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As someone whose elderly parents run Windows and have never run 'any executable that any website tells them to download', and I myself have not seen a website t
by koyote 6y ago
As someone whose elderly parents run Windows and have never run 'any executable that any website tells them to download', and I myself have not seen a website that gives me a random executable in over a decade:
Out of curiosity, how often do your parents encounter the dialog in the article?
- cuddlybacon 6y agoI don't know how often they see it. But in the Windows days every time I'd visit, they'd say there computer was "fucked" and had been put away until I could look at it.
- LeanderK 6y agoI really don't know how they end up with this, but my grandparents run windows and regularly have some kind of malicious advertisement installed. It's a not easy to keep their computers clean.
- tech234a 6y agoPerhaps installing an adblocker would help?
- user5994461 6y agoTry using safari on a MacBook. Last time I spent 10 minutes on my wife's laptop, every website was filled with garbage ads saying your Mac is infected with a virus you must download an anti virus quick (#malware). The shadier websites (streaming) sent a dmg executable as soon as they were opened. It's shocking, it's worse than Windows (sad fact: Mac has more malware/adware than Windows since the last 3 years). Of course you can't see that if you're not on Mac or if you have an adblocker. Ads detect the browser and specifically target Safari. Safari removed support for extensions last year, dropping all adblockers, it's wide open to targeting.
- hombre_fatal 6y ago> Safari removed support for extensions last year, dropping all adblockers Safari has ad-blockers. It also has extensions. Just google it.
- danShumway 6y agoSafari's ad-blockers are not really comparable[0] to what's currently possible on Firefox, Chrome, or other Chromium-based browsers. They rely on declarative blocking and/or system-wide interception (ie, you run them as an entirely separate app outside of Safari). The majority of them are not going to be able to handle things like CNAME unmasking or page source rewrites[1]. The declarative blocking API in Safari isn't built to support those kinds of features. [0] https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari/issues/158 https://github.com/el1t/uBlock-Safari/issues/158 [1] The exception to this being maybe AdGuard when you run it system-wide? I vaguely remember reading that it sets itself as a MITM for all of your web traffic at an OS level, which allows it to do page-source rewrites. I could be wrong about that though.
- easton 6y agoAs I understand this is somewhat alleviated in Big Sur as Safari now has support for WebExtension.
- danShumway 6y agoIt's very partial support, but it is a step in the right direction. If they keep going in this direction they could eventually add the webextension request-blocking/modification APIs.
- saagarjha 6y agoNo, that doesn’t support WebRequest.
- JimDabell 6y agoI use Safari on a Mac without an ad blocker as my main browser, and I don’t see anything like what you describe. What kind of websites are you visiting where you get that kind of result? > Safari removed support for extensions last year, dropping all adblockers, it's wide open to targeting. This is not true. There’s a dedicated section in the Mac App Store for Safari extensions, including ad blocking extensions: https://apps.apple.com/gb/story/id1377753262 https://apps.apple.com/gb/story/id1377753262