Make browsing bearable again 2022

Ubbquittious

For ages I struggled with the cat and mouse game of installing ad blocker, then ad blocker-blocker-blocker followed by ad blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker-blocker but finally in the last few months it appears to be going ok

So far I have:

Ublock origin

Auto cookie opt-out (not great for Irish sites)

DuckDuck privacy essentials (not sure if this does much for me)

Cookies set to delete on exit

User-agent switcher (can switch to pretend to be googlebot, sites try to usually try to give a clear and concise page full of content with no annoyances to Google)

PiHole running locally on a raspberry pi

PiHole running on remote VPS as secondary DNS.

any ones I missed that work for you?

Potential-Monke

I use I Don't Care About Cookies and AdBlock, seems to do the job for me. Oh, and Backspace to go Back, because they removed that feature for no logical reason!

I would like to hear alternatives to Google, not for privacy reasons, but because Google is crap these days and only gives results based around your search, not the actual search itself!

AllForIt

Apparently that cookies consent thing is an EU directive, so the Brit's don't have to deal with that cookies thing anymore, since they left the EU.

So, you can either move to the UK or petition to leave the EU.

Seriously though, all this spying thing is going to increasing be a major issue imo.

In my government I would ban cookies.

cj maxx

I just don't accept cookies and don't buy from th ads

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362179#Comment_119362179

I'll never get anyone who buys from browser adds. Who does that?

Unless it was some service you never knew existed. Or product but it would have to be very niche.

Anyway, I like your policy.

Atlantic Dawn

My Adblocker has gone a tad arseways on YouTube the last month or so, I'm using Adblocker Plus. Is that gone the way of Peadar Tong?

Potential-Monke

I think I used to use AdBlock Plus, but now I'm just using AdBlock. IIRC, I had similar issues with ABP.

cj maxx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362186#Comment_119362186

The Worst has to be FB . A pure scam selling site.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362457#Comment_119362457

There's an app called Facebook Purity which blocks adds and "suggested for you... " posts, but as of lately they seem to be creeping back in again.

igCorcaigh

That cookies consent thing is such a stupid idea. It ruined the Web. And the ironic thing is that it doesn't even remember your choice, huh.

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119362160#Comment_119362160

You can't ban cookies though, it's how a web app like this one knows you're logged in and who you are.

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119365180#Comment_119365180

They would have to tweak the protocol slightly and come up with a standardised way for the browser to auto-login. Tis quite doable

igCorcaigh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119365706#Comment_119365706

Not without having to store a bit of data on the user's device, which is what a cookie is, no?

AllForIt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119365180#Comment_119365180

I'm not a Web developer but I don't think that's right. I don't think log-in information is technically what a cookie is.

Regardless, files left on your smart device can be used for many reasons, and the reason for the 'accept cookies' pop up is for one to agree that you're happy to have your browsing habits or whatever else passed over to a third party and allow them to use that data as they wish.

In the UK it is no longer required that one has to agree to this in a pop up, it will happen whether they like it or not (unless you block them), so I'm not saying the situation is better in the UK in terms of 'spying', all I'm saying is they don't get the annoying pop up accept cookie think every time they visit a site for the first time, which is extremely annoying.

riclad

I don't care about ads on YouTube I just mute it they only last 5 seconds then you click skip ad. Use bing or duckduck go if you don't like Google

banie01

On my phone,it's Ad-away and I find it's great. No ads, occasionally some blank spots where ads should be 😉 but no ads.

On PC, I use AdBlock but that's neccesitating a click or 2 on more and more sites nowadays.

dotsman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119366390#Comment_119366390

Actually, that is one of the main purposes of cookies (on legitimate sites). Once you log in to a website, the server returns a session if (a unique code) that gets stored in the cookie. That way, every time you click a button etc, you only need to send the session id and not your username and password each time (insecure). However, there are more modern methods these days involving stateless servers with no concept of a session and tokens etc instead (however, these are not always implemented securely, so can give a false sense of confidence), so many systems are moving away from cookies. Especially given the terrible reputation they have.

The best start is to use Firefox - Mozilla don't make revenue from ads and are privacy focused. There's a wide range of adblock extensions, but the difference is that they're not planning to break these extensions like Google Chrome is supposedly doing in 2023.

I'm amazed at how much faster Firefox is - Chrome really has grown into a bloated pig over the last decade.

Finally, try to use sites that don't bombard you with much more than the necessary cookies and tracking pixels. Facebook in particular is pure evil, silently tracking everything you do across the net. Block it through its own privacy settings and adblockers.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/facebook-tracking-stop/

Ubbquittious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119367346#Comment_119367346

I use it but FF alone won't stop any ads from appearing