8 ms·

Ah yes, such a simple solution, just get everyone, everywhere to install adblocking software in their browser of choice. Problem Solved!

by garfij 8y ago

stirfrykitty 8y ago
Actually, as a sysadmin/coder (devops, but I hate the term), I have a moral imperative to protect people on my network. I use the firewall at work to block ads via a subscription list. My next project is to run Pi-hole on a VM with proper specs to get almost everything. Does wonders for bandwidth and a clean corporate network.
blfr 8y ago
Considering this blog comes from the makers of Firefox, they could bundle adblocking software by default.
- dao- 8y ago
  Firefox is going to enable tracking protection by default, which is already risky and would currently make many websites with anti-adblocking measures block Firefox by default. Blocking _all_ ads would surely make content providers revolt against Firefox to the point where its viability as a mainstream Web browser would be at risk.
  - stirfrykitty 8y ago
    Which is where something like the Pi-hole comes in handy. Defense in depth is the only way to go with this stuff. Like most IT people, I use multiple browsers. I want everything blocked with every browser, not just Firefox (my default). Let's say the advertisers and websites do start giving grief to end users who are proactively protective. I have an idea that I believe can be done, but I'm at a loss with my current skill level to achieve it. Quick anecdote: when Flash was a thing, I used to symlink .adobe and .macromedia to /dev/null to let the Flash cookies "think" they were being written to the HDD, while allowing me to view Flash content without worrying about the LSOs tracking me. I wonder if there is a way, if ads/websites figure out how to block adblockers, that would allow the "loading" of ads, but shunt them into /dev/null (or similar bit bucket) making the website think they have been loaded, but not. A man in the middle, as it were. If I could figure out how to begin this, I would undertake it as a project. Hosting this online and allowing others to pass their traffic through it would be ideal. MitM/proxy. Methinks it will eventually come to this if enough people continue to add blocking tools to their tool set. Any ideas?
    - cpeterso 8y ago
      "AdNauseam" is a Firefox add-on that blocks ads but also virtually clicks each blocked ad in the background, polluting trackers' profile of your browsing habits. I haven't used this add-on but some reviews say that its ad blocking doesn't work as expected. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/
      - stirfrykitty 8y ago
        Thank you. Didn't know this existed. I like the idea behind it. Polluting the ad peddlers' database is actually hilarious. It must get expensive to be serving up ads no one is seeing.

Ah yes, such a simple solution, just get everyone, everywhere to install adblocking software in their browser of choice. Problem Solved!

by garfij 8y ago

Ah yes, such a simple solution, just get everyone, everywhere to install adblocking software in their browser of choice. Problem Solved!

stirfrykitty 8y ago

Actually, as a sysadmin/coder (devops, but I hate the term), I have a moral imperative to protect people on my network. I use the firewall at work to block ads via a subscription list. My next project is to run Pi-hole on a VM with proper specs to get almost everything. Does wonders for bandwidth and a clean corporate network.

blfr 8y ago

Considering this blog comes from the makers of Firefox, they could bundle adblocking software by default.

dao- 8y ago
Firefox is going to enable tracking protection by default, which is already risky and would currently make many websites with anti-adblocking measures block Firefox by default. Blocking _all_ ads would surely make content providers revolt against Firefox to the point where its viability as a mainstream Web browser would be at risk.
- stirfrykitty 8y ago
  Which is where something like the Pi-hole comes in handy. Defense in depth is the only way to go with this stuff. Like most IT people, I use multiple browsers. I want everything blocked with every browser, not just Firefox (my default). Let's say the advertisers and websites do start giving grief to end users who are proactively protective. I have an idea that I believe can be done, but I'm at a loss with my current skill level to achieve it. Quick anecdote: when Flash was a thing, I used to symlink .adobe and .macromedia to /dev/null to let the Flash cookies "think" they were being written to the HDD, while allowing me to view Flash content without worrying about the LSOs tracking me. I wonder if there is a way, if ads/websites figure out how to block adblockers, that would allow the "loading" of ads, but shunt them into /dev/null (or similar bit bucket) making the website think they have been loaded, but not. A man in the middle, as it were. If I could figure out how to begin this, I would undertake it as a project. Hosting this online and allowing others to pass their traffic through it would be ideal. MitM/proxy. Methinks it will eventually come to this if enough people continue to add blocking tools to their tool set. Any ideas?
  - cpeterso 8y ago
    "AdNauseam" is a Firefox add-on that blocks ads but also virtually clicks each blocked ad in the background, polluting trackers' profile of your browsing habits. I haven't used this add-on but some reviews say that its ad blocking doesn't work as expected. https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/adnauseam/
    - stirfrykitty 8y ago
      Thank you. Didn't know this existed. I like the idea behind it. Polluting the ad peddlers' database is actually hilarious. It must get expensive to be serving up ads no one is seeing.