Adblock Plus and (a little) more

Adblock Plus 3.21 for Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Opera · 2023-11-09 18:51 by Thomas Greiner

Install Adblock Plus 3.21 for Chrome
Install Adblock Plus 3.21 for Microsoft Edge
Install Adblock Plus 3.21 for Opera

This release adds functionality for skipping video ads, as well as improvements and fixes for various snippets.

Snippets changes

Upgraded @eyeo/snippets to 0.10.0 (release notes: 0.9.1, 0.10.0), which includes the following changes:

• Added skip-video snippet.
• Added optional autoRemoveCookie parameter to cookie-remover snippet.
• Added optional setConfigurable parameter to override-property-read snippet (snippets#20).
• Fixed: Snippets could overwrite each other, if they used the waitUntil parameter.
• Fixed: hide-if-matches-xpath3 snippet behaved differently in Firefox (see issue).
• Fixed: prevent-listener snippet failed to target certain listeners (snippets#16).
• Fixed: cookie-remover was unable to determine frame domain, if cookies get reset after removal (snippets#18).

Tags: adblock plus adblock plus chrome

Comment [3]

1. Guest · 2023-11-15 21:51 · #

   Just out of curiosity. The Firefox extension doesn’t seem to get updated as regularly as Chrome, Edge, Opera starting at version 3.18 with Firefox stuck at 3.17.1. Anything to that?

   Reply from Thomas Greiner:

   We’re dedicated to continue to support Firefox, but indeed we weren’t able to bring the latest updates over to Firefox. The problem we encountered is that, unlike other browsers, Firefox requires that extensions offer a way for users to opt-out of any data collection that the extension performs – even non-personal, technical data. So when we introduced basic telemetry to Adblock Plus in version 3.18, we couldn’t get it out to Firefox users.

   Therefore we’re currently exploring different ways on how to best offer such an opt-out to our telemetry to get back on track and deliver new updates for Firefox again.

   In case you’re interested, we’re tracking this issue at https://gitlab.com/adblockinc/ext/adblockplus/adblockplusui/-/issues/1416, where you should see progress, as soon as everything has been cleared internally.

2. Guest · 2023-11-16 21:02 · #

   Thank you for the reply Mr. Greiner.

3. kain hirsch-hall · 2023-12-13 02:27 · #

   why not just not have any data collection?
   .
   why are you trying to figure out how to still get data out of users of Firefox?
   it seems pretty clear that Firefox users do NOT want their data collected (which is why most install Firefox these days)
   .
   so….
   if people dont want their data collected….
   and you cant collect the data…….
   then why not just not collect the data….. and patch the extension?
   .
   seems like a MUCH easier fix than trying to find a loophole in the Firefox TOS/EULA………………
   .
   .
   i dont even know why i still use this extension…….
   it doesnt block youtube ads anymore….. while other extensions do

   Reply from Thomas Greiner:

   Some data collection will always be necessary for the operation of an ad blocker, such as for the downloads that are necessary for keeping the ad blocking rules updated, or when users decide to submit an issue report to notify us of problems, or when users purchase Premium and the extension needs to check whether the user’s Premium subscription is still active.

   We’re currently not collecting any telemetry data from Firefox users even though Firefox allows extensions to collect such data.

   That’s why we’re following Firefox’ recommendation and are adding a way to disable any collection of such technical data before we publish an update that contains any such data collection (see https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/publish/add-on-policies/#data-disclosure-collection-and-management ).

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