[tor-talk] ads slow Tor Browser dramatically

[Julian Yon]

On Tue, 6 Nov 2012 14:44:37 -0800
Mike Perry <mikeperry at torproject.org> wrote:

> I am deeply opposed to shipping an always-on universal adblocker with
> the default TBB. I think it would be political suicide in terms of
> accomplishing our goals with acceptance of Tor users by sites,
> lobbying for private browsing origin changes, and convincing the
> world that privacy by design is possible without resorting to
> filtering schemes and/or DNT-style begging.
> 
> Further, adblocker filter choices are fingerprintable.
> 
> *However*, I recognize that many sites use advertising networks that
> are obnoxious, deceptive, and possibly even dangerous wrt vectors for
> malware (though safebrowsing filters are supposed to exist for this
> last reason and we do use those).

One of the things that frequently spooks me off-Tor is ads that clearly
know what I've been doing elsewhere. i.e. I see an ad on one site
offering to sell me specific items I've been looking at on another.
Now, obviously as an experienced comp sci I'm aware of the technologies
that are being employed to do this, and I'm aware of the ways that the
Tor Browser, driven responsibly, offers protection against this.

But two things spring to mind. (1) Such ads already constitute a form
of social engineering. How long until an ad network comes up with an
ingenious psychological trick to convince a small but significant
percentage of normally responsible Tor users to deanonymise themselves?
(2) Given what they can already do using technologies we know about, I
can't help wondering if the advertising industry is in fact the true
Global Adversary. It wouldn't surprise me if they were putting more
resources into beating Tor than any nation state.

Just musing, and worrying. Capitalism is loyal to nobody but itself.
Averting suicide is pointless if you're going to be murdered in your
sleep by the person you got into bed with.

-- 
3072D/F3A66B3A Julian Yon (2012 General Use) <pgp.2012 at jry.me>
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