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Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection whitelists Google, Instagram, Amazon...

68 points by logTom ↗ HN
Here is the full list of currently whitelisted sites: https://disconnect.me/trackerprotection/unblocked

Lunduke made a video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqkeZIPLY5M

Highlights: amazon, aol, yahoo, google, microsoft, vimeo, tumblr, pinterest, nbcnews, feedburner/instagram (facebook), cbs, winamp, gravatar, mapquest, engadget, adobe, ...

17 comments

[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 53.6 ms ] thread
abdullahkhalids
If Firefox uses its own whitelist that doesn't allow FAANG, people would complain that Mozilla is abusing its product to gain an advantage over its competitors.

If Mozilla partners with a third-party to get a whitelist, people complain that Firefox is not blocking the "right" websites.

What should Mozilla do?

neilsimp1
Provide options to let users add/remove from their whitelist. At least that's what I want to see.
abdullahkhalids
You can choose from a wide variety of addons that do exactly that or something similar.
gesman
Mozilla's decision to create sneaky whitelist in the first place puts it into slimy side of things.
rcxdude
Mozilla is not competing as an advertiser or tracker. They are competing as a browser maker against other browser makers, who are generally also advertisers/trackers. So there is no conflict of interest with them coming up with such a whitelist, because not whitelisting their competitors does not benefit them.
musicale
FAANG? Looks like neither Apple nor Netflix is on the tracker whitelist.
Nextgrid
I would consider it fraud to call something “tracking protection” when they explicitly whitelist the worst possible scum.
mosselman
Ehm, yes Google et al are very bad, but they are not the worst possible scum. If you think that, then you lack imagination.
Nextgrid
Facebook and Google are the worst just due to their size (and thus impact).

There might be smaller, nastier players out there but at least they are confined to the web and don’t also have the privilege of owning your smartphone OS or browser, so overall their negative impact isn’t as bad.

[deleted]
(comment deleted)
[dead] dingo_bat
They definitely don't want to piss off google. So that part is understandable.
SatoMew
Does this occur even after switching from the level 1 blocklist to the level 2 blocklist under Content Blocking's customization options?
Dolores12
they cant block giving hand (google)
maverick74
ha-hein... psssstt...

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