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Best Blocker Add on for Firefox?


Fidcal

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Downloaded Firefox again to trial as an occasional browser. Anyone recommend the best blocker add on?   I've been using Ublock in Vivaldi. It kind of helps but one needs to make many clicks to get rid of multiple layers - and even then the website might be obscured (I've not been able to access Yahoo for years!) Sometimes block javascript is the best option, other times a few clicks with ublock do the trick - but it's all weary hit and miss.

So, can Firefox be any better for blocking add ons. I see there are quite a few.

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uBlock Origin is the best adblocker. I don't know if that's what you are referring to, because there's also one simply called uBlock, and they are not the same. But either way, any blocker is only as good as the blocklists you've configured - perhaps you need some extra ones for the sites you are using?

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The main problem for me is the big blockers that won't let you view the website until you agree to let them gather personal info about you. Yes, it is ublock origin and it works for websites I've already configured. Trouble is, when browsing or searching for all kinds of info I come across plenty of websites everyday that are not yet configured or ublock doesn't fully work for them. By that I mean, a typical website has a big popup say white panel with a message, buttons to press, and behind it a veil layer. You have to click the main panel and create a blocker for it, then each button, then maybe little panels behind the buttons then a couple more things, and then the veil layer. Sometimes after all that the website is now visible but will not scroll. There is no scroll bar nor does ctrl mouse wheel work. So you can only read what's on screen. You can zoom out somewhat to see a bit more but that's it. Web browsing is a pain these days. But if ublock origin is still the best then I guess I'll go with that. At least I won't have to learn anything new.

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I use Adblock. If something annoying isn't blocked I block that element manually. Especially on hostile sites, that still contain info I need.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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Clicking through multiple layers? Wow, that sounds horrible. I always just use Adblock as well. Just choose one of the black lists for your country and you're done. Some sites can detect adblock, so you'll have to whitelist them, which can be done it two clicks in adblock.

I used to use NoScript, which blocked any sort of script executions on websites. That is probably the safest method to surf the web, other than a VM of course, but it is also the most annoying method. As long as you don't browse very dicy sites, I don't think you will need something as strict as NoScript. Nowadays, I only use BLUR to block any trackers (and that extension also comes with a nice e-mail masking feature).

Another thing that frequently annoys me when surfing are those "allow cookies"-popups, but I found a pretty decent solution for that in two chrome extensions (I am sure you will find something similar for Firefox):

  1. I don't care about cookies: Simply have the extension automatically allow all cookies when visiting a website, to get rid of that popup. This is not so good from a privacy perspective, but the second extension should leverage this issue...
  2. Cookie-Autodelete: Delete all cookies of that website again as soon as you leave. 🙂 Of course you can whitelist webpages, so that e.g. you don't have to log in each time you visit forums.thedarkmod.com. 😉

 

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I'm also using Ublock origin but never had to click through multiple layers. Guess it depends on what sites you visit. Adblock is the next best thing and never had any real problems with it. Used it before Ublock but is a bit more resource heavy and was looking for ways to speed up my potato.

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Cheap & cheerful way to block ads, NB this may break some sites, but if people want to serve ads to me they can host them & take 100% responsibility for the content as far as I'm concerned

Add the adserver to your hosts file with a 127.0.0.1 address

I added the following to mine, over the years

127.0.0.1    s.flite.com
127.0.0.1    clk.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1    view.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1    ads1.msn.com
127.0.0.1    spe.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1    mir.atdmt.com
127.0.0.1    ad.uk.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1    ad.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1    googleads.g.doubleclick.net
127.0.0.1    bnmgr.adinjector.net
127.0.0.1    adserver.adtech.de
127.0.0.1    adlog.com.com
127.0.0.1    ads.userfriendly.org
127.0.0.1    servedby.advertising.com
127.0.0.1    ad2.adecn.com
127.0.0.1    www.favourite.com
127.0.0.1    openads.zeads.com
127.0.0.1    openx.zeads.com
127.0.0.1    clkgb.tradedoubler.com
127.0.0.1    imp.tradedoubler.com
127.0.0.1    www.affiliatewindow.com
127.0.0.1    www.kevinsmoneytree.org
127.0.0.1    optimized-by.rubiconproject.com
127.0.0.1    ad.yieldmanager.com
127.0.0.1    content.yieldmanager.com
127.0.0.1    ads.bluelithium.com
127.0.0.1    www.smartadserver.com
127.0.0.1    s0.2mdn.net
127.0.0.1    bannerfarm.ace.advertising.com
127.0.0.1    delivery.sid-ads.com
127.0.0.1    c5.zedo.com
127.0.0.1    pagead2.googlesyndication.com
127.0.0.1    ads2.adbrite.com
127.0.0.1    cdn.flashtalking.com
127.0.0.1    adfarm.mediaplex.com
127.0.0.1    w.visualdna.com
127.0.0.1    ultimatecleaner.biz
127.0.0.1    lvhook.biz
127.0.0.1    bs.serving-sys.com
127.0.0.1    revsci.net
127.0.0.1    m.webtrends.com
127.0.0.1    revsci.net
127.0.0.1    player.ooyala.com

 

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I do what esme does but much much more. I put up a perimeter VM which DNS blocks ads (and popups in IOS games) for all my connected devices on my network. That's a bit more work, but to do it on one PC, just download and follow the instructions on:

https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

Been using this for many years and it works perfectly, thought too perfectly sometimes as it can block things you want but its easy to edit to allow.

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I use Adblock Plus, mostly out of habit. I've tried uBlock Origin but it doesn't offer anything that ABP doesn't already do, plus I know the quirks of ABP well enough and I've added several additional block lists as well as custom patterns for anything that falls through the cracks. It works well, that's all I need.

I very much wish it wasn't required but the vast majority of the web is unbearably chaotic without adblocking.

A word of warning, Agent Denton. This was a simulated experience; real LAMs will not be so forgiving.

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Yeah, it's a battlefield - but that's true of all commerce - us against them. Society needs businesses to make ideal products but businesses are actually designed to make profit not products - the products are just a side-effect and might be anything from perfect to perfectly useless - so long as they make money who cares.

Anyway, just tried Adblock Plus but it doesn't give me the control I need.

I should have clarified what I want. I strongly object to the enforced popups that demand I submit and agree to the website stealing personal info about me. The only opt-out is to leave their website. They make their money from personalised ads so if you don't want them then they don't want you. As said, it's a battlefield.

With most websites, I right click the popup, click Ublock Origin's 'block element' then 'create' - but typically there are several elements to deal with and a final 'veil' overlay that obscures the page. What is worse, some websites no longer function when you totally get rid of those popups. A common result is that scrolling is disabled so you can only see the top part of the page or switch to read mode. An example is https://harrypotter.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page

But Yahoo is even worse and Ublock O can't break through at all. Not that I'm too bothered about yahoo except it's a challenge.

And all this within the myth of a 'free' internet (or 'free' tv whatever.) It's not free. Products cost more because we consumers have to pay more to pay for the cost of advertising - trillions of dollars wasted by society, and trillions of man hours wasted by distracting time-consuming, massively inefficient (in terms of society's real needs) adverts.

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1 hour ago, Fidcal said:

I strongly object to the enforced popups that demand I submit and agree to the website stealing personal info about me. The only opt-out is to leave their website.

Or you simply agree, but block all trackers and delete all cookies after leaving the site, see my above post. 😉 

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Indeed our personal data is sold to companies, it becomes a source of profit. It's evil. It is largely grounded on the lack of any protection of personal data in the US - that makes this possible, with some exceptions in California.

Read more in Edward Snowden's book Permanent Record on the subject-matter: http://gen.lib.rus.ec/book/index.php?md5=9B965019FD56CEBB08F6723FEE806AFF

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

badge?user=andarson

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I use uBlock Origin plus Ghostery as an additional layer of protection. I'll get the occasional blank page, but I don't care. If I really, really want to visit an blocked URL, I'll rip out all drives, boot Ubuntu live CD and fire up an unprotected browser...

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On 10/6/2020 at 2:37 PM, Fidcal said:

...I should have clarified what I want. I strongly object to the enforced popups that demand I submit and agree to the website stealing personal info about me. The only opt-out is to leave their website...

Firefox has a reader view option for a lot of pages, I've found it gets rid of the "accept cookie" popups & nearly all the ads

The display is a bit basic but it's good enough for what I want

You can also prepend "about:reader?url=" to url's, you may need to encode the URL like PHPs urlencode though

Just tried appending it to the URL for the forum & it works, the page doesn't look like a forum any more

Edited by esme
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I'd like to give a thumbs-up for @STiFU's recommendation of "I don't care about cookies" (https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/)

It comes in both extension form and as a filter list for an existing adblocker. Whichever one you use, it hides every single "accept cookie" popup and banner notice I've seen, and I've tried it on many sites that I know have the message and it stops every single one. It should be noted that this is all it does - hides the cookie message. It doesn't silently click the "accept" message these things usually have since, as the site states, most of these sites use cookies regardless of your option and the notice is mostly just for notification (and adhering to EU regulations of course).

It's a nuisance reduction tool - if you want more control over cookies you need to look elsewhere.

Edited by Xolvix
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A word of warning, Agent Denton. This was a simulated experience; real LAMs will not be so forgiving.

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9 hours ago, Xolvix said:

I'd like to give a thumbs-up for @STiFU's recommendation of "I don't care about cookies" (https://www.i-dont-care-about-cookies.eu/)

It comes in both extension form and as a filter list for an existing adblocker. Whichever one you use, it hides every single "accept cookie" popup and banner notice I've seen, and I've tried it on many sites that I know have the message and it stops every single one. It should be noted that this is all it does - hides the cookie message. It doesn't silently click the "accept" message these things usually have since, as the site states, most of these sites use cookies regardless of your option and the notice is mostly just for notification (and adhering to EU regulations of course).

It's a nuisance reduction tool - if you want more control over cookies you need to look elsewhere.

From their website:

Quote

By using it, you explicitly allow websites to do whatever they want with cookies they set on your computer (which they mostly do anyway, whether you allow them or not).

So, that sounds to me like you accept cookies, when you're using their extension, which is why it is so important to also delete cookies and block trackers. 🙂 

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I'm giving it a try through Tor Browser. What puts doubt in my mind is many add-ons themselves gain immense access to your web activity, even including passwords and bank accounts - nor do they declare that no data does or ever will be uploaded. So it's blind trust. One of the above mentioned I found by searching the web that they do NOT upload anything only to discover later they'd been taken over by another profit-making company - and then they in turn taken over by another. How do we know it's still true? Or won't be in the future? What would a profit-making company make out of such an add-on unless it syphons off personal data and trades it?

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On 10/10/2020 at 6:27 PM, STiFU said:

From their website:

So, that sounds to me like you accept cookies, when you're using their extension, which is why it is so important to also delete cookies and block trackers. 🙂 

Ah, my apologies. I do remember reading that bit on their web site, but I just assumed what they were referring to is how with most sites which contain those cookie messages, regardless of whether you click "Accept" or not, the default will be to silently accept regardless. Heck in most cases those messages don't provide an option to reject the cookies, it's more of a notification anyway, so not showing it means the same as clicking accept.

Maybe that's the benefit of the extension as opposed to just the filter block list - it essentially clicks yes on those messages for you just in case you come across a site that's "good" and waits for you to accept before using cookies (which are kinda rare).

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A word of warning, Agent Denton. This was a simulated experience; real LAMs will not be so forgiving.

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  • 1 year later...

I use Ublock origin for pure adblocking, Privacy badger for tracking protection and Stylus for custom (css) modification of websites. It's also good if you can't find a way to block an element with the custom element block function inside adblockers. And it's also good for fixing broken websites. You do need some css knowledge. Basically I press F12 and look for the thing to block/change in the code and then I test that there. When I'm done, I copy that code to Stylus.

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10 hours ago, datiswous said:

I use Ublock origin for pure adblocking, Privacy badger for tracking protection and Stylus for custom (css) modification of websites. It's also good if you can't find a way to block an element with the custom element block function inside adblockers. And it's also good for fixing broken websites. You do need some css knowledge. Basically I press F12 and look for the thing to block/change in the code and then I test that there. When I'm done, I copy that code to Stylus.

Also switched to Privacy badger because it's run by a non-profit. Not directly targeted at ads but that's what it does with things that unethically track us.

Edited by Anderson

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

badge?user=andarson

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The best is uBlock Origin (I use it's filterlist among others, in the inbuild ad and trackerblocker in Vivaldi), addititional you can use Trace , with this you can get rid of fingerprints, header sniffing, referer control and other, better than Privacy Badger.

Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

Favorite online apps you may like too 😉

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  • 3 weeks later...
4 hours ago, Frank Cotton said:

I would drop firefox it has only gone downhill and I don't see it getting better.

If you are looking for privacy and don't want to spend much time setting stuff up get the Brave browser and install uBlock

I don't trust much the Brave Browser, because of some ugly practices in the past. For privacy I prefer the french UR browser or waiting for the upcoming DuckDuckGo desktop browser this summer. Until now, Vivaldi is the best for me, generrally I prefer European browsers, because US browsers (or Chinese ones, like current Opera) don't have the strong privacy norms like Europeans.

 

EDIT: As I could see, unfortunately the UR setup was sadly affected by a Trojan (PUA:Win32/Caypnamer.A!ml)
I have contacted UR to report it and I hope they resolve it soon. In the meantime downloading is not recommended.

Well, as I say, Vivaldi is the best alternative until now.

Edited by Zerg Rush
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Sys Specs Laptop Lenovo V145 15AST, AMD A9- 9425 Radeon R5 - 5 cores 3,1 GHz  RAM 8Gb, GPU 1+2 Gb -Win10 64 v21H2

Favorite online apps you may like too 😉

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57 minutes ago, Zerg Rush said:

DuckDuckGo

duckduckgo has openly started censoring along the same lines as google. They got accused many times before that off deboosting results and other underhanded consorship. Duckduckgo is lost there is no turning back once you bow to special interest groups.

forgot about that brave incident.

Privacy on the internet has been a bad joke for a while, two factor authentication, google trackers everywhere, built in hardware and software backdoors, the tor network compromised.

 

But to me the more worrying trend is software hiding or denying you information even archive.org is removing entries.

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