Blocking Ads in 2023

[Celebrate Nite]

They replaced all the gas pumps with new ones that scream a 24/7 spew of celebrity and trivia bullshit at you and play advertisements while you're trying to fill up your tank.

Lemme guess... Exxon?

BP doesnt do that shit, you can punp in peace.

 

[Puff]

Lemme guess... Exxon?

BP doesnt do that shit, you can punp in peace.

FYI, you're just lucky on location. My BP does.
Also usually one of the screen buttons mutes it.
The true killer app for augmented reality goggles is going to be ad detection and blocking.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

For inbuilt ad blocking you also have Kiwi Browser, which I use. You can install addons on top of it.

I wouldn't trust its implementation of the WebExtensions API though. When investigating the phone battery drain issue with the Sneed Chat iframe, I realized that Kiwi Browser running uBlock Origin was only cosmetically blocking the iframe and the scripts were still running in the background. Pretty big fail and as a result I can only recommend running uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android (or a fork like Mull).

 

[Moths]

You always start off with a nice usable platform for something then years down the line they shove so many fucking advertisements in it its unreadable without an adblocker youve seen this with wikis, netflix fucking messageboards just pay the jew fee goyim

Is it all corporate cope at this point? I have never bought a single thing from an advertisement and fervently wish for the death of the marketing sector every day.

I personally use waterfox with ad nauseum and ublock and it seems to exterminate everything pretty well

 

[Fuck It We'll Do It Live]

I personally use waterfox with ad nauseum and ublock

Why both?; AdNauseam is a fork of uBlock Origin.

 

[Dread First]

You always start off with a nice usable platform for something then years down the line they shove so many fucking advertisements in it its unreadable without an adblocker youve seen this with wikis, netflix fucking messageboards just pay the jew fee goyim

FYI - Breezewiki combined with Libredirect will be your best friend. Go into the settings, and then test the latency to make sure what instances are good vs what aren't. Also, make sure you disable all offline instances otherwise you're gonna have a bad time.

These are my settings for Libredirect using Breezewiki. Minecraft - Final Fantasy - Megami Tensei, take your pick. They all work and they're all a million times better to use than the actual Fandom/Wikia interfaces.

You niggers need to stop complaining about shekel-grubbing advertisers and start doing practical shit about it.

 

[Samuel Hyde]

God I fucking hate advertising. The business strategy of trying to force products into every waking fucking moment of my life is disgusting. They replaced all the gas pumps with new ones that scream a 24/7 spew of celebrity and trivia bullshit at you and play advertisements while you're trying to fill up your tank. I've been tempted to vandalize those fucking speakers everytime I hear that fag scream "CHEDDAR NEEEEWS". And now they're discussing the prospect of beaming advertisements into the fucking smog clouds in the cities. I genuinely fear the day they figure out how to play midroll ads in your dreams. I may actually go postal.

When this happens to me I just poke the buttons on the side of the screen until I find the mute button. I'm sure they don't like that but I don't care. If someone complains I'd just tell them I'm sick of hearing ads

 

[Dread First]

Hi guys. Major Firefox updates, per the latest issue of Firefox Nightly's update blog. Some choice highlights for people who are curious:

Manifest v3 will be made live by Firefox version 109. It has been live in the Nightly since 21 November. Katherin Patenio (author) of the Nightly blog post was quick to also remind everyone that Manifest V3's implementation in Firefox will still retain support for blocking WebRequest.

I don't mean to keep shilling Firefox because I know that the Mozilla Foundation is (rightfully) distrusted due to their decade-long descent into mediocrity. I'm even guilty of doomposting about Mozilla's "collapse" due to them laying off 250 members of their staff (including the opsec and Servo teams) back in 2020. But honestly? I feel like now's as good a time as any to give the igneous vulpine another chance. For the few outliers who still cling to Brave, let me just point something out:

Spoiler: autistic rant about Mozilla and Brave

Brave and Firefox are two equally amazing browsers who are stewarded by "foundations" that self-inflict unnecessary reputational damage to their products. Let's not forget that Brendan Eich is a former disgraced Mozilla executive. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, Brave is parallel to Mozilla in many ways.

In Mozilla's case, they've been wasting money on Firefox VR, Firefox OS, Servo, and God knows how many other projects to the point where they backed themselves into a corner with the Google deal. Not to mention that they've been championing woke shit for years to the point of dismissing federated social media as a web of hate and demanding for more than deplatforming. Honestly, the Mozilla Foundation as a whole makes my skin crawl and I genuinely do not fault people for disliking the whole company and not wanting anything to do with them.

In Brave's case, they had a really strong start when they first launched. The default presets on every Brave install were sane, no intrusive marketing (yet), you get the idea. Why did I stop singing praises after only 4-6 months of using the browser? One simple thing: their marketing department is fucking awful. I'm not talking about BAT, either; I actually really like the concept of BAT and it's the reason why I still use Brave as my preferred Chromium browser from time to time. What I'm talking about is their corporate marketing. Let's take a look at the Brave Foundation's company blog as a good starting point.

Spoiler: how many crypto updates are there compared to meaningful browser updates?

I don't give a shit what people think about crypto, I'm generally apathetic to it. I don't care about D-Apps, I don't care about De-Fi, I don't care about NFTs, I don't give a shit about Brave Wallet, or any of that other shit. All I want is a simple, unobtrusive web browser that doesn't shill and ping a million things to and about me at once. The privacy benchmarks for Brave are demonstrably superior to Firefox's on a default install (though broadly equivalent with LibreWolf or a hardened profile). Brave can easily kick Firefox's ass on a default installation without requiring any further extensions on the user's part, yet it's this obnoxious crypto integration that's being relentlessly shilled by the Brave Foundation that immediately kills any good will I can give the browser.

The thing is, I can't even give Brave a pass for not including some forced integration with a Read-It-Later service like Pocket. Why? Because Brave News is a thing, which does all the same shit that I dislike about Pocket... but with an added crypto flair to it all. Speaking of which: the ads I get from BAT are almost overwhelmingly crypto-based. Most of the time, it's for hardware wallets or crypto exchanges like Coinbase and Binance. I'm assuming this is because I'm an autistic madman who runs CookieAutoDelete and NoScript which prevents their "private" ad mechanisms from giving me more worthwhile results.

If I'm stuck between the woke retards and the crypto bros, I'd invariably prefer the woke retards because at least I can trust my settings to remain consistent. I can't tell you how many times I've seen Brave News pop back up again or a "card" for Binance/FTX/Gemini pop back up when I didn't want it to. Your mileage may vary, obviously. But this is the analysis provided by an autistic retard with too much time on his hands.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

Remember kids: watching internet content without ads is STEALING INTERNET.

This is really bad and you should moderate your internet browsing with ads! Ads are good! Corporations are your friends!

 

[Fuck It We'll Do It Live]

@Dread First, once again I am unable to directly reply to one of your posts, so I'll have to manually tag you.

Brave and Firefox are two equally amazing browsers who are stewarded by "foundations"

Brave Software, Inc. is a taxable for-profit corporation that receives millions from private investors; Firefox is run by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, but it owns the taxable Mozilla Organization subsidiary.

Brave comes off as the more profit-orientated of the two, and while BAT is certainly almost entirely funded by crypto-based ads (I too run privacy-respecting extensions, so maybe I am also prone to such ads), ultimately Brave isn't the one that needs to bend the knee to Google. In the worst case scenario, I could see Brave forking off from Chromium if it meant avoiding implenting Manifest V3, but Firefox hasn't really shown a proper business model besides relying on broke-woke donations (and the odd corpo donation that is ENTIRELY in respect to PROMOTING (and not stealing from) OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE, I am sure) and Google, that only ensures the current duopoly on browsers will still slowly but surely become a monopoly. This is the main reason I like Pale Moon; at least it's independent of this ghastly state of affairs.

I only honestly don't even remember the exact ads I get from Brave (unless I clumsly click on one instead of dismissing it); I just get them in the background in both desktop and mobile. The only problem is that my Brave bennies would be way more valuable even just a year ago, when the crypto bubble was at its height.

 

[Dread First]

@Dread First, once again I am unable to directly reply to one of your posts, so I'll have to manually tag you.

Brave Software, Inc. is a taxable for-profit corporation that receives millions from private investors; Firefox is run by the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, but it owns the taxable Mozilla Organization subsidiary.

It would seem there was some restructuring on Brave's end. The "Brave Foundation" is what I specifically recall the name to be, though it might just be a similar play out of the Mozilla handbook.

 

[Fuck It We'll Do It Live]

It would seem there was some restructuring on Brave's end. The "Brave Foundation" is what I specifically recall the name to be, though it might just be a similar play out of the Mozilla handbook.

The only sources I could find that describe Brave's owner as the "Brave Foundation" are third-party ones, like the source you gave. Otherwise, the only "Brave Foundation" I could found online was an Australian based one that deals with "Teenage Pregnancy and Parenthood". Brave and Brendan Eich always hype their software as that coming from a profitable company that wishes (and does) attract private investors; I don't think "Foundation" would have been a good word from them to use. BAT (not Brave; it's just a out-of-the-box Ungoogled Chromium release with some neat privacy-respecting tweaks thrown in) is ultimately a business and to be honest I would rather trust a business that actually turns a buck, rather than a non-profit that wants its users to bend the knee to whatever worthy social cause they have on their minds (and not because I'm particularly anti-woke, but I know anyone who wastes their time on that shit and ISN'T cynically doing it for good PR but are true believers will be too distracted from working on something that requires 24/7 attention like a major web browser).

Also, crypto appears so far to not care for politics in general and its libertarian leanings is a way to avoid getting cucked when it comes to getting advertising revenue from it.

 

[supermonkeylove]

For Firefox, just keep in mind that some tweaks may break some web pages, and you'll have to figure out what to undo. In which case, you're probably better off just tweaking some settings in aboutonfig and write down what you changed (you can also filter the list and show only modified settings), set ETP to custom and block third-party cookies, add uBlock Origin in default mode, add Multi-Account Containers if you have more than one account for some sites and to continue anti-tracking even if ETP has to be turned off (e.g., for some sites, things like embedded tweets won't show up), and add SponsorBlock for YT ads.

From there, you'll have to turn off ETP for some sites if breakage takes place, then slowly tweak uBO by activating more lists to see if various annoyances in sites disappear.

 

[Dread First]

Hi. Resident Firefox sperg here to kindly correct you. To be absolutely fair here, I thought similar things but it wasn't until very recently that I actually came to understand just how far Firefox has come. Getting accurate information on Firefox's privacy/security/tracking prevention measures is such a pain in the ass because a lot of official the official Firefox documentation for users is outdated. Then again... there have been rapid changes in the codebase that have resulted in a lot of past conventional wisdom becoming obsolete.

I don't wanna be pretentious here or keep shitting up the thread with more Firefox stuff. But I still want to provide this type of information to anyone who cares enough to Google these things.

For Firefox, just keep in mind that some tweaks may break some web pages, and you'll have to figure out what to undo.

This is still absolutely, 100% true but I would like to point out that this is not as true as it was in years past. The original methods involved isolation of all first-party cookies, combined with blocking all third party cookies. This led to tons of site breakage and compatibility issues for obvious reasons. Nowadays, there's a more elegant solution.

Mozilla's current implementation of "Total Cookie Protection" now refers to something called "State Partitioning" (also known as "dynamic first party isolation"). In a nutshell, all of the relevant web APIs are now partitioned, and will only make exceptions for third party cookies required for logins and stuff like that. The odd breakage does occur here and there, but the number of breakages seems to be trending heavily downward. The standard privacy.firstparty.isolate flag blocks all third party cookies by default, so it's no longer recommended since Strict ETP's network state partitioning does a better job at accomplishing the same thing while breaking far less in the process.

In which case, you're probably better off just tweaking some settings in aboutonfig and write down what you changed (you can also filter the list and show only modified settings), set ETP to custom and block third-party cookies, add uBlock Origin in default mode, add Multi-Account Containers if you have more than one account for some sites and to continue anti-tracking even if ETP has to be turned off (e.g., for some sites, things like embedded tweets won't show up), and add SponsorBlock for YT ads.

1) It's not a good idea to freely modify individual aboutonfig flags these days due to the propensity for human error. There are automated tools that you can use to speed up the process and apply the correct presets you desire every time. If you must toggle individual flags because you don't want to create a whole custom profile, here are the most important ones of note:

privacy.resistfingerprinting being set to "true" is only worth it if you disable WebGL and toggle privacy.resistFingerprinting.letterboxing (a hidden Firefox flag that the Tor Project uses to set your browser's internal resolution to 1600x900) to "true" as well. p.RFP also messes with a lot of other settings, so it's not necessarily desirable. The trusty CanvasBlocker extension still does the job adequately without all the additional stuff that p.RFP brings to the table. With that in mind, p.RFP is still worth running over CanvasBlocker if you're an autistic madman like me who can put up with its quirks.

privacy.firstparty.isolation is no longer a setting you'll want to mess with. Strict ETP settings will take care of the job for you and break far less in the process.

2) uBlock Origin's default mode is more than adequate, though I wouldn't go too heavy on the filter lists. Nowadays, all you really need are the uBlock Origin defaults, plus the AdGuard URL Tracking Filter List enabled, and importing the ClearURLS and I Don't Care About Cookies lists does the job well enough.

3) Multi-Account Containers (and Temporary Containers by extension)' privacy benefits have diminished significantly with the advent of state partitioning/dynamic first party isolation. If you have an explicit need for accessing multiple accounts in the same browser window, MAC is still worth using in that respect. However, using MAC to contain problematic services like Google, Microsoft, and Facebook doesn't yield the same return as it once did. It's still nice for organising your accounts and making sure that they're segregated from your other browsing activity, but again: Strict ETP got buffed... a lot.

From there, you'll have to turn off ETP for some sites if breakage takes place, then slowly tweak uBO by activating more lists to see if various annoyances in sites disappear.

Again, don't disagree here whatsoever. I'd like to point out that focusing on filter lists is less effective than utilising uBlock Origin to block all remote fonts and third party scripts/frames globally, and then toggling them on an as-needed basis with Medium Mode.

 

[TheHarbinger]

Remember kids: watching internet content without ads is STEALING INTERNET.

This is really bad and you should moderate your internet browsing with ads! Ads are good! Corporations are your friends!

The advertising industry basically controls every surface that they possibly can. Grocery store aisles are filled with ads. Billboards are literally everywhere. The internet without adblock of some type is basically majority advertisements. Sponsorships and paid shilling are hidden forms of advertisement. Movies and TV shows have product placement. Every sports stadium is plastered with advertisements. Ad free streaming plans actually are filled with ads for more content at the start of each show. Smart TVs have an ad filled homepage.

Advertising used to be a regulated industry in America. Lawyers, doctors, pharmaceuticals, etc. were not allowed to advertise. Now pretty much everything can be advertised everywhere nonstop. You get vaping ads followed by online gambling ads and then COVID vaccine ads pretty much everywhere in America. You go to the waiting room at any business and they are blasting ads. Movie theaters play ads.

I am waiting for the day where adblocking on the internet is declared illegal.

 

[Gender: Xenomorph]

The advertising industry basically controls every surface that they possibly can. Grocery store aisles are filled with ads. Billboards are literally everywhere. The internet without adblock of some type is basically majority advertisements. Sponsorships and paid shilling are hidden forms of advertisement. Movies and TV shows have product placement. Every sports stadium is plastered with advertisements. Ad free streaming plans actually are filled with ads for more content at the start of each show. Smart TVs have an ad filled homepage.

Advertising used to be a regulated industry in America. Lawyers, doctors, pharmaceuticals, etc. were not allowed to advertise. Now pretty much everything can be advertised everywhere nonstop. You get vaping ads followed by online gambling ads and then COVID vaccine ads pretty much everywhere in America. You go to the waiting room at any business and they are blasting ads. Movie theaters play ads.

I am waiting for the day where adblocking on the internet is declared illegal.

Reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Marge overcomes ads on TV with the VHS recorder, then sees an "skipping ads is stealing TV" so she sits and marathons all the skipped ads.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

For Firefox, I've found that disabling JavaScript in about:config through the javascript.enabled flag to be a simple way to remove most of this nonsense with the least amount of effort. I trust not NoScript to block this properly. Recall years back when all Firefox addons were disabled due to certificate nonsense.

There are a few websites that still run advertisements as simple images, and those will still be seen, but even I care not to put in extra effort just to eliminate those from my view. At least a website that runs such advertisements generally handpicks them for relevancy. All unprovoked advertisements are bad, but it's a lot of effort to rid oneself of this tail end compared to toggling a flag.

 

[supermonkeylove]

Go to a forum with embedded tweets. Set ETP to strict, and they won't show up.

Go to GRC cookie forensics, and the browser will fail the test. Set ETP to custom and block third-party cookies and it'll pass.

Automated tools are pointless because it'll only take you a few minutes to make changes in configurations and aboutonfig. I tried LibreWolf, Arkenfox, etc., and they broke some sites.

uBlock Origin or Adguard in default mode is not more than adequate because some annoyances in sites will still show up. You have to block them manually.

Multi-Account Containers are helpful if you have several accounts for various sites or if you have to turn off ETP for reasons given earlier.

 

[Dread First]

Go to a forum with embedded tweets. Set ETP to strict, and they won't show up.

Funnily enough, embedded tweets have been broken for me for a long time. However, that's because I route all my Twitter needs through Nitter via LibRedirect and the Nitter embeds just never work at all. I'll take your word for it on that one.

Go to GRC cookie forensics, and the browser will fail the test. Set ETP to custom and block third-party cookies and it'll pass.

This one is a bit contentious for me, because I feel like Strict ETP will always fail this type of test no matter what. The test specifically checks for whether all third party cookies are disabled in the browser. Strict ETP now makes use of Network Partitioning which goes beyond the scope of cookies itself. Network Partitioning itself is an implementation of Client-side Storage Partitioning, a standard being developed by the W3C's Privacy Community Group.

At a TLDR level, Network Partitioning separates caches and storage mechanisms for things like fonts, cookies, images, CSS, among other such things. Exceptions, however, must be made for certain cross-site cookies for functions such as login, authentication, and the like. Official Mozilla user documentation does acknowledge that Strict ETP doesn't block all third party cookies. That's why the setting for third party cookies is still enabled, and that's why it fails the test.

It must be noted that Network Partitioning can be broken by persistent cookies depending on what kind of exceptions are made. Depending on how severe your paranoia meter is reading, blocking all third party cookies may be preferable. In my case, Strict ETP seems like a more elegant solution so that's what I'm sticking with.

Automated tools are pointless because it'll only take you a few minutes to make changes in configurations and aboutonfig. I tried LibreWolf, Arkenfox, etc., and they broke some sites.

I feel like you're being a bit dismissive here. I've sperged a lot about LibreWolf in past threads, so I won't comment about it here. As for Arkenfox, I don't wanna sound like an elitist, but that's the kind of outlook people have if they don't actually read the fine manual from start to finish. Arkenfox, by design, will break things. The onus is on the user to create a user-overrides.js file with the specific modifications they want, and then execute the updater/prefsCleaner scripts to commit the changes. No one is expected to run Arkenfox on default settings, and it's highly discouraged.

It sounds autistic as hell, and to be fair, it is. BUT the scripts are foolproof to a certain degree. Your user.js is backed up, as are your prefs.js, making it easy to roll back undesirable changes. Similarly, the syntax for user overrides is quite easy to get the hang of (if you're autistic like I am and actually like mucking about with text files). It's not even that complicated to get started.

user_pref("$EXACT_firefox_about:config_setting_goes_here", $value_like_true_or_false_or_1_or_2_or_"URL"_or_whatever);

Now imagine this: you have all your about:config flags arranged all neat and pretty in a little file, an updater script that commits your changes, and a cleanup script that makes sure nothing borks your installation. That's how Arkenfox runs. I have Arkenfox running right now, and I make good use of WebGL, DRM, and URL searching (which are all disabled by default) while still making use of its benefits. To be fair, FFProfile accomplishes a similar effect, but I lean toward Arkenfox because the updater/cleanup scripts really make troubleshooting that much easier for me. Again, your mileage may vary so maybe I am being an autistic fuck here.

uBlock Origin or Adguard in default mode is not more than adequate because some annoyances in sites will still show up. You have to block them manually.

My mind completely blanked there. I meant to say "uBlock Origin in default mode with NoScript doing the rest." That's been my configuration for a little while (i.e. the last 30-45 days). Sorry about that

Multi-Account Containers are helpful if you have several accounts for various sites or if you have to turn off ETP for reasons given earlier.

No disagreements there.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole 2]

The true killer app for augmented reality goggles is going to be ad detection and blocking.

The true killer app on the corporate side will be shooting context sensitive ads into your eyeballs without having to pay for billboards or screens.

It's six years old but it really feels like this is where we are going.