[tor-bugs] #25959 [Applications/Tor Browser]: Add uBlock Origin to Tor Browser Bundle

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#25959: Add uBlock Origin to Tor Browser Bundle
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 Reporter:  tremvonk                  |          Owner:  tbb-team
     Type:  enhancement               |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                    |      Milestone:
Component:  Applications/Tor Browser  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                    |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  ublock origin, ads        |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                            |         Points:
 Reviewer:                            |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by sysrqb):

 Replying to [ticket:25959 tremvonk]:
 > I think that Tor browser bundle would benefit from including uBlock
 Origin as an adblocker by default. Consider the benefits:
 >
 > 1. **Ads waste bandwidth.** To see just how much I ran tests using Tor
 Browser at medium security level on two major news organizations' sites:
 [https://www.economist.com the Economist] and [https://www.nytimes.com the
 New York Times].

 But, remember, this is their business model. If you want to visit their
 website and view their content, then they can serve advertisements. We may
 not like it, but it is the price of the content.

 > The results were striking: without uBlock Origin, the Economist's
 website loaded 12.6 MB with 135 requests and the New York Times' website
 loaded 7.6 MB with 235 requests. With uBlock Origin, the Economist's
 website loaded 5.8 MB with 443 requests and the New York Times' website
 loaded 5.0 MB with 85 requests.

 Do you know why there were 4x as many requests when viewing the
 Economist's website on "safer" security-setting? That's possibly worse
 than the amount of total data transferred (depending on what those
 requests were for).

 > **uBlock Origin reduced the page size by 54% for The Economist and 34%
 for the New York Times.** Granted, newspapers are particularly bad
 offenders when it comes to bloating the page with ads, but, however we
 slice it, we still stand to save considerable amounts of bandwidth.
 >
 > 2. **It makes TBB more usable.** Blocking that many MB of ads can only
 make the webpage load faster and gives an overall nicer user experience
 (does anybody really want to see those ads?) which, in turn, helps
 encourage more people use TBB.

 In general, encouraging more people use the "safer" security setting seems
 more useful than including another addon.

 >
 > 3. It makes TBB and TAILS browser fingerprint look more alike.
 >

 That was a decision made by the Tails developers, and maybe that was a
 reasonable decision for their use case.

 > Now, I did see the section of the Tor Browser
 [https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser/design/#philosophy design
 philosophy] that opposed adblockers in TBB. However, consider the
 objections
 >
 > 1. ''Damages TBB's reputation to provide non-filter-based security.'' I
 think this is no longer true - TBB has been around for long enough and its
 reputation well-established enough that I doubt users will be confused -
 especially that the truth is readily findable by anyone who cares to look.
 Moreover, TAILS browser has been shipping with uBlock Origin for quite a
 while now and it caters to an even-more security-conscious crowd than just
 TBB.
 >
 > 2. ''Makes ad-supported websites dislike TBB.'' Currently, over 1/4 of
 internet users use an adblocker
 ([http://www.businessinsider.com/pagefair-2017-ad-blocking-report-2017-1
 see here]). If websites dislike adblockers, they have a lot more problems
 than just TBB. In any case, the fraction of sites that will dislike TBB
 for using an adblocker will be small compared to the fraction of sites
 that dislike TBB just for using Tor.

 75% of users is a large set. If Tor Browser blocks ads then we give
 website operators one more reason for why they block connections from the
 Tor network. We're already fighting this fight for other reasons.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/25959#comment:1>
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