Main Forum > General Computer Support
Ad And Tracker Blocking
Lady:
The issue I'm wrestling with at the moment: ad and tracker blocking. I'm always very concerned about my online privacy. I've been using DuckDuckGo as a search engine and the extension AVG PrivacyFix and thought my privacy was all protected but I saw a documentary on Dutch TV about trackers and started looking myself. They used Ghostery to see which trackers were present. So I installed Ghostery and although there weren't as many trackers as other people seem to have (I read some have more than 200 on some sites!) still I knew I had to do more. In the documentary they advised installing uBlock but while I was using Ghostery I found out that Ghostery not only shows trackers but also can block trackers and ads and widgets. I started using it and find it very easy to use and it seems to work fine. Sites load faster and the pages don't jump up and down during loading of ads which I found annoying. But I continued reading on the subject and now I found out that Ghostery is owned by an advertising company which some people find tricky. They use Ghostrank to collect your anonymous data and sell it to advertising companies. But they give the option to collect your data or not (which, obviously, I turned off :) ). I haven't tried uBlock yet, it gets good and bad reviews and it seems to be more difficult to use.
Do you have any experience in using ad/tracker blockers? While I'm writing this I'm thinking that maybe this is an issue that is important enough to make into a new topic, so everybody can contribute. What do you say?
Samson:
Hi, sorry if I am interrupting a conversation :shy:
I use Firefox, with DDG and uBlock Origin.
I did have Ghostery, but ditched it for uBlock Origin, page load times are even quicker :wink:
I feel that this is sufficient for my needs without "breaking" the internet, there is no such thing as 100% privacy protection, but this goes a long way towards it in my opinion.
Hope that helps?
Edit: I use the standard filters in uBlock Origin, plus Fanboy's Annoyance List.
Boggin:
My main browser is IE11 and I use Adblock Plus in that and have Firefox as a spare browser should I need to trouble shoot if a problem is just IE related and I have uBlock installed for that.
I've seen a discussion where Adblock Plus have an arrangement with some advertisers to whitelist their adverts, so some are going to get through, but I've found that my ISP email is more responsive with ABP installed - so it does have some effect.
Certain websites will always take some time to load because of the sheer content on the web page and the Huff Post is one as such, but generally, I'll just take a web page as it comes.
I also have a gmail account which when I first started using it used to have adverts at the top of the page, but as they are supposed to reflect the sites that I visit, I haven't seen any for some time.
I'm not familiar with DuckDuckGo or Ghostery, but in IE under the Privacy tab there is a box you can check to Never allow websites to request your physical location.
Lady:
Oh no, Samson, I'm very happy that you responded. I need all the help I can get. I too often feel I'm inventing the wheel here. :smiley:
That's very helpful indeed. Just needed you guys to say what works well in this jungle of ad/tracker blockers. (I didn't mention it but I use Firefox as well.) And thanks for that edit, Samson, so I don't have to rack my brain figuring out the settings.
I'll install uBlock Origin. I guess that AVG extension can go and maybe even has to go, for it may interfere. Right?
And I laughed out loud reading your signature, Samson! Hahaha. Can a person be any more scary than Trump??
A laugh a day keeps the doctor away.
Oops, new question arose. In Firefox - Options - Privacy: the first two options about tracking, do I have to check them or leave them unchecked since I now have this trackerblocker installed?
This might be an interesting site for you guys. If you don't already know about it.
https://guardianproject.info/
Samson:
--- Quote from: Lady on December 10, 2015, 05:00:41 am ---And I laughed out loud reading your signature, Samson! Hahaha. Can a person be any more scary than Trump??
A laugh a day keeps the doctor away.
--- End quote ---
It is actually a quote from Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, a pretty querky and divisive figure himself but he hit the nail on the head there.
Regarding your Q, I leave the first 2 unchecked and leave "Do not tell.... etc " checked.
fanboy's annoyance list gets rid of Facebook, Twitter etc on webpages, so depending on your use/ preference you may or may not wish to add it.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version