4 ms·

Does anyone know if ublock origin blocks this kind of stuff? Yet another reason to never disable it. I'm starting to realize it's a lot more than an ad blocker,

Does anyone know if ublock origin blocks this kind of stuff? Yet another reason to never disable it. I'm starting to realize it's a lot more than an ad blocker, but more like a firewall to protect the client against malicious sites with crypto miners, trackers and this stuff...

englehardt 9y ago
Hi, one of the authors here. We discuss this in the last section of the post. uBlock Origin uses lists to determine which requests to block. We tested the two largest, EasyList and EasyPrivacy, and both fail to block scripts from FullStory, Smartlook, and UserReplay.
- pmoriarty 9y ago
  How about NoScript, RequestPolicy, and Privoxy? Were the blocking capabilities of any of these tested by your team?
  - dylz 9y ago
    Assuming it's used correctly ,noscript/requestpolicy should block these as they are 3rd party <script src>s
    - dsr_ 9y ago
      RequestPolicy appears to have been killed by FF57.
- ams6110 9y ago
  I checked the hosts file I normally use (MVPS) and they don't seem to be in there either, unless they serve the scripts from a non-obvious domain. Also fun fact, TurboTax uses SmartLook.
  - maxerickson 9y ago
    That doesn't seem very problematic to me. You are anyway trusting TurboTax with a bunch of sensitive information.
    - ams6110 9y ago
      Yes, but you may not realize that SmartLook is also getting all that information.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- gorhill 9y ago
  I suggest uBO's medium mode, this blocks 3rd-party scripts by default. [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...
  - alinspired 9y ago
    thank you for suggestion in this unexpected place. i wish i knew of this uBO feature before!
JoshMnem 9y ago
Try umatrix.
GrinningFool 9y ago
uMatrix stops everything 3rd party from loading by default, but makes it easy to whitelist as you go. It makes browsing extra work for most sites (it adds the step of having to eduguess what you need to enable for the site to function properly - very, very few do so when third parties are blocked) but I find it's worth it.

englehardt 9y ago

Hi, one of the authors here. We discuss this in the last section of the post. uBlock Origin uses lists to determine which requests to block. We tested the two largest, EasyList and EasyPrivacy, and both fail to block scripts from FullStory, Smartlook, and UserReplay.

pmoriarty 9y ago
How about NoScript, RequestPolicy, and Privoxy? Were the blocking capabilities of any of these tested by your team?
- dylz 9y ago
  Assuming it's used correctly ,noscript/requestpolicy should block these as they are 3rd party <script src>s
  - dsr_ 9y ago
    RequestPolicy appears to have been killed by FF57.
ams6110 9y ago
I checked the hosts file I normally use (MVPS) and they don't seem to be in there either, unless they serve the scripts from a non-obvious domain. Also fun fact, TurboTax uses SmartLook.
- maxerickson 9y ago
  That doesn't seem very problematic to me. You are anyway trusting TurboTax with a bunch of sensitive information.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    Yes, but you may not realize that SmartLook is also getting all that information.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
gorhill 9y ago
I suggest uBO's medium mode, this blocks 3rd-party scripts by default. [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...
- alinspired 9y ago
  thank you for suggestion in this unexpected place. i wish i knew of this uBO feature before!

JoshMnem 9y ago

Try umatrix.

GrinningFool 9y ago

uMatrix stops everything 3rd party from loading by default, but makes it easy to whitelist as you go. It makes browsing extra work for most sites (it adds the step of having to eduguess what you need to enable for the site to function properly - very, very few do so when third parties are blocked) but I find it's worth it.