Adblock Plus and (a little) more

Restricting the use of subscribe links to prevent circumvention · 2020-12-18 16:00 by Laura Dornheim

After it is safe to assume that (almost) all Adblock Plus users have been updated to version 3.10 now*, we want to share some more details about changes we made in that latest version. Specifically the restrictions regarding the use of subscribe-links: One of the latest circumvention methods we discovered was abusing the “subscribe” feature. Intended to make it easy for users to subscribe to filter lists that improve their ad blocking experience, some websites have used this feature to unblock their ads and trackers, without user consent. And as you know we really have something against unwanted ads creeping into your browser tabs!

This is why we have made some changes to only let trusted websites (listed here) use this feature from now on. We understand that this might exclude some websites that have been using subscribe-links in a legitimate way. After investigating the situation, we have come to the decision that restricting use of this functionality is in the best interest of our users.

Of course we appreciate your feedback and are already planning on adding more domains to the list of trusted websites, for example one of our users rightfully suggested to add github.io and gitlab.io. If you own or know a website that relies on using subscribe-links and should be added to our list of trusted sites, please reach out to us at support@adblockplus.org.

*Updates happen automatically, but you can always check if you have the latest version. In Chrome, copy chrome://extensions/ in your URL bar, in Firefox it’s about:addons, to see the status of all your extensions.

Comment [4]

1. محمد · 2020-12-26 09:39 · #

   Am I to understand that if I am a bad site administrator and want to bypass Adblock Plus, all I have to do now is host my malicious list on one of the trusted websites?

   If so, the restriction will not solve the problem !!

2. Med · 2020-12-27 13:27 · #

   https://cdn.rawgit.com/
   https://git.teknik.io/
   https://gitcdn.link/
   https://gitcdn.xyz/
   https://raw.githubusercontent.com/
   https://rawcdn.githack.com/

3. Guest · 2021-01-11 05:31 · #

   https://gist.githubusercontent.com/

4. Dollar · 2021-01-22 21:51 · #

   Block all adds on my Samsung A01F5

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