Avoid Ads and Creepy Tracking Scripts With Privoxy

Ad blocking is a controversial subject; much of the content you consume on the Web every day is made possible only thanks to ad revenue--and if everyone blocked ads, websites may have to use other means to generate revenue, such as putting their content behind a paywall. That said, some people feel that ads are not only irritating, but also violate their privacy. If you are of these people, Privoxy is a free tool that offers a wealth of ways to rid yourself of ads and tracking.

Privoxy can show a detailed log of all traffic it blocks and lets through, for troubleshooting purposes.As its name implies, Privoxy is a proxy: It comes between your browser and the Web, intercepting HTTP and HTTPS (secure HTTP) traffic and acting as a traffic cop of sorts. Privoxy sanitizes the information your browser sends and receives. Content blocking works by simply not delivering the ad to the browser, or not fetching it at all, so there's nothing to display (or nothing to run, in case it's a JavaScript user tracking script).

There are many browser-specific add-ons for blocking ads, such as the excellent Adblock Plus for Firefox and Chrome. But these run within the browser, and may crash or make it slower. Privoxy runs outside the browser, and is browser-agnostic: All browsers on your system can use this single tool and surf ad-free, even if they don't have ad-blocking plugins of their own.

Privoxy's configuration files consist of hundreds of carefully documented lines.If you are just looking to block ads, Privoxy is simple enough to use: Just install it, tell your browser to use it as a proxy (this changes from browser to browser), and you're done. I didn't tweak any configuration options, and ads all but disappeared from the websites I tested. I did notice a couple of quirks, such as images not loading on a test website, but when I tried the same website in a different browser it worked fine (and then it started working in the first browser too).

While Privoxy's default configuration is robust enough, if you feel the need to troubleshoot or modify anything, you'd best set aside an hour or two to dig through the extensive documentation and lengthy configuration files. Privoxy provides a built-in troubleshooting tool to help you understand why it blocked (or didn't block) a certain URL, but its output can be cryptic and is a far cry from intuitive browser tools that let you eliminate ads just by clicking on them. Privoxy's FAQ claims that "complicated is in the eye of the beholder"--well, this beholder sure feels it's complicated.

Privoxy offers a Web-based configuration tool, but it is only marginally easier to use than editing the files by hand.Privoxy's documentation shows how passionate the authors are about ad blocking and privacy protection on the Web: I don't remember the last time I've read a manual that referred to a software product as "a veritable arsenal of tools with which to exert our control, preferences and independence."

Whether or not Privoxy's immense power is worth the hassle of configuring it is up to you--just like deciding if you want to use an ad blocker in the first place.

Note: This file is donationware. It is free to use, but the developer accepts donations.

--Erez Zukerman

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Avoid Annoying Ads With Adblock Plus

How much would you pay to not have to see anything about someone's weird trick to lose weight that orthodontists don't want you to know about? Is "nothing" a good price to pay? Adblock Plus is a powerful, and free, plugin for Firefox, Chrome, and Thunderbird that strips out almost all advertising from the Web pages you view. Install the plugin, restart your browser, and resume surfing.

Adblock Plus gives you the power to edit filters to limit more ads, or even let some in.I say "almost all" for two reasons: First, the default configuration, with the user can change with ease, allows in a small amount of non-intrusive advertising: No flashy animations, no popups. These ads are allowed in by a user-editable list of "approved" sites and sources. This is not a bad thing; many sites can exist only because of advertising, and blocking everything, even on sites you like and support, will mean the end of a lot of content. Second, while I haven't found problems yet, it is known that advertisers, especially the ones you most want to block due to the sleaziness of their tactics and their products, are constantly working to find ways around blocking, so there isn't an absolute 100% guarantee that something won't slip by. Fortunately, Adblock Plus includes the ability to report such sneaks (so the algorithms can be updated).

It's quite interesting to compare the same page in a browser with Adblock Plus installed, and in one without. Faster loading, more readable content, and less risk of things being shoved aside by incorrectly-sized images are all benefits of this useful tool, not to mention reducing the problem of otherwise safe sites which contains ads from dubious or hacked sources that attempt drive-by downloads and exploits.

Adblock Plus is free, it's user-configurable so that you can let through some ads, or block more, and I noticed no performance problems or loss of desired content (though this isn't a guarantee it will never happen). There's really no good reason to not install it, unless you like seeing annoying and intrusive ads.

--Ian Harac

Starting with Adblock Plus 2.0 you can allow some of the advertising that is considered not annoying. By doing this you support websites that rely on advertising but choose to do it in a non-intrusive way. And you give these websites an advantage over their competition which encourages other websites to use non-intrusive advertising as well. In the long term the web will become a better place for everybody, not only Adblock Plus users. Without this feature we run the danger that increasing Adblock Plus usage will make small websites unsustainable.

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