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posted by Fnord666 on Monday August 28 2017, @04:19PM   Printer-friendly
from the your-browser-my-way dept.

It's being reported on HackerNews that the Pale Moon Browser is blocking the AdNauseum extension, an ad blocking extension designed to obfuscate browsing data and protect users from tracking by advertising networks.

The main story link is to the Pale Moon Forum which summarises the issue as follows:

After investigating the AdNauseam extension's behavior and the results for web publishers, the extension has been added to the Pale Moon blocklist with a severity level of 2 (meaning you won't be able to enable it unless you increase the blocking level in about:config to 3). For those unfamiliar with this extension: it generates false ad "clicks" to ad servers in an attempt to generate "noise" for the ad networks in a protest against the advertising network system as a whole.

While the premise behind this is similar to poisoning trackers with false fingerprints (which we are proponents of, ourselves), and we normally let users decide for themselves what they want to do with their browser, we are strictly against allowing extensions that cause direct damage (including damage to third parties). There is a subtle but important difference between blocking content and generating fake user interaction.

[...] Because this extension causes direct and indirect economic damage to website owners, it is classified as malware, and as such blocked.

From the forum threads this decision has been slightly controversial with some users.

If you're not familiar with Pale Moon, it is an Open Source web browser, forked from a mature Mozilla code release, and has been covered on SN before.

[Update: Added text re: blocking level; bolded text that was bold in the original posting. --martyb]


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  • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @05:56PM (4 children)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday August 28 2017, @05:56PM (#560359) Homepage
    This extension does not click on an advertising link, therefore your questioning comment is irrelevant.

    The reason it's considered bad is in the original post to the forum, and they are resonable arguments. There seem to be no actual valid responses to those arguments in the top couple of pages. Most who oppose the block seem to be pretty damn stupid. Some can be summarised as "it's disgusting that I have to do something to get this extension installed" not realising that they had to do something (namely install it) in order to get it installed anyway. Idiots such as that can be safely ignored. They add nothing of value.
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  • (Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Monday August 28 2017, @09:24PM

    by Joe Desertrat (2454) on Monday August 28 2017, @09:24PM (#560516)

    Idiots such as that can be safely ignored. They add nothing of value.

    While they may add nothing of value, they do seem capable of causing a great deal of damage.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by frojack on Monday August 28 2017, @11:07PM (2 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday August 28 2017, @11:07PM (#560568) Journal

    This extension does not click on an advertising link, therefore your questioning comment is irrelevant.

    Check your facts:

    Clicking Ads so you don't have to.

    As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating Ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile.

    See https://adnauseam.io/ [adnauseam.io]

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday August 28 2017, @11:20PM (1 child)

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday August 28 2017, @11:20PM (#560577) Homepage
      So if someone says his dog's tail is a leg, then it has 5 legs?

      It doesn't click anything, it can't. It submits http requests, as if the user has clicked, that's all, that doesn't mean there was anything to click on, or anything clicking on these nonexistent things. We can see inside the chinese room, stop pretending we can't.
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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @11:35AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @11:35AM (#560760)

        Phil, give it up. You were wrong. Just admit it.