Re:Privacy Badger Is Changing to Protect You Better
by Animats on Thursday October 08, 2020 @02:01PM
(#24721869)
This is quite unfortunate news but not surprising. This effectively turns Privacy Badger for the majority of users into another block list.
Yes. Privacy Badger was not just an anti-tracker. It's also something of an ad blocker. Since ad sites tend to track, it learns to block them.
Checking "cnn.com" right now, Privacy Badger is blocking 36 sites. These include "static.ads-twitter.com", "c.amazon-adsystem.com", "www.googletagmanager.com", "ad.doubleclick.net", and "amplify.outbrain.com". Blocking those knocks out most of the ads from the big players. Two of those are Google's, and they probably don't like being blocked by a large number of users.
Taking that away to prevent a theoretical approach to tracking seems like a sell-out by EFF.
Yes. Privacy Badger was not just an anti-tracker. It's also something of an ad blocker. Since ad sites tend to track, it learns to block them.
Checking "cnn.com" right now, Privacy Badger is blocking 36 sites. These include "static.ads-twitter.com", "c.amazon-adsystem.com", "www.googletagmanager.com", "ad.doubleclick.net", and "amplify.outbrain.com". Blocking those knocks out most of the ads from the big players. Two of those are Google's, and they probably don't like being blocked by a large number of users.
Taking that away to prevent a theoretical approach to tracking seems like a sell-out by EFF.