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by rpdillon 1563 days ago
> impersonate you at the browser level

This is a new framing for me...I don't think of ublock as impersonating me, but rather representing me, like an agent in a transaction. While it's true that agents that represent you need to be trusted, there is also a huge upside: ublock origin can do things that DNS blocking cannot. Given ublock's (gorhill's) track record, I think this is an excellent deal.
2 comments
biomcgary 1563 days ago
Gorhill's track record is the critical bit. He transferred maintenance responsibilities for ublock to someone who immediately exploited it to make money, which is why we now have ublock origin. In a world of 7.9 billion people, it is amazing that a decent internet experience depends so much on a single person being competent and honorable. He (and the block list folks) are the heroes that run into the virtual dumpster fire and pull us out.
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yjftsjthsd-h 1563 days ago
Right; there's a reason we literally call the browser the "user agent", and uBlock is just a part of that. It's not impersonating me, it's a vital part of the browser being a useful tool for me.
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ethbr0 1563 days ago
The concept of a user agent is hilariously and sadly quaint on the modern web.

Can you imagine what a user agent to interact with Facebook would look like? Or Instagram? Or TikTok?

It shows how far we slid backwards for large, popular areas of user functionality, post-90s.

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yjftsjthsd-h 1563 days ago
On the contrary; the browser is still generally the user's agent (although Chrome can be iffy) - we don't need to imagine, because we can compare the Facebook app to browsing Facebook in a browser, and see that the browser is still far more friendly to the user's interests than what FB ships.
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ethbr0 1563 days ago
It is, although both Chrome and Safari obviously have their own, non-user interests.

But browsers in 2022 are second class citizens, for business models that can generate positive ROI from developer time. They are at best dissuaded (e.g. Reddit, TikTok), and at worse actively crippled or prohibited.

The majority of users are on apps, and more users are moving to devices (e.g. Chromebooks, Portal). All of which are explicitly not user agents.

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