23 ms·
Tell HN: Check medium's localstorage if you use adblock
If you have uBlock or similar, it appears medium logs all analytics pings into HTML5 LocalStorage and will keep retrying to send them (and apparently periodically change domains and subdomains to try and send them).
I had tens of thousands of entries in localStorage, wasting quite a bit of space, all of them at least 400-600 characters or more. Each time I scrolled it'd add a few dozen more in, to the point where devtools was freezing. Ridiculous.
Example: https://i.imgur.com/M4E3kqg.png https://i.imgur.com/M4E3kqg.png
- JakeStone 6y agoSometime over a year ago, I finally got tired of medium's shenanigans, so I threw together a Q&D TemperMonkey script to just remove the temptation. It's nothing complex, just looks for links to medium.com and removes them from the page. https://gist.github.com/RichardVasquez/5d46ffe01053162562a7951a6a3f3c02 https://gist.github.com/RichardVasquez/5d46ffe01053162562a79...
- dvaun 6y agoInteresting. Something like this can be mitigated by blocking localstorage access or using container-like solutions such as Firefox containers[0][1]. A nice project to work on would be to write a Chrome and Firefox extension that could watch, notify, and store localstorage and other tool usage on a per-site basis with an admin panel for whitelisting or blacklisting sites, similar to how uBlock functions. Personally I run a few extensions that attempt to block or obfuscate fingerprinting attempts by sites inspecting system fonts, canvas rendering, etc. Some sites break altogether with these extensions. [0]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/multi-account... [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con...
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- quirkot 6y agoI use "Quick Javascript Switcher" on Chrome and it's amazing. Turning off javascript on certain sites improves usability by a ton.
- abafazi 6y agoI don't know why you would use an extension for this since the behaviour is already built-in to chrome. Click the padlock next to the url -> site settings -> javascript off
- edude03 6y agoThanks for the heads up. I looked at mine and it seems like the major of the events in localstorage are getting sent successfully as my adblocker isn't blocking the medium activity or batch API calls, however the lightstep events are blocked and stuck in my localstorage. As an aside, I'm appalled they'd do this as I'm a paying customer of their service, but as an engineer I have to respect the work & ingenuity that went into this solution.
- arthurcolle 6y agoIt's not exactly that hard to imagine. I've thought about a solution like this for 2 separate products across 2 different companies, and it was separately rejected for ethics concerns both times. You'd be surprised what company decided to reject it in the first case. This is an abuse of web APIs to achieve targeted data monitoring of users and probably a severe violation of GDPR. Any European residents want to confirm this is happening with them?
- vikbytes 6y agoCan confirm that this is the case for me as well. (EU resident.)
- arthurcolle 6y agoHave you considered filing a GDPR complaint? I would really encourage you to do so. I found this: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/reform/rights-citizens/redress/what-should-i-do-if-i-think-my-personal-data-protection-rights-havent-been-respected_en https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/refo... You should use the Euro judicial framework to get resolution for this 100%. Americans like to complain about European legislation but this is a perfect example of government powers done right! (I'm a dual American/French citizen living in the US).
- msadowski 6y agoI've just spend good 15 minutes on it and in case of France it seems far from trivial. It doesn't look like it's a matter of sending a single e-mail.
- errantspark 6y agoMedium is so chock full of anti-features this doesn't surprise me at all. I often find myself hunting for an archive link to read some article because I'm past my free article limit. It's absurd that I have to sign up for Medium to read some random blogger's article. I miss the days where it felt like software was trying to make my life easier, nowadays my experience is mostly characterized by a constant struggle to avoid being taken advantage of.
- lazyload 6y agofwiw opening the article in an incognito tab usually does the trick to get past the article limits. That said, you're right on the money about how badly it sometimes seems that medium doesn't want me to ever use their service
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- an_opabinia 6y agoWouldn’t you agree that it’s really valuable to know if people actually read the article, how far and which parts?
- austinheap 6y agoNo.
- flemhans 6y agoAre you kidding? No of course not. You as a reader would rather prefer that the publisher doesn’t spy on you. Would you feel comfortable reading a newspaper whilst the editor looked over your shoulder all the time ? You might want to do that as a paid testing panel but not voluntarily. If you wrote an article, and you’re mediocre or spammy, of course you’d get off on such metrics to please yourself, to get validation. Good writers would not care as much.
- hkai 6y ago
- re 6y agoI use this extension for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-containers/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/temporary-con... medium.com is one of the domains that I have set to always open in a temporary container.
- inetknght 6y agoThe idea that a website can store things locally on my machine -- especially without my knowledge or permission -- is !@#$ing absurd. The idea that a different website can then access that data is beyond infuriating.
- wmichelin 6y agoHey, have you ever heard of cookies?
- toastal 6y agoYeah, I'd be pretty mad if I had to log into a website every time I opened it or be blinded by a white screen at night when I toggled the dark theme last time I visited. There's so many good uses for storage to make things behave as one would expect. And it'd be a lot of friction to have permission dialogs for things as basic as cookies or localStorage.
- laumars 6y agoI agree cookies have proven to be a largely pro-user feature over time but do you remember the backlash from techies and reporters alike when browsers first started implementing cookies back in the 90s?
- inetknght 6y agoYup. Cookies are neat little chunks of things that a website puts on my computer that I then transmit back to it. What is localstorage? Localstorage isn't little nor is it necessarily transmitted back.
- potamic 6y agoDoesn't that come under the browser sandbox? Cross domain access shouldn't be possible.
- llarsson 6y agoMedium is much better without JavaScript. No article view limits, no creepy showing you your Google account and asking you to log in, nothing. And of course, no messing with your LocalStorage. It does remove some images, but ok mobile, that is almost a feature in itself.
- sxp 6y agoIn Chrome, you can do this with chrome://settings/content/javascript which lets you blacklist JS on certain domains.
- foepys 6y agouBlock Origin can also disable JavaScript on domains. I discovered this recently and were pleasantly surprised that this was added.
- d3nj4l 6y agoYou can even disable javascript by default on uBlock, a la uMatrix. I've turned it on on my lower-performance MacBook Air, and it's made web browsing so much more pleasant.
- CincinnatiMan 6y agoGive uMatrix a try if you want to get even more granular.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoI wish Safari would let you do this.
- dawnerd 6y agoGoogles one tap is sooooo creepy. I have it blocked in ub origin. I’m always afraid of accidentally logging in - probably something they hope for.
- gomox 6y ago
- Santosh83 6y agoHow do I check LocalStorage in Firefox? I assume it is the 'Manage Data' button under 'Cookies and Site Data' section of the 'Privacy & Security' tab under settings?
- dylz 6y agoPress F12 on medium, Storage tab, left side.
- sxp 6y agoYou can use localStorage.clear() in the dev console to clear this info and chrome://settings/content/javascript to blacklist JS on a domain in Chrome.
- Meph504 6y agoI am honestly baffled at why anyone uses medium, I just flatly refuse. Their stance on binding arbitration, and that in any disturbed claims that I agree to pay for the legal defense but give them total control over the defense. These terms are growing ever more common, and I certainly use services with similar terms. But I mean this is a fucking blog site, it take very little time and effort to throw up a WordPress site. their demands for this service, far out way its value, at least to me anyway. I think people have gotten far too dependent on sell your soul for bread crumb services.
- tudorconstantin 6y agoIt's probably because of the good SEO the articles written there get: I published a project on GitHub, then an article on my personal blog about it (with a back link from the repo itself), then an intro article on medium with a link to repo and a "read more" toward my blog post. Then I submitted the GH repo and/or my blog post to some reddit threads. Now, guess what: when googling for _the knests stack_ in the first few weeks, the top result was the preview article from medium. Even now, it's the second result, showing up above reddit or my blog post.
- tonyedgecombe 6y agoIf you hadn't posted the preview on Medium it wouldn't get any SEO. Your problem is of your own making.
- giantrobot 6y agoA link's position in a Google search is basically a worthless measure anymore. Every Google user ends up microtargeted such that the ordering of results or even which results are displayed is rarely consistent.
- quickthrower2 6y agoUse Google Search Console and the data there is far from worthless. Average position, impressions and clicks for all the keywords visiting your site.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y agoHere is one way to clear localStorage without using Javacript, Add-Ons or Extensions: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Clear-Site-Data https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Cl... This response header can be added with a localhost-bound proxy server like, e.g., haproxy: http-response add-header Clear-Site-Data * Of course, the simplest solution is to just turn off JS before visiting medium; that should prevent any use of localStorage. I have never needed JS to read medium; it's just text. Text-only browser like links works fine.
- aembleton 6y agoOr, just block it, as you're using Firefox: 1. Open about:preferences 2. Go to Privacy & Security 3. Under Cookies and Site Data, click on 'Manage Exceptions' 4. Enter medium.com, click Block and then Save Changes.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 6y agoIs there a way to disable Site Data globally for all sites? By using a proxy, I disable Site Data for all sites and if I need it for a specific site I can add an exception. It seems like Firefox, Chrome and probably others take the opposite approach. The default policy with these browsers is to enable Site Data globally for all sites. "Manage Exceptions" appears to refer to manual changes for every individual site that are required to deviate from this default "Go ahead and collect, store and track" policy.
- kofejnik 6y agoWhile we're at it, just noticed that weather.com had 114 Mb stored, wtf?
- giantrobot 6y agoMust have been cloud data.
- toastal 6y agoMore people need to be publishing on federated platforms like WriteFreely and Plumo so we don't have this sort of lock-in and readers can use existing fediverse accounts to comment and boost without signing up for and into these sorts of services.
- toastal 6y agoPlume
- est 6y agoIs there a way to disable WebGL, WebRTC and localStorage on browsers for good?
- ev1 6y agoFirefox lets you turn off all 3 independently. This breaks some sites that demand device fingerprinting, though.
- dependenttypes 6y agoI wonder if there is any api that allows you to disable them per site (similar to how umatrix/ublock origin can block cookies/js per site)
- pragmaticpirate 6y agoDespite the shortcomings medium continues to be one of the top domains posted on hn https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=medium.com https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=medium.com
- type0 6y agosubmitted, yes, but as time goes on it signals more and more the poor quality of those articles. Anecdotally it feels mediums articles are up-voted less now then they were in the beginning, if anyone has stats on it I would be happy to see if that's true.
- kohtatsu 6y agoThe people who write this code need to fucking smarten up. If you're being blocked don't try to circumvent it. Minute scroll and mouse movement data is biometric data.
- znpy 6y agoMedium is trash.
- ComodoHacker 6y agoI'm using Cookie AutoDelete extension (along with uBO) on Firefox, which also deletes LocalStorage. Just have checked up, I have only 5 cookies for medium.com and no LocalStorage.
- rusl1 6y agoOn Android I use this app to bypass the paywall https://github.com/a-chris/medium-no-thanks https://github.com/a-chris/medium-no-thanks
- sascha_sl 6y agoIt doesn't seem to do that for me, it instead just uses these two endpoints instead of the "report" endpoint to send the same data. https://medium.com/_/api/activity https://medium.com/_/api/activity https://medium.com/_/batch https://medium.com/_/batch These aren't blocked on the default uBlock Origin setup it seems, and the batch endpoint seems like a possibly bad idea to block. After blocking them, the behavior of filling up local storage can be seen.
- brainlessdev 6y agoI've created an extension to block links to domains you dislike, I've got mine set up to block Medium links. https://github.com/fnune/nay https://github.com/fnune/nay
- aembleton 6y agoCan't you just do this with uBlock Origin? Something like ##a[href*="medium.com"]
- brainlessdev 6y agoMaybe! My extension offers a different set of features. It shows an angry emoji next to the blocked links, and lets you click on them. When you click on them, you're prompted to confirm that you want to follow the link, alongside a reminder of why you blocked the domain.
- aembleton 6y agoIn Firefox, you can prevent it from using site data and cookies. This also has the advantage of reseting the count of the number of articles that you can read when you close the tab. 1. Open about:preferences 2. Go to Privacy & Security 3. Under Cookies and Site Data, click on 'Manage Exceptions' 4. Enter medium.com, click Block and then Save Changes.
- alkonaut 6y agoCouldn’t browsers ask before using local storage? Then I can approve it for sites where I believe it would make a positive difference (Once/Always/Never), and with an option to clear when the browser is closed. Bonus points if I can preview what’s being stored.
- lucgommans 6y agoThere are many legitimate uses for localStorage, e.g. see the API key field at https://beanstack.io https://beanstack.io (disclosure: a site I helped build): it will remember the value for you if you enter a value and hit submit. If you then, upon clicking submit, had to click through a browser pop-up asking if you want to let the website store data in your browser, that would feel like we're indeed tracking you when really what we're doing is trying to make your life easier without doing tracking. We could have used a cookie, but why should we if we can use localStorage which is privately yours and not sent to the server with every request? Adding a warning upon localStorage would be like adding a warning upon setting cookies. The banners that websites add for setting non-essential cookies are annoying enough already without having to click past browser permission screens for essential cookies as well. Also note that privacy laws or "cookie laws" don't ever mention the word cookie. If you are being tracked using localStorage, canvas fingerprinting, ETags, etc., they have to disclose the tracking. Not the method, I think, but what data they are collecting, for what purpose, with which retention period, and what their legal basis is (e.g. "we collect your address on the basis of fulfilling the contract to ship your package" or "we track you on the basis of consent"). LocalStorage is not something to be more or less afraid of than cookies, etags, etc.; the browser doesn't ask for those either, and I personally think that's better.
- stabbles 6y agoSomeone should write a fake event generator that clutters their analytics
- AndriyKunitsyn 6y agoI had an idea for an article, didn’t really care about where to put it and I decided to give Medium a shot. I didn’t know it would be that bad. There’s no way to turn off auto-formatting in Medium editor. No way at all - support confirmed it. Dashes, quote marks and ellipses in your article will be placed only in a way Medium wants them to be. So, for example, if you decide to write in a language other than English and want to surround your dashes with spaces — like this — according to traditions of this language, there’s no way to do it in Medium editor. Even if you try to do something smart with clipboard, your efforts will be overwritten on save. This is a clear example of a software that tries to be smarter than its user and fails.
- newscracker 6y agoI've never relied on uBlock Origin alone to block trackers and ads. I always clear cookies (and local*storage) using Cookie AutoDelete. [1] You can configure this extension to clear cookies as well as local storage a specific duration after closing a tab or clear them all manually. You can also select specific sites whose cookies should not be cleared. I also use tracker blockers like Privacy Badger. [2] That said, I avoid visiting Medium links as much as I can. The whole experience is user hostile in many ways. [1]: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autodelete/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/cookie-autode... [2]: https://privacybadger.org https://privacybadger.org
- bambax 6y agoIf you disable JavaScript for Medium, it's fine. You still have access to the article in my experience.
- red_admiral 6y agoMS Edge/Win10, Europe, "do not track", cookies from medium.com blocked and uBlock origin - doesn't seem to be happending on my system but of course that doesn't mean anything if it's geo-targeted. Also gets rid of the paywall, for now.
- nottorp 6y agoWith the default settings on firefox (with the built in tracking protection on) plus ublock origin, I have nothing in local storage from Medium. I do have 6 cookies from medium.com and 2 from elemental.medium.com. Not a heavy Medium reader though, I just click when something interesting shows up on HN. www.bbc.com is my highest user of local storage, with 24 Mb.
- toyg 6y agoI had half that. My worst offenders was transferwise (60mb). Apart from that and a couple of technical websites that I thought were justified, most others were under 30mb. It's still a lot of stuff to store though. And to think that we used to be limited to a couple of cookies...
- benologist 6y agoThis is why NoScript is complementary to uBlock.
- gorhill 6y agoYou can block JavaScript with uBO[1], with the added ability vs. NoScript of being able to create rules on a per-site basis.[2] * * * [1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-scripting https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-... [2] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium-mode https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Blocking-mode:-medium...
- svnpenn 6y agoMedium is garbage, and better options are available now, like SubStack. Here is example article: https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/the-brilliance-of-all-gas-no-brakes https://bigtechnology.substack.com/p/the-brilliance-of-all-g...
- sidcool 6y agoHow can I move my blog from Medium to Blogger?
- lynndotpy 6y agoTo check in Chromium: 1. Press F12 to open the Developer Tools 2. Inside the Developer Tools, Click the "Application" tab on the top of the pane. 3. You should see "Local Storage" on the left side of the pane.
- rs23296008n1 6y agoLets face it, localstorage is just cookies with extra space for more chips. Controls around cookies need to apply to localstorage as well. I'd really like to be able to edit cookie lifetimes on a site-by-site basis. Overlap where cookies are reused by multiple sites. Plenty of cookies should be discarded a minute after last use. Others should stay around because they're useful.
- sc00bz 6y agoRelated but you should be doing this regardless. Ctrl+Shift+Del and clear everything since forever ago. I do "Ctrl+Shift+Del, Enter" several times a day and use 2 browsers: stuff I'm logged into and everything else. Sometimes 3 browsers to segment logged in accounts. P.S. If you have Chrome installed (on Windows) set this folder "C:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\SwReporter\" to deny all access for each group and user.