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YouTube's ‘War’ on Adblockers Shows How Google Controls the Internet (www.404media.co)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/technology

232 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Another great article from 404 Media highlighting the power that the tech giants have amassed over how how we use the internet.

This brings me, I think, to the elephant in the room, which is the fact that Google has its hands on quite literally every aspect of this entire saga as a vertically integrated adtech giant.

This extreme power over the adtech and online advertising ecosystem is one of the subjects of an FTC antitrust suit against Google.

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[–] Substance_P 15 points 9 months ago (2 children)

I love Librewolf, I just can't work for hours using a browser that has dark mode disabled in order to preserve its privacy features.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Because the dark mode that's built into Firefox and other browsers sends requests to websites that can identify you. If you want dark mode on Librewolf, do as the devs recommend and get Dark Reader, as that's clientside and doesn't identify you, and works with pretty much every website, including ones that don't offer a dark version.

I use regular Firefox, and I have the default dark mode disabled and Dark Reader installed. I don't need to ask permission from websites to use dark mode any more than I need to ask Google for permission to block their ads.

[–] Substance_P 8 points 9 months ago (1 children)

that's great! Yeah I understand the privacy implications but had no idea about Dark Reader. That's why I love this community for answers like this. I'll look into it as I'd prefer to use Librewolf as my daily driver.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago

Like I said, it doesn't look good on every website, but for the vast majority it's a really nice experience, especially if you are often online after dark. It's definitely earned the high ratings it's got, and it's 100% getting downloaded anytime I use a new computer.

Besides the enhanced privacy it gives you, there's also the fact that it doesn't require loading additional style sheets, so it saves you a very small amount of bandwidth and time.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

sends requests to websites that can identify you

What requests? I though that only information that the browser gives to website regarding dark theme is that your preferred-color-scheme is now dark.

[–] tb_ 4 points 9 months ago

That request can be used for fingerprinting, however.

https://www.amiunique.org/fingerprint

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yes, that's one of the data points they use to fingerprint you. They only need several to get a reliable idea of who you are as you move from site to site.

[–] Neon 1 points 9 months ago

the Problem is that Librewolf also doesn't tell Extensions when system dark mode is activated, meaning you have to manually toggle between dark- and light-mode

[–] [email protected] 4 points 9 months ago

Well some sacrifices has to be done.

I use an add on called "Dark background, white text" or something like that. Less bloated than Dark Reader.

Has to be somewhat usable while privacy oriented.