malware (www.malwaredomainlist.com/)
'http://hosts-file.net/ad_servers.asp'			# anti-ads-only version of hpHosts main list (hosts-file.net)
## RECOMMENDED LISTS
'http://hosts-file.net/hphosts-partial.asp'		# hpHosts inter-release (hosts-file.net/)
'http://hostsfile.org/Downloads/BadHosts.unx.zip'	# anti-malware (hostsfile.org/hosts.html)
'http://hostsfile.mine.nu/Hosts.zip'			# anti-ad (hostsfile.mine.nu)
'http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts'		# anti-ad and anti-malware (someonewhocares.org/hosts/)
'http://sysctl.org/cameleon/hosts'			# anti-ad (sysctl.org/cameleon/) 
'http://www.ismeh.com/HOSTS'				# anti-ads for mobile devices
## OPTIONAL LISTS
#'http://hosts-file.net/download/yahoo_servers.zip'     # hpHosts for yahoo adservers (hosts-file.net/)
#'http://abp.mozilla-hispano.org/nauscopio/hosts.zip'	# supplemented version of someonewhocares.org list (https://nauscopio.wordpress.com/category/filtrado/)
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/htrc.7z'			# anti-trackers (very large) (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/hpub.7z'			# anti-advertising (very large) (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/hrsk.7z'			# anti-malware (very large) (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/hsex.7z'			# anti-porn (very large) (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/hmis.7z'			# miscellaneous sites to be blocked (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
## LISTS WITH REDIRECTIONS. Enable redirects="1" to enable, and also uncomment
#'http://rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF/hblc.7z'			# redirections for phished sites (rlwpx.free.fr/WPFF)
#'http://www.modyouri.com/adblock_hosts/hosts'		# anti-ad and redirections; contains some badly formatted entries (http://modyouri.com/showthread.php?t=1)
)

[rickjames 106]

Hostblock looks interesting for sure. I wonder if it checks for duplicates?

Its to bad they don't list the output of the compiled list of blocked hosts. I would love a list I could just toss in my hosts file lol. I may have to toss it in a vm and see if it outputs to a hosts friendly file.

@OP
Windows 7 has a host file that works for blocking. However you would need to make the lists or find a list somewhere and manually add it.

@firefox addons
As sheivoko said Adblock Edge is really nice. Its also fairly lightweight.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adblock-edge/

To easily disable javascript js switch is quick about it.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/js-switch/

No script is decent for when javascript needs to be enabled.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/noscript/

Toggle Cookies is a simple button to disable cookies or to enable them with 3rd party cookies disabled.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/toggle-cookies/

Random Agent Spoofer can completely change your browser profile.
Most recent version at git: https://github.com/dillbyrne/random-agent-spoofer/releases/tag/0.9.4.3

The less options version @ firefox:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/random-agent-spoofer/

@sheivoko

If you host a website, you must provide a basic version via pure HTML and if you think it's necessary, go nuts and improve it using JavaScript. Sites that can't even display basic information without the use of (often embedded, 3rd-party) JavaScript (or, even worse, Java/Flash) can go to hell.

This ^ is something I 100% agree with.
Its pure laziness of the developer to not have a functional site with no javascript.
​Even now there's a few sites I visit daily that are completely broken w/o js but the information is still somewhat readable so I keep visiting.
​
​More often than not its due to the person running/building the site just not having a clue and doing 0 browser/os testing, its still just wrong. Unfortunately other than contacting the site owner and telling them the site is utterly broken on browser x there's little we can do.
​
​-we should start a social media movement: #fixyourshit

Then start posting mass links to horridly broken sites lol...
​
​

[InactiveUser 188]

-- accidental double post, sorry

[InactiveUser 188]

Hostblock looks interesting for sure. I wonder if it checks for duplicates?

 

Its to bad they don't list the output of the compiled list of blocked hosts. I would love a list I could just toss in my hosts file lol. I may have to toss it in a vm and see if it outputs to a hosts friendly file.

 

@OP

Windows 7 has a host file that works for blocking. However you would need to make the lists or find a list somewhere and manually add it.

​

 

I have checked my hosts file and it does not have any duplicate lines in it.

(I compared the linecount of "cat /etc/hosts | wc -l" versus "cat /etc/hosts | sort | uniq | wc -l").

 

What do you mean by "they don't list the output of the compiled list of blocked hosts"?

The resulting hosts file already is a "hosts friendly file" - it's plain text!  

 

You can set a custom path for the resulting file in the rc.conf:

 

 

# FINAL HOSTSFILE. The final hosts file that combines together all downloaded
# blocklists. If not using a dns caching daemon like dnsmasq, this should be
# /etc/hosts. Include hosts file entries which you want to maintain in the
# "hostshead" entry, such as your loopback device (e.g. 127.0.0.1 localhosts)
hostsfile="/etc/hosts.block"
#hostsfile="/etc/hosts" # If not using a dns caching daemon
 

 

 

I am not aware of any fundamental differences between the Windows and Linux implementations of the hosts file standard. I would imagine that you could use hostsblock on a Linux box or VM and sync it over to your other Windows/OS X machines. If these machines need to keep some custom entries you might need to append to the existing hosts file, not replace it.

That could be achieved easily by copying the machine-specific lines into a separate file, then using a little script to append hostsblock's synced-over hosts file, save the resulting file as \system32\drivers\etc\hosts (or wherever Windows expects its hosts file to be).

[dom1ab 3]

When we're talking about Add-Ons, CanvasBlocker wouldn't be a bad choice either.

[rickjames 106]

​

 

I have checked my hosts file and it does not have any duplicate lines in it.

(I compared the linecount of "cat /etc/hosts | wc -l" versus "cat /etc/hosts | sort | uniq | wc -l").

 

Nice thanks m8, dupes are often a big issue with lists such as this.
 

 

What do you mean by "they don't list the output of the compiled list of blocked hosts"?
The resulting hosts file already is a "hosts friendly file" - it's plain text! 

 

​I meant on their web site or something.

 

 

 

When we're talking about Add-Ons, CanvasBlocker wouldn't be a bad choice either.

 

Random Agent Spoofer can disables Canvas support as well

[Casper31 73]

"It's not just about privacy or security. I hate the modern web. I don't ever want to login to sites using some social network. I don't need fancy. I want information. The amazing property of the world wide web used to be the fact that everyone has the power to host their own site. Nowadays, sites flock towards centralized services like Wordpress, Cloudflare, Google.  I want the internet to be decentralized and independent."

 

Sheivoko, I am 100% agree with you.

I am going to try out a few tips you gave.

 

Have a nice holiday ,