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Its weird that nobody mentioned Disconnect[1], which is an open source alternative to Ghostery. I've used it in the past, but shifted back to ghostery because i

Its weird that nobody mentioned Disconnect[1], which is an open source alternative to Ghostery. I've used it in the past, but shifted back to ghostery because it was buggy. [1]: https://disconnect.me/ https://disconnect.me/

byoogle 13y ago
I just mentioned Disconnect, but I make Disconnect. :-) You should try the new Disconnect (Disconnect 2) which has a lot more features than Ghostery and is even rated higher by users than Ghostery is. We just launched Safari and Opera versions today (and are also available on Chrome and Firefox).
- rs232 13y ago
  Any plans to accept Bitcoin donations?
  - byoogle 13y ago
    Yeah, I think later this week. (We actually had a Coinbase implementation before we launched, which we decided to pull last minute because we thought there was a little too much Bitcoin and Coinbase uncertainty at the time.)
- Semaphor 13y ago
  And thanks for it! It's blocking is great and the interface is by far the most userfriendly of the bunch :) I switched to it when it was mentioned on HN a few months ago.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
- nly 13y ago
  Please consider accepting payments in Bitcoin! Also, does "Wi-fi security" conflict with HTTPS Everywhere? The features seem to be analogous.
- Nux 13y ago
  Good man! I shall try it ASAP.
- JonnieCache 13y ago
  Hello! Love the tool. Dropped ghostery for it a while ago. One criticism: It's not clear from the popup what the numbers mean. Are they counting scripts loaded, or scripts blocked? The same for the colouring. Are coloured icons blocked, and greyed ones allowed through, or vice-versa? And of course the tickboxes.
  - byoogle 13y ago
    Thanks! Good feedback. The numbers indicate requests (as in HTTP requests) attempted by the tracking companies. Green (or checked) indicates the requests were blocked. Gray (or unchecked) indicates they were allowed. We'll beef up the help doc (https://disconnect.me/d2/help https://disconnect.me/d2/help) to clarify.
    - qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
      Ghostery has the option to block all trackers at once in a big list with 1490 trackers. Disconnect 2 doesn't provide this option, does that mean that all the known trackers are blocked by default? Some pages I visit show 100+ requests but when I enter the add-on it only shows 2 advertising attempts and maybe 1 analytics request. Where do these other hundred requests come from and were they effectively blocked from communicating with its third-party provider? Disconnect 2 basically replaces HTTPS Everywhere, which I find nice.
      - byoogle 13y ago
        We saved you a click. :-) Disconnect blocks (2,000+ tracking sites) by default. The number of requests in the dropdown menu should add up to the number of requests in the toolbar counter (we do group requests by company, which Ghostery doesn't do, so you will see less rows in Disconnect's UI if that's what you mean). Do you have a site where the two aren't equal?
        qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
        The only thing I would like to do is block certain trackers manually. For example "geoplugin.com" is enabled by default in Disconnect while I can block it manually in Ghostery. And I became used to not seeing google +1's and tumblr share buttons etc. Isn't there the possibilty to block them even before I visit a page? Right now I need to disable them via the disconnect UI and the page needs to reload.
- footoverhand 13y ago
  Do you have any plans to support Seamonkey?
- binxbolling 13y ago
  It's weird to me that entering $0 then seemingly still requires my credit card or PayPal.
aw3c2 13y ago
it is not free? edit: Apparently it is free. Your website is incredible confusing and misleading. I read through it, saw the "Pay what you want" bit. Entered 0$ but nothing happened, no new button or something. So I assumed it was not available for free. I also did not see what browsers were supported. I only found out that it works for Firefox on Github. That is also where I saw the GPL. And then I got curious what the "Get Disconnect" button might have done so I returned and clicked. And to my surprise it gave me an extension installation prompt... The UI of the extension is completely opaque to me. What is "secure Wi-Fi"? I am not using Wi-Fi. What means "secure search"? No mouseover tips and https://disconnect.me/d2/help https://disconnect.me/d2/help helps me nothing. I am not even sure what the things are that page talks about. What are the Facebook, Google+ and Twitter counters/buttons for? I am not using those sites and I thought your extension would block their tracking. Why does it reload the current page if I click on those buttons? I loaded a random page. There is a 8 on the DM icon but if I extend the dropdown it just shows 1 Analytics item. In the list that item has a ticked checkmark. Does that mean it is allowed? I do not want that tracker allowed. I thought you blocked automatically? Please consider having a feature stop and work on the UI next. Right now I could not recommend this to my most technically versed friends because I am not understanding it myself.
- BCM43 13y ago
  You're replying to the wrong person.
- alexbel 13y ago
  Agree. I've been using ghostery for couple years. I've installed disconnect and tried to compare with ghostery. Disconnect does not remove counters from the page. At least, it doesn't remove google-analitics scripts. With ghostery enabled(default settings) it disappeared from source html code. Also, Disconnect has very confusing interface. There is content section with number which constantly counting allowed requests to trackers as I understood. Why? I installed this plugin to be not tracked or load any third-parties scripts. I was very excited about new (for me) Disconnect plugin, but not now. Can't recommend as well.

byoogle 13y ago

I just mentioned Disconnect, but I make Disconnect. :-) You should try the new Disconnect (Disconnect 2) which has a lot more features than Ghostery and is even rated higher by users than Ghostery is. We just launched Safari and Opera versions today (and are also available on Chrome and Firefox).

rs232 13y ago
Any plans to accept Bitcoin donations?
- byoogle 13y ago
  Yeah, I think later this week. (We actually had a Coinbase implementation before we launched, which we decided to pull last minute because we thought there was a little too much Bitcoin and Coinbase uncertainty at the time.)
Semaphor 13y ago
And thanks for it! It's blocking is great and the interface is by far the most userfriendly of the bunch :) I switched to it when it was mentioned on HN a few months ago.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
nly 13y ago
Please consider accepting payments in Bitcoin! Also, does "Wi-fi security" conflict with HTTPS Everywhere? The features seem to be analogous.
Nux 13y ago
Good man! I shall try it ASAP.
JonnieCache 13y ago
Hello! Love the tool. Dropped ghostery for it a while ago. One criticism: It's not clear from the popup what the numbers mean. Are they counting scripts loaded, or scripts blocked? The same for the colouring. Are coloured icons blocked, and greyed ones allowed through, or vice-versa? And of course the tickboxes.
- byoogle 13y ago
  Thanks! Good feedback. The numbers indicate requests (as in HTTP requests) attempted by the tracking companies. Green (or checked) indicates the requests were blocked. Gray (or unchecked) indicates they were allowed. We'll beef up the help doc (https://disconnect.me/d2/help https://disconnect.me/d2/help) to clarify.
  - qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
    Ghostery has the option to block all trackers at once in a big list with 1490 trackers. Disconnect 2 doesn't provide this option, does that mean that all the known trackers are blocked by default? Some pages I visit show 100+ requests but when I enter the add-on it only shows 2 advertising attempts and maybe 1 analytics request. Where do these other hundred requests come from and were they effectively blocked from communicating with its third-party provider? Disconnect 2 basically replaces HTTPS Everywhere, which I find nice.
    - byoogle 13y ago
      We saved you a click. :-) Disconnect blocks (2,000+ tracking sites) by default. The number of requests in the dropdown menu should add up to the number of requests in the toolbar counter (we do group requests by company, which Ghostery doesn't do, so you will see less rows in Disconnect's UI if that's what you mean). Do you have a site where the two aren't equal?
      - qwertzlcoatl 13y ago
        The only thing I would like to do is block certain trackers manually. For example "geoplugin.com" is enabled by default in Disconnect while I can block it manually in Ghostery. And I became used to not seeing google +1's and tumblr share buttons etc. Isn't there the possibilty to block them even before I visit a page? Right now I need to disable them via the disconnect UI and the page needs to reload.
footoverhand 13y ago
Do you have any plans to support Seamonkey?
binxbolling 13y ago
It's weird to me that entering $0 then seemingly still requires my credit card or PayPal.

aw3c2 13y ago

it is not free? edit: Apparently it is free. Your website is incredible confusing and misleading. I read through it, saw the "Pay what you want" bit. Entered 0$ but nothing happened, no new button or something. So I assumed it was not available for free. I also did not see what browsers were supported. I only found out that it works for Firefox on Github. That is also where I saw the GPL. And then I got curious what the "Get Disconnect" button might have done so I returned and clicked. And to my surprise it gave me an extension installation prompt... The UI of the extension is completely opaque to me. What is "secure Wi-Fi"? I am not using Wi-Fi. What means "secure search"? No mouseover tips and https://disconnect.me/d2/help https://disconnect.me/d2/help helps me nothing. I am not even sure what the things are that page talks about. What are the Facebook, Google+ and Twitter counters/buttons for? I am not using those sites and I thought your extension would block their tracking. Why does it reload the current page if I click on those buttons? I loaded a random page. There is a 8 on the DM icon but if I extend the dropdown it just shows 1 Analytics item. In the list that item has a ticked checkmark. Does that mean it is allowed? I do not want that tracker allowed. I thought you blocked automatically? Please consider having a feature stop and work on the UI next. Right now I could not recommend this to my most technically versed friends because I am not understanding it myself.

BCM43 13y ago
You're replying to the wrong person.
alexbel 13y ago
Agree. I've been using ghostery for couple years. I've installed disconnect and tried to compare with ghostery. Disconnect does not remove counters from the page. At least, it doesn't remove google-analitics scripts. With ghostery enabled(default settings) it disappeared from source html code. Also, Disconnect has very confusing interface. There is content section with number which constantly counting allowed requests to trackers as I understood. Why? I installed this plugin to be not tracked or load any third-parties scripts. I was very excited about new (for me) Disconnect plugin, but not now. Can't recommend as well.