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Those permissions are necessary for any blocker to perform its function. And while the threat models for blockers and vpns are different, I agree that I would t
by infogulch 8y ago
Those permissions are necessary for any blocker to perform its function. And while the threat models for blockers and vpns are different, I agree that I would trust a local blocker [threat: extension hijack via auto-update; mitigation: very public source and update policy] much more than I would trust any third party vpn [threat: their 'no logging' policy is insufficient or they don't honor it; mitigation: 'we promise, mmkay?']
A self-hosted vpn would be better, but has its own problems [threats: you're uniquely identifiable by your vpn ip, you don't update fast enough to avoid security breaches, you don't configure it correctly and expose yourself to additional security breaches]. Given the difficulty of hosting and managing your own vpn infrastructure I couldn't recommend it for almost anyone.
- miles 8y ago> Those permissions are necessary for any blocker to perform its function. Not blockers for Safari like Wipr that use Content Blocking Extensions: https://giorgiocalderolla.com/wipr.html https://giorgiocalderolla.com/wipr.html
- infogulch 8y agoContent Blocking Extensions are pretty neat from a privacy perspective, but they're quite limited in functionality since they're basically glorified block lists (why you'd pay $2 for a list that's freely published is another question) and it requires support from the platform. uBlock supports a lot of features that CBE apps can't.
- ianai 8y agoEspecially when you can block many things on a local router.
- syoc 8y agouBlock origin has a lot of features beyond being a simple ad domain blacklist. You can remove elements from websites at wish. It can spoof information about which fonts you have installed to websites, block WebRTC and more. A pure ad blocker with a smaller feature scope will require fewer permissions. While I have not read the source code my self I have a hard time believing that uBlock origin is not limited to the lowest amount possible of required permissions to do the job it does.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]