XPost: alt.privacy   
   From: marion@facts.com   
      
   On Sun, 24 Aug 2025 09:48:33 +0100, Jim the Geordie wrote :   
      
      
   >>> On 24/8/2025 2:28 am, D wrote:   
   >>>> best browser extension ever invented by man . . .   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Firefox 142.0   
   >>>> Tools > Extensions and Themes [Ctrl+Shift+A]   
   >>>   
   >>> Switched to it from Adblock for many years... couldn't quite remember   
   >>> why. Something to do with Firefox changing its add-on mechanism.   
   >>>   
   >>   
   >> Adblock started allowing certain ads through:   
   >>   
   >> "Starting with version 2.0, Adblock Plus started allowing "acceptable   
   >> ads" by default,[72] with acceptable ad standards being set by The   
   >> Acceptable Ads Committee.[73] They charge large institutions fees to   
   >> become whitelisted and marked as "acceptable", stating "[Adblock Plus]   
   >> only charge large entities a license fee so that we can offer the same   
   >> whitelisting services to everyone and maintain our resources to develop   
   >> the best software for our users." on their about page.[74]"   
   >>   
   >>  From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adblock_Plus   
   >>   
   >> uBlock Origin doesn't play that game.   
   >>   
   > If you use Brave Browser, no adblocking add-on is needed.   
      
   My two cents... bearing in mind I never used extensions until early July   
   when Epic Privacy Browser went bust... I'm building two sets of DIY privacy   
   browsers where I've settled (currently) on almost a score of extensions   
   (not counting VPN extensions) which are the following currently for the   
   Chromium side of the family (given it was easier than the Mozilla side).   
      
   Browser: Brave and/or Ungoogled Chromium (LibreFox and/or MullVad)   
    1. Canvas Blocker - Fingerprint Protect : version 0_2_2   
    2. ClearURLs : version 1_26_0   
    3. Cookie AutoDelete : version 3_8_2   
    4. CthulhuJs (Anti-Fingerprint) : version 8_0_6   
    5. Decentraleyes : version 3_0_0   
    6. Extension Manager : version 9_5_2   
    7. Font Fingerprint Defender : version 0_1_6   
    8. LocalCDN : version 2_6_79   
    9. Location Guard (V3) : version 3_0_0   
    10. Privacy Badger : version 2025_5_30   
    11. Referer Control : version 1_35   
    12. Skip Redirect : version 2_3_6   
    13. StayInTab : version 1_0   
    14. Trace - Online Tracking Protection : version 3_0_6   
    15. uBlock Origin : version 1_65_0   
    16. User-Agent Switcher and Manager : version 0_6_4   
    17. WebRTC Control : version 0_3_3   
    18. NoScript is useful, but I find it a PITA so it's disabled for now.   
      
   The question came up from Mr. Man-wai Chang about Adblock Plus.   
      
   While there will always be overlap when you have a score of extensions,   
    a. uBlock Origin is more efficient (apparently)   
    b. It's said to be more powerful in supporting advanced rule creation   
    c. It's said to support dynamic & cosmetic filtering   
    c. Critically, it doesn't have an "acceptable ads" program   
    d. And it's often considered more actively maintained   
      
   Since there is a large amount of overlap, I left AdBlock Plus out of the   
   mix of privacy extensions that I'm testing for the DIY privacy browser(s).   
      
   But I could be wrong as I must state openly I never touched extensions   
   until being forced to give up on my daily driver privacy browser in July.   
      
   Side Note: The VPN extension test covering a score of supposedly free, ad   
   free, registration free VPN extensions is still a work in progress   
   covering, so far, the following successful & failed VPN extensions:   
      
   These passed initial testing criteria (free, account free, ad free):   
    1. browsec   
    2. hoxx   
    3. securefreeedgevpn   
    4. setupvpn   
    5. vpnly   
    6. xvpn   
    7. 1clickvpn   
    8. 1vpn   
      
   These failed initial testing criteria (free, account free, ad free):   
    a. hiddenbatvpn   
    b. hidemevpn   
    c. hotspotshieldvpn   
    d. itopvpn   
    e. protonvpn   
    f. tunnelbearvpn   
    g. urbanvpn   
    h. windscribevpn   
      
   Correction: I correct an earlier assessment that all the VPN extensions   
   "slow down" drastically within days; I think some of that is due to the   
   plethora of privacy-based extensions - so I switched the testing over to   
   testing instead the free,adfree,registrationfree system-wide VPNs with a   
   free-adfree-regfree socks5 proxy (Psiphon) and, for non-browser   
   applications, a free-adfree-regfree proxifier such as ProxyCAp64/FreeCap.   
      
   Note I found out the hard way that Mozilla browsers handle proxies very   
   differently than do Chromium browsers, which themselves handle proxies   
   differently than most programs do where Windows has three layers of proxies   
   that I had to write scripts (e.g., proxy.bat which morphed yesterday to   
   proxy.cmd due to Windows quirks) to synchronize manually the three proxy   
   mechanisms what Windows should have synchronized automatically. Sigh.   
      
   Note also that there are too many free/regfree/adfree system-wide   
   openvpn.exe free public VPN servers out there to list (many thousands!) so   
   it will take a while before I test them all sufficiently to declare which   
   free system-wide VPN server set is the easiest & fastest as all require   
   additional software (e.g., softether or openvpn.exe) and scripts (due to   
   changing passwords mostly).   
      
   Lastly, I wasted days testing proxy servers, of which there are so many   
   thousands out there that you'd go nuts trying them all, but they're all   
   apparently abysmal in terms of reliability compared to the acceptable   
   reliability of the free public no-registration openVPN services that I'm   
   currently testing. After days of a miserable existence testing them,   
   writing script after script after script to deal with their ephemeral   
   nature, I gave up concluding that you'd have to have TLA-like resources to   
   keep up with the few proxy services which stay alive long enough to be   
   useful.   
      
   Apologies for the long-winded response but that's the status of my testing   
   in a nutshell, in the fewest words that still convey accurate assessment.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)