2y ago

How many Adblocking/Privacy extensions are too much?

So as the title mentions, I'm wondering how much is too much?

I am currently using Brave with the setting to:

Aggressively block trackers & ads
Only connect with HTTPS
Block fingerprinting
Block cross-site cookies

In addition to that, I have installed the following extensions:

uBlock Origin
Ghostery
Decentraleyes
DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials

So my question is: Is this overkill? If so, what should/could be removed that may be redundant? I want as much coverage as possible, but not have things bloated.

120 comments

I mean ublock origin is really all you need imo so I guess one
- I disagree. Test your set up here :
  https://d3ward.github.io/toolz/adblock.html
  I use ublock and ad guard (app and DNS) together to get to 100%.
  
  I get 100% using only ublock in firefox, without configuring either. Note that stacking filters not only reduces performance, but also increases your fingerprint.
  
  just firefox + uBlock Origin => 100% - with the correct filterlists enabled ;)
  
  Hmm, interesting tool! With just Brave blocking I get 96%, but turning on uBO, I get 100%.
  
  Very interesting site.
  On Vivaldi I get:
  No blocking in settings: 39% (how?)
  only Ghostery active: 86%
  only uBlock active: 100% (ghostery still reports trackers)
  Vivaldi Max blocking, no add-ons: 53%
  Vivaldi max blocking + Ghostery: 93%
  All max blocing and on: 100% (same as just uBlock)
  uBlock reports 144 blocked
  Ghostery reports 53 blocked
  Even with only uBlock I get a report of 144 blocked ads (96%) with 150 tests and the site showing 100% score Interesting. It's a nice test site, but I think I can conclude in my setup that uBlock is the best blocker, but a combination of Vivaldi's settings and uBlock is a minimum. No clue if ghostery ads anything, but the site won't test everything as it's impossible to do that in the ad war we're in.
- One is the right number. Two is too many.

Please never do this! Read this thread from the developer of uBlock Origin. Using multiple content blockers together like this can and will cause issues, as well as will increase fingerprinting, etc, and there's no gain or benefit at all from doing so.
I would disable Brave's built-in ad/tracker blocking (leave the rest of the Shields' functionality enabled), and would solely use uBlock Origin, and remove the other extensions. (You could even just stick to Brave's built in ad/tracker blocking if you want to, but I just prefer uBlock Origin for its advanced features and compatibility)
As far as Decentraleyes goes, its essentially abandoned. You can use LocalCDN instead if you wish to do so, though its privacy benefits are debated. I mainly use it since I use uBlock Origin in Hard mode (which it complements uBo very nicely in both Medium or Hard Mode), and for the performance boost it gives, but its up to you. Ghostery and DDG Essentials should definitely be removed. (While DDG Essentials isn't only content blocking, its other features are also just completely redundant and unnecessary with Brave)
- DDG extension lets you enable and manage their private email forwarding service. It can also be done through their mobile browser but less convenient.

I use the extensions based on the Arkenfox user.js wiki. He describes what's obsolete or redundant, etc. It's a good quick read.
- Ooh, I like this! Much appreciated.

Brave is trash and its owned by an asshole. I use adblock browser in my phone and Firefox otherwise. Not sure about the owner or Dev or whatever, but it's much better quality for blocking ads.
An answer to the more pertinent question of how much is too much, however? None. There's no such thing as too much ad blocking.
- Why is it trash?
  And why are Americans obsessed with the politics of who makes a product?
  Its a free, as in free beer, browser. By using it you are not donating money to the CEO.
  
  Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure he donated to (or still donates to?) homophobic action groups.
  That's more than enough reason to boycott something that person is in charge of, imo
  
  Never mind the American politics nonsense, Brave has a history of slightly dodgy behaviour. Replacing websites ads with their own, keeping donations meant for creators, hijacking referral links and adding in their own, a lot of cryptocurrency shenanigans, and that's just what's on Wikipedia!
  
  I agree with you, that's irrelevant. What's not irrelevant is that it's chromium as in based on chrome, the browser trying to add drm to internet pages. Please use Firefox instead
  
  Given that the US has almost zero privacy legislation, the politics of the owner/maker often hints at decisions that eventually make it into the software. Many of the reasons to avoid chrome and chromium are similar to this, though not about a specific person but about the values that google holds in fucking over standards. We see this reflected in some of the decisions of say social media platforms (even "free-as-in-beer" ones) and many companies.
  In many cases, you're still giving them money and/or power to continue fucking up open standards.

You just need uBlock. The other add-ons are redundant.
- uBlock origin + NoScript. Imo.
  
  But uBlock also has javascript blocking functionality, so I'm not sure NoScript is needed
- Yes for the browser i agree, sadly apps have trackers and ads too. A dns can be useful if it's system wide for all that stuff. Nextdns, adguard, rethinkdns or decloudus comes to mind

- Never heard that Ublock and DDG isn't good. Could you link the thread where this was found out?
- you can use them together you just got to know how to fix stuff

You can have what Brave does except block ads/trackers, which uBO can cover anyway, but on Firefox or Librewolf instead. For extensions, ditch Ghostery.
- Noted! I have been looking into Librewolf... Why is Ghostery not useful?
  
  Ghostery used to sell (or just send back) user data to advertisers. While it was opt-in, that isn’t really a good look for a privacy tool. I stopped using it when that news broke out long ago, but I think now they are also showing ads of their own(?). Either way, uBO does almost everything now. I have Decentraleyes too, along with ClearURLs, and Privacy Badger (which supposedly is redundant to uBO now too).

My rule for this is if tor uses it its pretty dam good aka No script + Ublock Orgin
- tor using ublock origin would be new to me. do you mean they now ship it by default or do you mean that you can install it like a regular firefox extension?
  
  Oh come to think of it you might be right I don't use tor a lot lol

Ditch ghostery and replace with privacy badger.
- Is PrivacyBadger not made redundant by uBlock or any of the other extensions?
  
  PrivacyBadger functionality is now built into uBO.
  
  I hope to find this out, too. I'm using UBO and Privacy Badger on Firefox.

Use Firefox with ubo. Stop using chromium browsers.
- After reading through this whole thread, that's exactly what I'm doing.
  
  Firefox isn't as secure as Chromium browsers due to its internal sandboxing and site isolation being substantially weaker (especially on Linux). If you are on a Linux machine, I recommend you use Brave with no ad blocking extensions because first, it comes with an ad blocker by default. Also, the more extensions you have, your attack surface increases.
  If you are on Windows, you should be using Microsoft Edge paired with UBO Lite as it offers the highest security and UBO Lite doesn't have access to the site data. If you are concerned about the telemetry of using Edge, you can turn it off and if you're still paranoid, you will have to switch to Linux at this point.

With brave you don't need any of those addons.
On Firefox just uBlock is fine.
- brave has its own 'issues' that should keep you far away from it.
  
  I don't use it just because I'm not a fan of how chromium browsers work. They have had some controversies too around their crypto stuff and other things, but I'm not too familiar with them.

Yup. Overkill. But, thankfully extension removal is just a click away. More users should ask questions like this.

Websites can also dingier print you by your browser settings and extensions.
So, having a lot of extensions can defeat the purpose of privacy.
I try to keep default settings and a minimal number of extensions.
- It depends on what browser and what extensions. Previously addon could be fingerprinted by detecting what web resourves they used (i think just chromium). On firefox extensions can get detected by sensing certain telltale changes they provide. eg. Inserting js in dom or blocking of ad/tracking domains. Even if the extension itself isnt identified, unique settings and multiple content blockers will make kinds of fingerprinting possible.

I've tested a few browsers using Eff's Cover Your Tracks website. The best is TOR, but Brave with no extensions is second, it said it provided a randomized fingerprint. Tried it with Firefox with uBlock and it said my comp had a unique fingerprint. Mullvad browser faired slighty better, cant recall the score, but at least it wasn't unique. I tried it with Librewolf also with a load of extensions and it was a poor score as well. So, imo, you don't need extensions with Brave. I think my settings are the same as yours.

You don't need any of those.
The functions and lists of uBlock are built into Brave. Most of the rest are redundant. You're just having the opposite effect that you're trying to achieve. These extensions are just used to fingerprint you.
- So you don't use any extensions then?
  
  Depends on which browser. On Brave the only ones I use are Proton Pass and ViolentMonkey. You can search/install/run scripts in ViolentMonkey to do the same thing as any other extension.

Just one is too many. The goal is to blend in not stand out. Use Mullvad Browser and Tor Browser.
- Are you really standing out when over a third of all internet users use adblockers? Source in German
  
  Everyone needs to be using the same lists..

Honastpy at this point you should turn them all ofi and set up a pi hole
- pihole by itself does not remove all the ads and trackers, just ones that come from different hostnames than the site being accessed--which can be blocked by dns.
  a browser-based blocker is essential.
- Pi hole is great for blocking ads from IoT devices like TVs or streaming boxes. But pi hope can’t block things like YouTube ads.

The only privacy add-on you need is uBlock Origin with script blocking and advanced mode enabled, installed on Firefox. Better yet, LibreWolf, although a few websites will be broken by LibreWolf. There are no other privacy add-ons that are necessary beyond uBlock Origin.
I mean, you can install them if you want, but they won't do anything.