Re: [Tails-dev] AdBlock Plus in Tails' Tor Browser

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Author: intrigeri
Date:  
To: The Tails public development discussion list
Old-Topics: Re: [Tails-dev] AdBlock Plus in Tails' Tor Browser
Subject: Re: [Tails-dev] AdBlock Plus in Tails' Tor Browser
Hi,

sajolida wrote (01 Feb 2015 17:28:15 GMT) :
> Being friendly to big websites
> ------------------------------


> [...] And the thing is that Tails is a very tiny portion of Tor users. So
> Tails removing or keeping AdBlock Plus probably won't influence the
> power balance with blocking sites that much. [...]


Sure.

> Regarding fingerprinting
> ------------------------


> [...] So if the idea of removing AdBlock is too make Tails look more like, say
> Tor Browser on Windows, then yes it will surely improve things a bit on
> some aspect (analysis of network flows) but not others (graphical
> analysis of the display) and might not be a strong enough argument on
> its own. I'm not sure which technique is easier to perform for
> an attacker.


Fair enough.

bertagaz wrote (01 Feb 2015 19:09:58 GMT) :
> On Sun, Feb 01, 2015 at 05:28:15PM +0000, sajolida wrote:
>> To finish with, I'm personally not really thrilled about that debate
>> anymore. I do with ads in Tor Browser outside of Tails, and I'm fine.
>> But I would still keep AdBlock Plus as a political statement against
>> surveillance of users and ads as the core business model of nowadays
>> Internet. Fuck that shit! :)


> +1 :)


My gut feeling is the same.

So, a little bit of introspection makes it clear that I was sticking
to my original proposal mostly because I wasn't happy with how the
decision making process went, in part because it resulted in me doing
some actual work that'll be wasted time in the end, and in part
because of the timing of the objections vs. the discussion that
initially lead to what looked very much like a decision to me.
I'm sorry about that.

I'm also sorry I can't promise that the resulting bitterness I'm
feeling will magically and rapidly disappear — I'll try though!
Let's try to fix the root cause, that is to do better in terms of
decision making next time such a controversial topic arises (e.g. *I*
should have put it on the agenda of a monthly meeting to ensure it
gets enough exposure, and others could have raised their objections
a few months earlier, before I invest time into an implementation).

Now, I have to realize, thanks to all these sound and articulated
arguments (thanks!), that the only practical reasons we have to remove
AdBlock Plus are pretty weak, and that as a project we have one good
political reason to keep it.

So, I'm hereby withdrawing the "removing AdBlock Plus" proposal for
the time being. We should reconsider this topic once Tor Browser
itself has addressed the most pressing of its remaining fingerprinting
issues.

I'll update Redmine accordingly, and I've added it as an optional
topic to the summit agenda, in case someone else than me feels that we
should discuss it there (I personally don't).

Cheers,
--
intrigeri