Set of default filters to increase privacy

[ArenaL5]

Post edited to clarify. I hadn't even said what is this for.

I'm planning on installing Request Control in several devices (all of them using Firefox), and I think it could benefit from a good set of default rules to increase privacy.

My scenario is: several platforms transform links in comments to redirectors, e.g. YouTube (any link to sites other tan YouTube will point https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=ACTUAL_TARGET_URL) and Disqus. This links, supposedly created to increase privacy, may track your movement from site to site and/or inform targeted ads agencies.

Also, I'm under the impression that Request Control already strips URLs from &utm metadata, but there are other sites that use different codes.

My plan is to write rules to avoid these redirectors, to allow users like myself to install Request Control, subscribe to this list, and then forget about it. Kind of like uBlock Origin works actually.

I know that you haven't been interested in this...

[The default rules are just examples. You're supposed to create your own rules.]
(#106 (comment))

but I'd nevertheless like to publish these rules somewhere, probably FilterLists. Would you be interested in bundling these rules in your project, or linking to them somewhere in your add-on / README.md?

(I originally suggested to add a mechanism to subscribe to filters, but it doesn't really matter much... all I'd had to do is to download the list locally and import it, still pretty convenient.)

[ArenaL5]

The filter list, for the moment, is this. I added some of my own filters on top of your default filters, plus the extra files suggested by @AreYouLoco in #110

To clarify, I'm interested in publishing them either way, but I'd like to know who would manage them. Would you rather have me craft a pull request, or have me upload them to FilterLists, or upload them and manage them yourselves?

I'd like @AreYouLoco's opinion as well.

[geeknik]

@ArenaL5, as is, if I try to import your rules, I see the following error:

SyntaxError: JSON.parse: expected double-quoted property name at line 285 column 3 of the JSON data

[ArenaL5]

Yes, I'm sorry for that. I made a very simple edit without testing it and accidentally added a comma that doesn't belong.

I can import it now with no errors. Please try again.

[AreYouLoco]

Well my opinion is following: I am not a developer of this addon so I would leave ultimate power of final decistion how to manage stuff to @tumpio.

But since its opensource why not contribute already. I think the easiest way would be to merge my PR first so others using this addon can benefit from new rules and then @ArenaL5 you should make your PR with your cool filters on the top of master so its one click merge for @tumpio.

And good future policy would be to make CONTRIBUTING file with instructions how to contribute to the project.

[ts1a]

Some more query parameters that can be useful to remove: https://github.com/Smile4ever/Neat-URL#blocked-parameters

[ArenaL5]

@ts1a, thank you! I've added them to the list just now.

[tumpio]

Thank you for sharing these rules! I'm unable to maintain them myself but I can promote it so that other users can find them. I think it could be added as an opt-in rule set that new users can load when Request Control is installed. There would also need to be a mechanism to load possible updates to the rules when extension is updated, which there isn't currently, and also take in account if they can be editable.

[ArenaL5]

I'm so sorry for the delay! I've been very busy these days and I almost had forgotten about this list.

I'm glad you like them. Yes, those mechanisms will be necessary, especially the update system. Filters already have IDs, so it should be possible just to compare the same filter in the old and new list, and prompt the user to choose. A bit crude, but mostly manageable, and you wouldn't need to add more data to the JSON file.

Or you could add a flag to mark which ones were not edited by the user. Those can be safely rewritten without warning.

I'm not familiar with the workings of webExtensions, so I can't help with that myself, but I can keep sending filters in the meanwhile.

[geeknik]

@ArenaL5, here's a new rule to strip tracking parameters from .gif files blatantly taken from https://github.com/0x01h/gif-tracking-protection because I don't really want to install another extension.

[
  {
    "uuid": "6468e7a9-440d-4727-a09e-c1a5cc386948",
    "pattern": {
      "scheme": "*",
      "host": [
        "*"
      ],
      "path": [
        "*.gif*"
      ]
    },
    "action": "filter",
    "active": true,
    "skipRedirectionFilter": true,
    "trimAllParams": true,
    "title": "Filter%3A%20GIF%20Tracking%20Parameters"
  }
]

[ArenaL5]

Added as commit 40503a6. Thank you so much. ☺️

By the way, I think I noticed a weird error in the webextension when testing your rule. As far as I can tell, it shouldn't happen in real webpages, but:

This only happens if the rule is set to cut any and all parameters (after ?). If you set it to cut only some of them, or to use reverse cut, it works normally.

[crssi]

There are not only GIFs... check also the images at https://www.24ur.com/ 😉

Cheers