Adblock Plus and (a little) more

Rewriting URL instead of blocking · 2018-05-18 18:17 by Hubert Figuière

Starting with Adblock Plus 3.2 for Chrome, Firefox and Opera (and development builds as of 3.1.0.2053), there is a new $rewrite filter option to rewrite the URL of a resource instead of blocking it.

Internationalized domains in filters are now expected to be encoded as Punycode · 2018-05-18 17:00 by Sebastian Noack

Starting with Adblock Plus 3.2 (and development builds as of 3.1.0.2050), domains given in filters are expected to be encoded as Punycode.

Adblock Plus 3.1 for Chrome, Firefox and Opera released · 2018-05-16 15:00 by Sebastian Noack

Install Adblock Plus 3.1 for Chrome
Install Adblock Plus 3.1 for Firefox
Install Adblock Plus 3.1 for Opera

This release features the new $csp filter option which equips filter lists authors with yet another tool to counter ad blocking circumvention on some websites, as well as a mechanism for system administrators to pre-configure Adblock Plus on Firefox, along other improvements and bug fixes.

Changes

Added the $csp filter option (issue 5241).
Requests sent by Shared/Service Workers are now matched in the context of the document that caused the worker to spawn, i.e. requests sent from the worker are now also subject to document-based whitelisting and domain-specific filters (issue 6543).
Users with corrupted storage are now notified and instructed to reinstall Adblock Plus (issue 6599).
Fixed: Videos (and other media elements) remained hidden if they previously attempt to stream a blocked resource (e.g. a pre-roll ad) but then changed their URL (issue 5899).
Fixed: Exception rules for element hiding emulation filters were considered invalid when adding custom filters (issue 6139).
Improved performance of element hiding emulation filters (issue 6437).

Chrome/Opera-only changes

Requests sent by the browser itself or by Adblock Plus are no longer subject to request blocking (issue 6544). This is now consistent with the behavior on Firefox, and prevents a dysfunctional state in case of misconfiguration or overly greedy rules in filter lists.

Firefox-only changes

Added support for pre-configurable preferences (issue 6474).
Prevented third-party style sheets from breaking element hiding emulation filters (issue 6382).
Worked around the limitations of notifications on Firefox (issue 6496).

Behind the scenes of Adblock Plus’s new Settings page · 2018-04-25 14:00 by Jeen Low

Today we are happy to share our biggest update yet! With the release of Adblock Plus 3.0.3 on Chrome and Opera brings an all-new Settings page which allows users to control their online browsing even more easily.

Pre-configurable preferences for system administrators on Firefox 57 and above · 2018-04-21 17:30 by Sebastian Noack

Starting with Adblock Plus 3.1 and Firefox 57, system administrators will be able to pre-configure Adblock Plus in order to suppress the first run page or to add additional default subscriptions through a managed storage manifest. This feature is now available in the developments builds as of 3.0.4.2028.

Added support for the $csp filter option · 2018-04-21 17:30 by Dave Vandyke

Starting with Adblock Plus 3.1 (and development builds as of 3.0.4.2028) the $csp filter option is supported. The $csp filter option allows for the injection of additional Content Security Policies.

Adblock Plus 3.0.4 for Firefox released · 2018-04-21 15:20 by Sebastian Noack

Install Adblock Plus 3.0.4 for Firefox

When we recently released Adblock Plus 3.0.3, we accidentally pushed the build for Chrome and Opera to our Firefox users as well (instead of uploading the Firefox-specific build to AMO). This caused the update page intended for Chrome and Opera users only, to show on Firefox as well (issue 6604), along some other potential issues.

We just pushed the correct build to our Firefox users as Adblock Plus 3.0.4. There are no changes compared to the build that was supposed to be released as Adblock Plus 3.0.3 in the first place.

We apologize to our users that got unintentionally bothered by the update page, or experienced any other issues due to this incident since yesterday.

German Supreme Court: Ad blocking is legal, Axel Springer lose final appeal · 2018-04-19 17:24 by Tom Woolford

Get antisocial to protect your data. · 2018-04-12 13:50 by Tom Woolford

Adblock Plus shows how to disable social media sharing buttons to stop social networks tracking you off site.

Adblock Plus 3.0.3 for Chrome, Firefox and Opera rolled out progressively · 2018-04-10 15:01 by Sebastian Noack

Install Adblock Plus 3.0.3 for Chrome
Install Adblock Plus 3.0.3 for Firefox
Install Adblock Plus 3.0.3 for Opera

This is the first combined release for Chrome, Opera and Firefox since the troublesome migration to Firefox Web Extensions. This marks a major release for Chrome and Opera, notably including the redesigned Settings page, along with many other improvements. However, there isn’t as much an impact for Firefox users, updating from the previous version. It’s mostly a bug fix release for them.

This release will be rolled out progressively. Today, we started to update 5% of our existing Chrome users. New users installing Adblock Plus from the Chrome Web Store will get the latest version as well. If all goes well, we will push the update out to Firefox, Opera and the remaining Chrome users next week. The reason for rolling this release out in stages is that we want to ensure the new Settings page design is well received.

Changes

Improved element hiding emulation filters.
- Fixed false positives and related memory leak in dynamically changing documents (issue 5864).
- Added regular expression support for :-abp-contains() (issue 6034).
- Added support for relative prefix within :-abp-has() (issue 6296).
Fixed empty error message when adding invalid custom filter (issue 6417).
Removed the social media buttons from the ABP icon menu (issue 5613).

Chrome/Opera-only changes

Replaced the Settings page with new user experience (issue 6403).
Added an update page, announcing the new Settings page (issue 5943).
Added an issue reporter for inaccurately blocked content (issue 5880).
Started using user style sheets on Chrome 66 (respectively Opera 53) and above, in order to hide elements more reliably (issue 242).
Fixed element hiding emulation filters on Chrome 50 (respectively Opera 37) and below (issue 5773).
Made the “Block element” option unavailable when navigating to the Chrome Web Store (issue 6191).
Worked around limitations of notifications on Opera (issue 5354).

Firefox-only changes

Fixed a bug causing pages to be rendered blank when Web Components are enabled (issue 6441).
Fixed the “Block element” dialog on Firefox 51 (issue 6113).
Fixed links in the mobile Settings page, seen on Android (issue 6199).
Fixed: Message about whitelisted domain is shown repeatedly on the Settings page (issue 6420).
Improved performance when adding large number of custom filters (issue 6440).

Update (2018-04-18): We proceeded with the progressive roll out, making the update available to all Chrome users. The update for Firefox and Opera will still follow.

Update (2018-04-21): Yesterday, we pushed out the update to Firefox users, but did a mistake which lead to releasing Adblock Plus 3.0.4, today. We also just pushed out the update to Opera users.