[HN Gopher] Privacy Redirect: Redirects browser requests to priv...
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Privacy Redirect: Redirects browser requests to privacy-friendly
alternatives
Author : ignoramous
Score : 117 points
Date : 2021-10-18 08:48 UTC (14 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| black_puppydog wrote:
| If you're annoyed with public instances of nitter, libreddit,
| invidious: they're super easy to set up with a bit of caddy &
| docker and don't require much in terms of compute or maintenance.
|
| I find reddit & twitter much more usable on nitter & libreddit,
| so Privacy Redirect is one of my default extensions, with my own
| instances configured.
| pndy wrote:
| For my needs it's great, I'm using it for about a year now and
| beside few issues I believe it's worth recommending.
|
| The issues: invidious redirect would be great if would
| automatically try to go for another instance when loading one
| fails and that happens a lot. The same happens to nitter but it's
| way more "stable". Bibliogram redirect works but "tunnel" itself
| is been limited with what it may fetch from instagram.
|
| And there's also one invidious instance (invidiou.site) that
| unlike all other asks for disabling ads blocking extension in
| order to show the content - that's not nice.
|
| I really hope that imgur redirect will be included anytime soon -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28849936
| burkaman wrote:
| For Nitter there's https://twitit.gq/, which tracks the uptime
| of a bunch of instances and redirects you to a healthy one.
| Very cool, wish there was something like it for Invidious.
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| This extension is a lifesaver for my older computers, who
| inevitably get frozen up by the giant shitpiles of JS on all the
| ubiquitous sites.
|
| I used to dread accidentally clicking one of those domains, which
| inevitably happens when I'm googling something, because it
| usually meant killing the browser process or sometimes even hard-
| rebooting.
|
| Now I get a usable alternative. Many thanks to the authors. (And
| many thanks and props to google search for being one of the few
| Web mainstay services staying accessible to older devices.)
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| Having written this, I now notice that my machine stuck with
| Firefox 66 is not compatible with this extension.
|
| If the author happens to be reading this, it would be great if
| you could bring older Firefox versions into the fold.
|
| I know it's possible, because I'm using another extension which
| only does reddit-to-teddit.
| GoblinSlayer wrote:
| When Mozilla's own site killed my their own browser with a
| javascript infinite loop, I knew enough is enough and installed
| noscript and disabled scripts by default, and web unironically
| became a better place.
| jwilk wrote:
| You should know that, by default, addons are disabled on some
| Mozilla websites:
| https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Privileged-Pages
| forgotmypw17 wrote:
| Sadly, I have not figured out how to allow JS on a per-site
| basis in Firefox 66, nor how to allow a bookmarklet on a site
| with JS turned off.
|
| I like the little JS-driven niceties my own sites (and HN)
| provide.
|
| My solution has been to block the offending sites at the
| /etc/hosts level, which works marvelously.
|
| This goes along my philosophy that "the medium is the
| message", and a site with shoddy markup is unlikely to have
| any content worth my time either.
|
| Something something AOL.
| WesolyKubeczek wrote:
| Imagine all the fun when you need to see that one post, that one
| video, or that one thread that doesn't exist on those alternative
| platforms.
|
| "Allow me to interject for a moment" of browser extensions.
| commoner wrote:
| No, this extension redirects users to alternative FOSS
| frontends for the same services: Nitter[1] instead of Twitter,
| Invidious[2] instead of YouTube, and Bibliogram[3] instead of
| Instagram. The main content displayed by these frontends should
| be the same as the content on the original platforms.
|
| The map, translation, and search engine redirects might produce
| different results, but each redirection rule can be
| enabled/disabled separately in the extension in case you don't
| want to use any of them.
|
| [1] https://github.com/zedeus/nitter
|
| [2] https://github.com/iv-org/invidious
|
| [3] https://sr.ht/~cadence/bibliogram/
| 15characterslon wrote:
| The README could be improved here. I didn't know about
| Nitter, Invidious, ... It wasn't clear to me that these are
| just different frontends for the same services when I read
| the README.
| saxonww wrote:
| For any of you that have an "old reddit" redirect plugin, this
| plugin will do that for you, too.
| worldofmatthew wrote:
| The lists that this add-on comes with includes many links to dead
| frontends. Annoying to have to click on a link 5 to 10 times to
| get a working frontend.
| circularfoyers wrote:
| This is something I've encountered using this addon as well and
| I imagine would put off a lot of people (as it has for me on
| some occasions even). Having a brief look at the issues, it
| does appear it's something that has been discussed a
| lot[1][2][3], sadly without any code contributions yet. This
| might be partly due to how difficult automating the detection
| of this would be.
|
| [1] https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect/issues/171
|
| [2] https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect/issues/48
|
| [3] https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect/issues/101
| MrJagil wrote:
| Is it not possible to make such an alternative to facebook?
| tsak wrote:
| Zuck has high walls around his garden.
| commoner wrote:
| Facebook is extraordinarily aggressive at obstructing the
| techniques needed to build an alternative FOSS frontend,
| including web scraping and HTML parsing. Examples:
|
| - Obfuscating HTML element classes, text, and structures to
| circumvent ad blocking, while disrupting screen readers at the
| same time: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46508234
|
| - Preventing university researchers from obtaining data on
| Facebook's political ads through web scraping:
| https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-seeks-shutdown-of-nyu-...
| and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24874602
|
| - Sending a cease and desist letter to the developer of the
| Unfollow Everything extension, and banning him from Facebook:
| https://www.techspot.com/news/91650-facebook-bans-sends-ceas...
| and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28801908
| piaste wrote:
| Add to that list:
|
| - Sending a cease and desist to the student who developed a
| FOSS Instagram app:
| https://github.com/austinhuang0131/austinhuang0131/issues/2
| Nextgrid wrote:
| Which is why these offensives should be done anonymously,
| and preferably served via Tor. If it's safe enough to evade
| law enforcement for years, it should be safe enough from
| Zuck.
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(page generated 2021-10-18 23:02 UTC)