The Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

ryanradia — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:58:57 -0000

This is very interesting, thanks Wladimir. Some of the issues with Filterset.G don't seem to exist for me (like slow browsing) but I will have to try a different set of filters.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

Wladimir Palant — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:27:54 -0000

Filterset.G is not recommended for Adblock Plus: http://adblockplus.org/en/faq_project#filterset.g

What you should look at if you are concerned about privacy, is ABP Tracking Filter (http://adblockplus.org/en/subscriptions). Also, current Adblock Plus development builds implement a $third-party option (http://adblockplus.org/blog/recognizing-third-p...) which gives you a way to block tracking servers in a generic way (also likely to cause collateral damage however so using it in its generic form is only something for the most paranoid).

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

Don Marti — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:58:01 -0000

Don't forget CustomizeGoogle. You can configure it to remove the Google tracking when you click through on a search result.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

MikeRT — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 20:22:16 -0000

Well, when they get there way, and there's no advertising, they'll have to deal with the walled gardens like the online version of the Wallstreet Journal. Ironically, most of the "new media" will be the victims because they're the lightweight journals that have the weakest relationship with their readers when it comes to a willingness to buy access.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

Adam_Thierer — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:14:32 -0000

Mike, I am totally with you on that point, but many others disagree with us. There's just a certain crowd out there that find the whole idea of commercial advertising annoying or even offensive and don't really think about the trade-off of what they would be missing without those ads being present. There is no free lunch, after all.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

MikeRT — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:57:23 -0000

Honestly, I just don't know what the big deal is with most people and ads. Maybe it's just the sites I go to, but I rarely see any ads that are ugly and out of place.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

Adam_Thierer — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:42:26 -0000

Thanks Ryan. I will check our Filterset.G

Also, Berin and I are planning to cover NoScript in a future entry.

Re: Privacy Solutions Series: Part 2 - Adblock Plus

ryanradia — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:19:21 -0000

Filterset.G (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filterset.G) makes AdBlock even more powerful. It really does a good job of getting rid of ads.

Another add-on that goes well with AdBlock is NoScript. At first, it's annoying to white-list every trusted site that uses a script, but blocking all scripts by default really does enhance security while browsing.