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R. Hill Profile picture
R. Hill
@gorhill
Jan 13 • 23 tweets • 9 min read
There is a lot of chatter in the last days about how Youtube is slow with content blockers.

Those performance issues affect only the latest version of both Adblock Plus (3.22) & AdBlock (5.17), and afflict more than just Youtube.

uBO is *not* affected.

See issue tracker for both Adblock Plus and AdBlock:



A reminder that both blockers are owned by the same entity and use the same filtering engine -- using both at the same time make no sense.gitlab.com/groups/adblock…
Apr 24, 2021 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
The mere existence of such bypass mechanisms does not warrant labeling proven privacy-enhancing tools as "snake oil" (which Wikipedia defines as "euphemism for deceptive marketing"), so I take issue to see uBlock Origin being labeled as such. If the mere existence of such bypass mechanisms is enough to label proven privacy-enhancing tools as "snake oil", then wouldn't Google's FLoC also deserve the label?
Apr 7, 2021 • 11 tweets • 4 min read
Of interest to advanced users.

uBlock Origin can function as a fully-fledged script blocker in default-deny mode:

1) Check "Disable JavaScript" in Settings pane
2) Enable "Medium mode"

github.com/gorhill/uBlock… Result when visiting a typical webpage (note the "domains connected" figure, and the pluses in overview pane in the screenshots).

Only passive content resources allowed, such as images, CSS, etc.
Apr 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
These instances of wrongdoings have been made public 11 years ago by Wikileaks
I have this mental image of a large dark canvas representing all the wrongdoings still not brought to light with a few pixels representing the light shone on the instances reported in this documentary Image Excerpt, @johnpilger: "You must remember that the attack on Iraq -- although presented as a war -- was not a war, it was so one-sided, and it became an attack on the civilian population"
Jul 31, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Too often I hear misinformed statements regarding JS-based content blockers -- worse when made in an authoritative manner.

So here I benchmark uBO's static filtering engine (responsible for enforcing EasyList et al.) with over 820K network filters. This is the results using the built-in benchmark:
github.com/gorhill/uBlock… (you can try it for yourself).

I get ~11µs/request on average, which is no different than if I had benchmarked with just the default filter lists.
Jun 24, 2020 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
An article concerning "Acceptable Ads" product from @ResPrivacy:

My thoughts regarding some parts of the article. We do not actually know whether the several "Acceptable Ads" products are completely independent of each other:

Adblock Plus → Eyeo
Adblock Browser → Eyeo
Crystal → Eyeo
AdBlock → BetaFish
AdBlock Premium → Betafish
uBlock (not uBO) → Betafish
Jun 13, 2019 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
"Since Google's stated goal is to make ad blockers safer, The Register asked Google whether any ad blockers have actually abused webRequest. We've not heard back."

theregister.co.uk/2019/06/13/goo… The abuse I've seen repeatedly is not of webRequest API: unethical blockers ripping the code base of legitimate blockers, but with an added permission which allows execution of remote code in extension context.

Jun 13, 2019 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
This changes nothing of what I said regarding uBlock Origin.

security.googleblog.com/2019/06/improv… The "whole website" can still be seen by a passive webRequest API -- so why is "some sensitive data" even used as an argument to justify declarativeNetRequest API? Additionally, content scripts can also access sensitive data.
May 30, 2019 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
It is not possible for uBlock Origin ("uBO") to retrofit its matching algorithm into the set-in-stone matching algorithm of the declarativeNetRequest API. Matching algorithm logic of:

declarativeNetRequest API (Easylist-like filtering):

- if sb and not sa then block

uBO (*simplified* to not drown in details):

- if db then block
- else if not da then
- if sbb or (sb and not sa) then block
Jan 17, 2019 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Whoever is driven to install this "NewsGuard" extension, be aware that you are disclosing your browsing history.

For each site you visit, there will be a connection to "api.newsguardtech[.]com/check/[hostname of visited site]". The result will be cached locally for at most 30 minutes.
Oct 31, 2018 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
ABP hypes "50% memory use reduction".

Let's see. Two small tests follow, using Chromium 70 32-bit (no access to a 64-bit OS for the time being).

ABP 3.4: EasyList/EasyPrivacy/AA disabled
uBO 1.17.3b4: default Memory usage of extension itself...
- Top pic: after launch + idle for 1 min
- Bottom pic: after visiting 5 top Hacker News links + closing visited tabs + idle for 1 min