
Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, faster - caio1982
https://disconnect.me/
======
znowi
I like Ghostery better. It breaks less websites for me and provides more data
on each particular tracker with a source link and a description for the
company behind it. Disconnect just shows a title with a number.

It has a nicer and more functional UI. I like a popup on page load where you
can instantly see what is blocked and what isn't. There's an option to "run
once" a blocked widget on page, which can be handy.

~~~
zizee
[http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516156/a-popular-ad-
blo...](http://www.technologyreview.com/news/516156/a-popular-ad-blocker-also-
helps-the-ad-industry/)

From the article:

 _A Popular Ad Blocker Also Helps the Ad Industry

Millions of people use the tool Ghostery to block online tracking
technology—some may not realize that it feeds data to the ad industry._

It's good to have alternatives, and I prefer Disconnect as Ghostery's
motivations seem a little clouded.

~~~
Aoyagi
Whenever someone talks about Ghostery, this is, of course, brought up.
However, what isn't brought up that providing this data (GhostRank) is
voluntary and I think it's disabled by default (but user is asked during the
first time setup).

~~~
eps
Whenever someone says that Ghostery own tracking is optional, one, of course,
glances over a huge inherent conflict of interest behind Ghostery.

They make an anti-tracking product _and_ they takes money from advertisers.
That's their life blood, they _need_ to track you, that's how they survive and
it puts them in a very precarious situation. So trusting them to value your
interests over their own is naive at best. If you are comfortable with the
risk and the trade-off, good for you, but dismissing this as a non-issue is
disingenious.

~~~
aroch

         but dismissing this as a non-issue is disingenious.
    

It _is_ a non-issue if you have to opt in. Also, they make money off of
GhostRank data by 'consulting' on how to better present ads to encourage
selective turn-off of adblocker

------
teamonkey
Can someone explain what this is? The front page tells me nothing and I can't
watch the video right now.

I wish this trend of using videos instead of text would end soon.

~~~
walshie4
There are two plugins they currently offer. One blocks sites from tracking
you, while the other allows you to search using your favorite search engine
with added security (no ip logging, more anonymity, etc.).

For more information checkout the Github project page for each project below.

[https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect](https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect)

[https://github.com/disconnectme/search](https://github.com/disconnectme/search)

------
byoogle
The source is at:
[https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect](https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect)

~~~
jzelinskie
I recently tried to switch from Ghostery to Disconnect. It was basically a
wash in terms of frequency of broken pages. However two things did bother me a
little:

\- The default settings had Disconnect fighting with HTTPS Everywhere and
caused resource contention in Chrome. Please follow the Unix philosophy and
just recommend users install HTTPS Everywhere instead of having a naive
implementation embedded in your unrelated product.

\- It was unintuitive that the number incremented on the button is the total
number of requests and not the number of requests blocked.

I look forward to the days that these types of extensions work well enough
that I can install them on my parents computers and not have to worry about
pages being broken, but them still having their privacy. Keep up the good
work.

~~~
datashaman
When you say 'it was basically a wash', it is not clear what you mean. Which
one breaks more pages?

~~~
pessimizer
I didn't think that this would be so hard to find:

[http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wash](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/wash)

 _n._ 13\. _Informal_ An activity, action, or enterprise that yields neither
marked gain nor marked loss: _" [The company] doesn't do badly. That is, it's
a wash" (Harper's)._

~~~
datashaman
Thanks, I don't use this phrase, so it was confusing.

------
thomasfromcdnjs
As these become more popular we shall see a return to server analytics. Time
to install AwStats...

~~~
joosters
I wish more people used server analytics. Less privacy risk to the user, along
with a faster and less congested internet connection...

~~~
userbinator
Agreed, I'm perfectly fine with the site I'm visiting collecting info like IP,
user agent, etc. but not with the idea of some centralised entity doing it.
(That's also what I do with my own site.)

------
rajbala
I often find that Disconnect can be overly aggressive in the parts of a page
that it blocks. When something is amiss when using a webpage whitelisting the
site in Disconnect usually fixes the problem.

~~~
nacs
This also happens with Ghostery and to a lesser extent, Adblock. I switched
from Ghostery to Disconnect and have found Disconnect to be a little better at
not breaking some sites.

The worst sites I've ran into while using Ghostery/Disconnect are the ones
that have a Google Analytics action tracking code in the middle of their
Javascript methods (since the addons block GA) so the entire site/app fails to
work.

Developers need to start testing their sites with these addons more to make
sure silly errors like that aren't done (some optional tracking request
failing to complete shouldn't make an entire app fail).

~~~
philtar
I would never, ever, spend time testing something that changes my code. Today
it changes it one way, tomorrow another.

That's like trying to replace the screen on your phone and then complaining
that it doesn't work and that Samsung/Apple should test their devices with
your screen installation skills.

~~~
subsection1h
According to addons.mozilla.org, Adblock Plus for Firefox has almost 20
million users. You would "never, ever" perform tests using popular browser
extensions that have tens of millions of users? How does your co-
founder/employer/client feel about your position?

~~~
philtar
I'm my own employer and I'm doing pretty well/decent.

I would rather spend my time making what I have better rather than fixing bugs
caused by someone else.

------
urza
I am using StartPage [https://startpage.com/](https://startpage.com/) as my
search engine and am very happy with it.

They essentially redirect your search query to google and return you the
result. But they don't collect your IP nor anything else.
[https://startpage.com/eng/protect-
privacy.html](https://startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html)

~~~
antihero
Neat, and idea id there is there something like this that retains Google's
handy features and also doesn't look like something from the nineties?

------
Loic
My browser is always started in incognito mode, I open Firefox to do something
in an authenticated way (posting something on HN, accessing my bank account,
etc.) but normally, Firefox is always closed.

    
    
         $ cat /usr/share/applications/chromium-browser-incognito.desktop
         [Desktop Entry]
         Version=1.0
         Name=Chromium Incognito Web Browser
         GenericName=Incognito Web Browser
         Comment=Access the Internet
         Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser --incognito %U
         Terminal=false
         X-MultipleArgs=false
         Type=Application
         Icon=chromium-browser
         Categories=Network;WebBrowser;
         MimeType=text/html;text/xml;application/xhtml_xml;x-scheme-handler/http;x-scheme-handler/https;
         StartupWMClass=Chromium-browser
         StartupNotify=true
         X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;Incognito;TempProfile
         
         [NewWindow Shortcut Group]
         Name=Open a New Window
         Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser --incognito
         TargetEnvironment=Unity
         
         [Incognito Shortcut Group]
         Name=Open a New Window in incognito mode
         Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser --incognito
         TargetEnvironment=Unity
         
         [TempProfile Shortcut Group]
         Name=Open a New Window with a temporary profile
         Exec=/usr/bin/chromium-browser --temp-profile
         TargetEnvironment=Unity
    

I think this idea is coming from Ian Bicking[0], but I can't find the
reference any more and it has been years I am doing this.

[0]: [http://www.ianbicking.org/blog/](http://www.ianbicking.org/blog/)

------
abc3
Has anyone seen a guide that discusses which browser settings and plugins
complement one another? Or which ones to use in different scenarios, e.g., I
know what I'm doing, I don't mind if things break on occasion, and I'm willing
to spend a lot of time training my plugins (so NoScript and/or RequestPolicy
would be recommended) vs. I'm setting up a computer for my parents who aren't
tech savvy (so maybe Disconnect or Ghostery, plus....?).

This comes up a fair amount on Hacker News and in
[http://www.reddit.com/r/Privacy](http://www.reddit.com/r/Privacy) and I've
seen plenty of posts and guides like [https://prism-
break.org/en/](https://prism-break.org/en/) and
[http://www.logicalincrements.com/firefox/](http://www.logicalincrements.com/firefox/)
that just list a bunch of plugins. What I'm looking for is a set of use cases.

------
aareet
How is this different from Ghostery?
([https://www.ghostery.com/](https://www.ghostery.com/))

~~~
joshschreuder
I use Ghostery, but I believe it has been chided in the past for its
'GhostRank' feature (which, to their credit, isn't on by default).

This is anonymous usage tracking of the trackers encountered which is sold to
businesses to "help them market to consumers more transparently, better manage
their web properties and comply with privacy standards."

I would like to see more of a comparison of 'effectiveness' of both extensions
though, if such a thing were possible.

~~~
quadrangle
The other issue with Ghostery is that it doesn't block by default and you even
need to go to advanced settings to tell it to block new trackers by default.

~~~
ToastyMallows
OK so after you turn off GhostRank and block all new trackers by default, how
is it different?

------
ams6110
You can achive a lot of this without using any browser extensions by simply
using a hosts file such as the one at
[http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm](http://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm)
(that one is Windows-oriented but it works fine in linux also).

Or you could run your own dns but that's a bit more complicated to set up.

~~~
vxNsr
Have you noticed how this affects websites/apps breaking? meaning, certain
websites won't play video unless an add plays first (hulu/comedy central
sometimes) do those sites not work if you enable this?

~~~
mih
Some sites don't work unless I turn off hosts. On MS-Windows I simply use this
to toggle hosts file on and off in such cases -
[http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman](http://www.abelhadigital.com/hostsman)

------
euank
Though it's not advertised on the landing page, Lightbeam has a block
functionality: [https://www.mozilla.org/en-
US/lightbeam/](https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/lightbeam/)

It's also endorsed by mozilla, which makes me trust it more. I've been using
it for a while (on top of noscript) and it's quite informative and seems to
work well.

My personal setup is noscript with careful whitelisting which I've found to
effectively disable most tracking.

~~~
sheetjs
> It's also endorsed by mozilla, which makes me trust it more.

Somewhat skeptical, given that Mozilla referred to in-browser ads as "user-
enhancing":

[https://twitter.com/dherman76/status/433320156496789504](https://twitter.com/dherman76/status/433320156496789504)

[https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publish...](https://blog.mozilla.org/advancingcontent/2014/02/11/publisher-
transformation-with-users-at-the-center/)

~~~
Spittie
Mockup of the ads:
[https://bug972916.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=837...](https://bug972916.bugzilla.mozilla.org/attachment.cgi?id=8376547)

In this case I think Mozilla is right, many users will be happy to have a
quick facebook/amazon/twitter/ebay shortcut out of the box.

------
jkh123
Using disconnect's proxy? Looks like a trap to me. Give me proof, you discard
all the data, then we are talking. Otherwise this approach is mostly flawed.

------
lotharbot
I'd love to see an Android version of this.

~~~
byoogle
Dev here. We do have a new Android app out (but focused on search rather than
browsing privacy):
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.disconnect....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.disconnect.search)

------
userbinator
From [https://disconnect.me/disconnect](https://disconnect.me/disconnect) :

 _Common tracking sites – Facebook, Google, and Twitter – are shown separately
to make them easy to block or unblock. Click any icon to block or unblock a
site._

...

 _Click the Facebook or Twitter icons to share these stats with your friends._

Anyone else find that rather ironic?

~~~
Mindless2112
Not really. The point isn't that those sites are evil, it's that tracking is
evil.

------
gregimba
This is just going to be another arms race.

~~~
kiba
It's only an arm race if a lot of people uses it and it becomes a problem to
business owners.

~~~
Schlaefer
Sad truth is: all these "privacy" plugins break ads. Many people install them
for that purpose alone and use privacy as excuse. Even if a website provide
local ads because it values the privacy of its users: those are blocked too.

From a website owner's perspective privacy plugins are ad-blockers.

~~~
jarofgreen
They only break ads if ads are big JS things that have privacy implications -
most ads are, but they don't have to be.

I run a website that has one sponsor and their ads aren't blocked by privacy
tools - because it's just some static HTML text, link and an image on the
page. So I'm not sure what "local ads" you are referring to.

(In much the same way, I don't see a whole bunch of ads because I use a
Flashblocker ... but ads don't have to be flash)

> From a website owner's perspective privacy plugins are ad-blockers.

If that's how a website owner thinks, then I'd say they have a very narrow
idea of what an ad can be.

~~~
Schlaefer
Small businesses don't reinvent ads or analytics, they rotate banners and
that's it. They also don't implement their own software but use third party
tools/plugins to manage their ads.

Ghosterly and Co blocks those common third party solutions even when run
locally. E.g. from the Ghostery source:

    
    
        "type":"analytics",
              …
             "pattern":"\\/piwik\\.(js|php)",
    

or

    
    
        "type":"ad",
              …
             "pattern":"\\/adpeeps\\.php",

------
pessimizer
I love the combination of Ghostery and Cookie Monster.

For Ghostery, I make sure that new trackers added to the list are
automatically blocked, and disable its cookie blocking. With Cookie Monster, I
block all cookies by default, only whitelisting the sites that I wish to
maintain being logged into (primarily the sites I run.)

With Cookie Monster you get the two-click ability to temporarily allow cookies
from a particular website, and the two-click ability to revoke all sites
previously allowed temporarily. Being able to quickly manage the individual
cookies set for a particular site (again two clicks) is also great.

Ghostery, Cookie Monster, Tree-Style Tabs and Download Statusbar are the four
things that I install on a browser the first time I use it. I add HTTPS
Everywhere, User Agent Switcher and Video DownloadHelper if I'm going to use
it for more than a few hours.

That's the combination of plugins that renders me unable to switch from
Firefox:)

edit: I don't know how I forgot the Resurrect Pages plugin.

edit2: Crap, I forgot Flashblock. I might be hopelessly embedded in a Firefox
workflow.

------
donniezazen
It's the dots that you leave around the internet that is the biggest problem
in personal privacy.

------
JosephBrown
I've been using Abine's DoNotTrackMe for a while. Is this any
different/better?

~~~
touristtam
I am wondering as well. Using
[https://github.com/RequestPolicy/requestpolicy](https://github.com/RequestPolicy/requestpolicy)
on Firefox as a more aggressive way to control which website request can get
through.

------
venatiodecorus
This has been available for a while, curious why it's making HN now?

------
paracyst
I have long since switched to Ghostery ever since Disconnect frequently broke
YouTube videos and nothing was ever done to fix it. Does anyone know if this
problem still persists?

~~~
mountaineer
hmm, been using Disconnect for a while in FF and Chrome, haven't noticed any
issues with YouTube videos.

~~~
ctrijueque
Same here. Chromium on Fedora without any issues.

------
jmspring
Given the lack of plugins on ios and sand boxing, how does this help ios apps
per the disclaimer on the site linked to?

(Currently browsing on my iPhone, so searching a bit tedious)

------
goombastic
Can anyone here point me in the direction of a hosts file that lists all the
spammy sites? If it's a DNS, the better.

~~~
fishy929
[http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/](http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/)

