Adblock shenanigans

[Aractus]

[Minimalist]

There are no "non-annoying ads."

[Jackalope]

There are ads on the internet?

[SteelCurtain]

Ghostery, son.

[Jackalope]

I'm not going to go into a rant about how downright intrusive some of these so-called 'non-intrusive' ads are (such as on startpage.com)

OK, I'll bite. What's "downright intrusive" about the ads on startpage.com? I'd never used startpage.com before about 60 seconds ago, I just happen to have ABP installed in this browser (it's an oversight), and the ads there look pretty much like standard Google Adsense text ads - and quite frankly, if you're going to have ads, I'd rather they be those rather than the exploit-laden bullshit that everyone else serves up. The only thing about them that's even remotely obnoxious is that there's little little to distinguish them from ordinary search results.

As far as the rest of it goes, yeah, I agree, uBlock Origin is the way to go.

[Jackalope]

Ghostery, son.

Wasn't Ghostery purchased by one of the ad networks?

[SteelCurtain]

Maybe. I still see zero ads.

[Jackalope]

[Aractus]

[Tiberius]

Ghost Rank is disabled by default though, and I don't think they hide the fact that it sends data to advertisers, after all they need to make money somehow.

Big difference between that and "purchased by one of the ad networks" IMO.

Update: I just checked, and Ghost Rank on my install of Ghostery is disabled (should be default setting) and also has the following text next to the option:

When you enable Ghostrank™, Ghostery collects anonymous data about the trackers you've encountered and the sites on which they were placed. This data is about tracking elements and the webpages on which they are found, not you or your browsing habits.

Online marketing companies need better visibility into real-world applications of their technologies and those owned by their competitors. Ghostrank data is sold as reports to businesses to help them market to consumers more transparently, better manage their web properties, and comply with privacy standards.

Ghostrank data shared with businesses never includes data about Ghostery users. To learn more about the data that Ghostrank collects, click here.

We also publish our own research and provide data to privacy researchers[1][2], analysts and journalists. Additionally, organizations like the Better Business Bureau use Ghostrank data in the enforcement of privacy standards like the DAA AdChoices program.

We hope you'll opt-in to Ghostrank, but if you do not enable data sharing, we won't collect anything. To read more about how the Ghostery service supports the business, read our post The Most Frequently Asked Question.

So yeah, I don't think there's any reason to worry about Ghostery at the current time.