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µBlock version 0.8.5: many changes

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Chris edited this page Apr 7, 2015 · 4 revisions

[Screenshots are not necessarily up to date: this is tedious work and I rather not re-take all screenshots when there are only trivial changes]

In µBlock version 0.8.5.0, dynamic filtering has been completely revamped. Summary of what changed:

  • An "advanced user mode" setting, disabled by default
  • Expanded dynamic filtering to block/allow on a per hostname basis
  • A new "My rules" tab in the dashboard, where you can see/edit all your dynamic filtering rules
  • A new, more convenient, more efficient network request logger

For a fresh new install of µBlock, this is how the popup UI looks:

figure 1

This is the "novice user" interface, which is the default when installing for the first time. Notice the difference with the previous version:

  • The dynamic filtering widgets are not accessible
    • This is to prevent novice users from tampering with dynamic filters without really understandng what it is all about
  • The network request logger (the eye icon) is now always available
    • There is no more setting to enable/disable the network request logger, it will be turned on/off automatically when opening/closing the logger page

To access dynamic filtering, you need to indicate to µBlock that you are an advanced user (mind the "Required reading" link):

figure 2

By the way, notice that the Statistics tab (the network request log) is now gone from the dashboard.

For advanced users, µBlock's popup UI will show a little + widget aside the prompt "requests blocked":

figure 3

This little widget allows to expand/collapse the new re-designed dynamic filtering pane. As seen below, just as with previous versions you can still dynamically filter:

  • inline scripts
  • 1st-party scripts
  • 3rd-party scripts
  • 3rd-party frames

figure 4

However, as per issue #282, you can't no longer dynamically filter 1st-party frames -- that was pointless.

Also, I threw in the ability to dynamically filters images (regardless of origin), as I saw this sort of feature requested a couple of places. It's useful for users who wish to save bandwidth, and/or memory resources.

The dynamic filtering consists mainly of three columns. From left to right, they are:

  • The name of what is to be dynamically filtered: can be a type of request, or a specific hostname
  • The rule to apply everywhere on any site -- i.e. a global rule
  • The rule to apply locally on the current site -- useful to override a global rule

Rules color scheme:

  • Pale gray: no rule
  • Dark red: block rule
    • The requests will be blocked, regardless of whether static exception filters exist
  • Dark green: allow rule
    • The requests will be allowed, regardless of whether static block filters exist
  • Dark gray: no-op rule
    • To cancel any dynamic filtering, the requests will still be subject to static filtering

Dynamic filtering if very useful to create block/allow rules on the fly, without the overhead of which comes with static filtering.

figure 5

As seen above, EasyPrivacy does not completely protect your privacy: your are still connecting to ubiquitous remote servers. Dynamic filtering gives you full control of where your browser connect.

An example (below): globally block network requests to ubiquitous googletagservices.com:

figure 6

So the dynamic filtering rule above says: block network requests to googletagservices.com from anywhere.

Side note: googletagservices.com is not blocked by EasyPrivacy, but it is blocked by Ghostery, this is one of the reason it fared better in privacy exposure benchmarks.

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