On Sat, Jan 30, 2016, at 01:26 AM, Nik Cubrilovic wrote:
> Hi everybody - I know that the topic of migrating the Tor Browser on
> Tails from AdBlock Plus (ABP) to a faster and more modern plugin comes
> up regularly, so i'll keep this short and get to why Adblock Plus
> should be replaced with uBlock Origin (uBO) and why it's ready now:
[...]
>From all that you have written about uBlock Origin (uBO), it sounds
highly appealing. Your arguments for having it replace AdBlock Plus in
Tails sound most compelling. I eagerly await to see how others on this
list will respond.
> I also plan on advocating that Tor Browser
> should switch to uBO (and away from NoScript and HTTPS-Everywhere),
> which is successful would bring the browser fingerprints between Tails
> and Tor Browser back together.
That alone would seem a most worthwhile goal as far as I can see.
https://tails.boum.org/news/version_2.0/index.en.html
"so this only means that it's easy to distinguish whether a user of Tor
Browser 5.5 uses Tails or not. That is already easy given that Tails has
the AdBlock Plus extension enabled, unlike the normal Tor Browser."
Indeed and that is something I have never understood and always found
troubling.
To be clear: I understand the arguments both for as well as against
including an ad-blocker (be it ABP, uBO or some other one) in Tor
Browser. The arguments on both sides appear reasonable to me and I would
not presume to be able to decide between them (at least not at my
present level of knowledge and experience).
What does seem quite clear to me, however (and has ever since I first
became aware of this matter) is that the best interests of at least an
overwhelming majority of Tor Browser and Tails users would best be
served by having the fingerprints of the Tor Browser in Tails and the
stand-alone Tor Browser be as indistinguishable from each other as
possible. After all, the reality is that the total number of Tor Browser
users (stand-alone as well as Tails) already comprise but a mere
fraction of total Internet users. Does it really make sense to splinter
such a small minority into even smaller sub-divisions? And to do so for
something as /relatively/ trivial and even petty as not being able to
reach a consensus over whether to include an ad-blocker (or which
ad-blocker to include)? Isn't this self-defeating behavior?
