3 ms·
couldn't we just give adblockers an api for filtering network requests, that they could just decide to allow or deny requests? And then give them no other inte
by dgoldstein0 10y ago
couldn't we just give adblockers an api for filtering network requests, that they could just decide to allow or deny requests? And then give them no other internet access?
This seems like an API failure that common jobs for extensions can't be done without scary permissions.
- roblabla 10y agoThe problem is, many adblockers also have a feature to disable certain DOM nodes inside websites, to avoid embedded ads or remove anti-adblockers. So you'd also need an API to filter out certain selectors... And the list of specialized APIs could continue on and on.
- madeofpalk 10y agoApple kind of solved this problem with the Content Blocker API - all of this is defined in a 'static' list which is used by Safari to block certain things.
- DougBTX 10y agoThat's close to the content blocker api in Safari: https://webkit.org/blog/3476/content-blockers-first-look/ https://webkit.org/blog/3476/content-blockers-first-look/
- robryk 10y agoIt could still exfilter information if it could share any state between domains: the evil adblocker is associated with a site that many users visit. The site makes a lot of requests when it's loaded and adblocker exfiltrates information by selectively blocking those requests.
- iancarroll 10y agoChrome has an API for this, IIRC. They still need to connect to the internet to update their rule lists, though.