EasyList's 2mdn.net exception has undesirable effect

[Darty]

Hi!

Easylist's exception...

Code: Select all

@@||2mdn.net/crossdomain.xml$object-subrequest

...which is coupled with Dart player SWF thingies (nobody in their right mind want to load anything DART related), has a side effect on all videos from cinefil.com. For instance this one: http://www.cinefil.com/film/minuit-a-pa ... de-annonce

It loads tracking stuff and a video ad.
Disabling the crossdomain.xml exception prevents all this dirt to load. While I trust there is a good reason for this exception, DART related stuff is awful for privacy. So unless it is suitable to modify the exception in EasyList, could EasyPrivacy override it in some way so that privacy concerned users remain protected?

I hope other EasyList exceptions don't have that kind of side effect :/

But of course, thank you for making the lists in the first place!

[fanboy]

We have a similar filter in the Fanboy subscription, 2mdn (and its dart stuff) is used for video ads/video hosting, so to avoid many whitelists for video sites its easier to whitelist a small sub-section of 2mdn. I don't think its a huge privacy issue, users want a working video player not a broken one.

[Darty]

There could hardly be more high tech and widespread tracking as Google Doubleclick's DART though. If some site is not capable of working without such crap it's not worth my visit, especially when most videos can be found on several (better) sites.

Now I understand EasyList's main wish not to break stuff of course. But those who installed EasyPrivacy feel safer with it. How much would they prefer some random feature of a random site to be kept working over not being tracked on several dozens of main sites?

While this is a topic that can be debated (I'm sure it has been done enough already by now considering ABP is several years old ^^), my concern is that I will have to review EVERY whitelist entry if you guys don't consider this exception a mistake to be fixed in one way or the other. (I trust that usually you add other filters to reduce side effects like the ones linked in this thread, but this case would be a precedent)

Either I review the entries or I keep an eye on the filtered elements panel regularly. Kind of partly defeats the point of having an automated ad/track blocker isn't it?

So I have 2 suggestions:
- Add a "reason" field for exception rules so that users know their purpose
- Put privacy affecting exceptions in EasyPrivacy instead of EasyList, since users most concerned with privacy tend to disable exceptions in that list (at least I know several who do)

Maybe putting this DART exception in EasyPrivacy would be enough for a quick fix until you decide between whatever concerns you have?


Thanks for your time and keep up the good work! (yes ABP and its lists are great, why else would I write this post? )

[Ares2]

Your second suggestion makes no sense at all: If EasyList breaks a video we are supposed to fix it in EasyPrivacy? Can you already see your thinking error?

Anyway, the way 2mdn.net is handled will be changed soon (because I myself feel just the same way about such general whitelists and therefore try to remove them whenever possible). Stay tuned (could take a few days though).

[Darty]

Hehe yeah I noticed but didn't want to double post. I mostly threw suggestions because I hate criticism made by people who sit on their hands and babble about how everything made by everyone else suck

What I meant to say is that there are *some* users, particularly those who installed EasyPrivacy, who should definitely be ok with a couple of broken sites when the alternative is as pointed in 1st post. NoScript breaks a ton of sites for instance but attempts to create surrogates for crucial yet "evil" widespread scripts.

Maybe there's a way to make similar surrogates in a future ABP version, instead of having to whitelist some widespread stuff? (which makes your task a lot harder, I assume)
I guess there's not. Anyway thanks for trying to find an alternative solution to this exception

[Hubird]

Anyway, the way 2mdn.net is handled will be changed soon (because I myself feel just the same way about such general whitelists and therefore try to remove them whenever possible). Stay tuned (could take a few days though).

I have tried to do just that in my subscriptions with double click and 2mdn.net. My modifying my approach a little I've managed to reduce the amount of related false positives quite a bit.