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Is this really more shady, than making millions of USD with donations, you get from your users by pretending to need the money to support your family? Michael

by jacoeb 12y ago

Is this really more shady, than making millions of USD with donations, you get from your users by pretending to need the money to support your family? Michael Gundlach made enough money with AdBlock that he hired people to run AdBlock and don't work himself anymore. But he is way less transparent about it, than the guys from Adblock Plus. AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker, to disguise who they are and what they are doing. I have never seen that any FOSS project ever did that before. For example have a look at ~/.config/google-chrome/Default/Extensions/gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/*/stats.js. There you find rather interesting code, that silently sends data about your configuration, environment along with a unique user id to their server. For me AdBlock looks way more shady. While Adblock Plus just has found a business model, which might be controversial. But at least they are transparent about what they are doing.

roeme 12y ago
> making millions of USD with donations [Citation needed] >he hired people to run AdBlock and don't work himself anymore. But he is way less transparent about it, than the guys from Adblock Plus. What? Just as the ABP project does outline their whitelisting process, Gundlach openly states the fact that other people get paid. >AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker... With the power of your search engines combined: http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ >...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. I already lost too much time with this reply.
- jacoeb 12y ago
  >>AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker... >With the power of your search engines combined: >http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ Of course they have releases and since JavaScript isn't compiled they include the source code. But what I said was that they have closed their public source repository (SVN) and issue tracker. >>...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. >That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. So pointing out that AdBlock is tracking you doesn't count as a fact? I think that is something you really don't want to involve your community in.
  - roeme 12y ago
    >>>...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. >>That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. >So pointing out that AdBlock is tracking you doesn't count as a fact? I think that is something you really don't want to involve your community in. I was referring to your statement of their alleged intentions.
gorhill 12y ago
I really did try to find information on getadblock.com about this `userid` sent to `ping.getadblock.com` (along with browser/OS info) but I couldn't find anything. I would expect some kind of disclosure to inform users of why this (once a day from what I gather) ping is required. Maybe it is there and I am unable to find it though. I also noticed a behind-the-scene connection to `https://goldenticket.disconnect.me/goldenticket/ticket/fetch?product=AdBlock-2.6.29` https://goldenticket.disconnect.me/goldenticket/ticket/fetch...
- roeme 12y ago
  It's a randomly generated String, see /stats.js in their release tarball, er, zip.
  - gorhill 12y ago
    I saw this. I want to understand why. I am looking for a disclosure of this, and the purpose.
    - wallunit 12y ago
      I was also pretty surprised when I saw that code. It is obviously there, that they know how many users they have, which browser and which settings they use. It is absolutely unacceptable to that without asking the user. It is also illegal in some countries. Adblock Plus doesn't do that, and even provides an optional filter list to block tracking on websites.

by jacoeb 12y ago

roeme 12y ago

> making millions of USD with donations [Citation needed] >he hired people to run AdBlock and don't work himself anymore. But he is way less transparent about it, than the guys from Adblock Plus. What? Just as the ABP project does outline their whitelisting process, Gundlach openly states the fact that other people get paid. >AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker... With the power of your search engines combined: http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ >...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. I already lost too much time with this reply.

jacoeb 12y ago
>>AdBlock has even closed their public source repository and issue tracker... >With the power of your search engines combined: >http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ http://code.getadblock.com/releases/ Of course they have releases and since JavaScript isn't compiled they include the source code. But what I said was that they have closed their public source repository (SVN) and issue tracker. >>...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. >That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. So pointing out that AdBlock is tracking you doesn't count as a fact? I think that is something you really don't want to involve your community in.
- roeme 12y ago
  >>>...to disguise who they are and what they are doing. >>That's what you might feel and assume. Don't make this into a fact. >So pointing out that AdBlock is tracking you doesn't count as a fact? I think that is something you really don't want to involve your community in. I was referring to your statement of their alleged intentions.

gorhill 12y ago

I really did try to find information on getadblock.com about this `userid` sent to `ping.getadblock.com` (along with browser/OS info) but I couldn't find anything. I would expect some kind of disclosure to inform users of why this (once a day from what I gather) ping is required. Maybe it is there and I am unable to find it though. I also noticed a behind-the-scene connection to `https://goldenticket.disconnect.me/goldenticket/ticket/fetch?product=AdBlock-2.6.29` https://goldenticket.disconnect.me/goldenticket/ticket/fetch...

roeme 12y ago
It's a randomly generated String, see /stats.js in their release tarball, er, zip.
- gorhill 12y ago
  I saw this. I want to understand why. I am looking for a disclosure of this, and the purpose.
  - wallunit 12y ago
    I was also pretty surprised when I saw that code. It is obviously there, that they know how many users they have, which browser and which settings they use. It is absolutely unacceptable to that without asking the user. It is also illegal in some countries. Adblock Plus doesn't do that, and even provides an optional filter list to block tracking on websites.