I’ve noticed that TV Tropes appears to actively block certain privacy-focused browser extensions, addons, and plugins, including popular ad blockers.
Extensions affected may include:
uBlock Origin
Privacy Badger
Ghostery
Other privacy-respecting tools
Impact for users:
Exposure to ads and trackers despite using privacy tools
Reduced browsing privacy and security
Limited ability to use extensions that enhance online safety
Discussion points:
Are there ways to mitigate or bypass these blocks while maintaining privacy?
Should sites that block privacy tools be reported or flagged as a privacy concern?
Raising awareness about websites that block privacy-respecting extensions is important. Feedback and suggestions from the community would be appreciated.
I think it’s revealing that they’re able to detect them in the first place, since they’re modifying the DOM it’s possible they could be able to track you through these extensions. Most people are using different blocklists as well.
It might be better to just go without an adblocker and use the built-in anti fingerprinting features of your browser, I mean Tor browser doesn’t use an adblocker for a reason.
TV Tropes is blocking the browser extension, addon and plugin of the privacy focused, privacy respecting and privacy friendly including browser extension, addon and plugin of the ad blocker
Because TV Tropes is making the anti privacy measures to block the browser extension, addon and plugin of the privacy focused, privacy respecting and privacy friendly including browser extension, addon and plugin of the ad blocker
Anti privacy measures means a measures and mechanisms to block the browser extension, addon and plugin of the privacy focused, privacy respecting and privacy friendly including browser extension, addon and plugin of the ad blocker because TV Tropes is making the anti privacy measures including anti ad block measures to block the browser extension, addon and plugin of the privacy focused, privacy respecting and privacy friendly including browser extension, addon and plugin of the ad blocker
Do you have a link for that? Sounds interesting, I assume they will have the same blocklist for everyone otherwise it would pose a fingerprinting risk with everyone blocking slightly different things.
Yes, TV Tropes is implementing anti-privacy measures, including anti-ad block measures, to prevent the use of privacy-focused browser extensions, add-ons, and plugins, such as ad blockers. This is because TV Tropes is becoming increasingly adept at bypassing ad blockers without users having to pay for the ad-free subscription, which is prohibitively costly for me. The anti-privacy measures, including anti-ad block measures, are making it more challenging for me to block ads without having to shell out for the expensive ad-free subscription, which is a significant financial strain for someone like me who is price sensitive.
That’s cool, not the MV3 UBO Lite? I would think they won’t be super aggressive with it since they need a blocklist that basically everyone can have without too much breakage, so the MV3 version with less attack surface would make sense.
Also I would think MV3 is more future-proof in case Mozilla ever drops support for MV2.
In order to mitigate fingerprinting risks, we want to update and lock filters at browser build / release time, rather than letting uBlock auto-update them live
Considering that updating the lists outside of browser releases is not planned, using MV3 seems like the correct choice.
Naturally, TV Tropes is currently putting in place measures to protect against privacy violations, including measures to prevent ad blockers and other privacy-focused browser extensions, add-ons, and plugins from being used. I can’t afford the ad-free subscription for TV Tropes, and their ability to block ad blockers without payment is making it even harder for me to avoid the ads. The measures that are being taken to restrict privacy, such as measures to prevent the use of ad blockers, are making it increasingly difficult for me to avoid seeing ads without having to pay for an expensive ad-free subscription. This is a significant financial burden for me, as I am someone who is very conscious of my expenses.
They have yet to elaborate with any details since my initial question in this topic, so my tenative conclusion is that they are attempting to spread misinformation about TV Tropes.
I presume what they are talking about is this screen, which pops up when the site detects an adblocker and locks access to the page’s contents. As of writing, it doesn’t show when using uBlock Origin (Lite) or Brave’s ad blocker (Safari + AdGuard for iOS was used to get this picture), although it did in the past for a short period of time (apologies for the vague wording here but I just don’t remember specifics).
Screens like that are common when you use certain content blockers that don’t work as well. This is not TV Tropes hating privacy specifically, it’s a common industry practice.
