Tracker Blocking Browser Extensions
Hello 1Password Users
This research presented at DEFCON and reported here has piqued my interest in anti-tracking browser extensions.
The researchers advise using rotating exit servers e.g. TOR or VPN with rotating exit nodes and client-side tracker blocking software. Indeed they use the logo for uBlock Origin on their slides.
I've been reading about these extensions a little bit, and they seem to be swathed in controversy.
Do any of you use them? If so, what do you use, why did you choose it and how can you trust it?
Thanks
PP
1Password Version: Not Provided
Extension Version: Not Provided
OS Version: Not Provided
Sync Type: Not Provided
Comments
-
@Penelope Pitstop: That's really interesting. Thanks for sharing! I've been following this from a different angle myself lately, since I've been looking into "data brokers" trying to learn more about what's happening with my data. And it seems pretty dire at times.
Honestly I already hadn't been using "anti-tracking" much, since it breaks a lot of things: extensions, websites, browser information. Obviously some of this is intentional as they can present a risk to anonimization and privacy. But I think that we need to draw a distinction between these. An entity may not know who I am (anonymity) yet still track my browsing habits (privacy) using things like fingerprinting and cross-reference the data.
Ultimately things like TOR, VPN, and anti-tracking are great tools...but I think for most people their effectiveness is not as good as we'd expect, and they come at the expense of not only convenience but being able to use the internet effectively at all in many cases. None of these solutions is a silver bullet, and using more than one to cover different angles can be problematic.
In the past I used Ublock Origin and Adblock Plus, as that was a fairly reasonable balance. But nowadays I'm mostly just using content blockers in iOS since they can work as intended without breaking anything in most cases. 1Blocker (no relation) is my current favourite there. Along with not having to deal with popups or malware, that's my preferred platform for recreational internet use.
I'm glad that more research is being done and information being made available, not so that people don't use these things, but so they're aware of the both the benefits and limitations. Knowledge is power. :)
0
