A useful tool for testing Browser-DNS-Extensions effectiveness can be found here:
It’s called an “Ad Blocker Test” but also tests tracker blocking. I tried a few configurations to see how different variables affect the results and will post them below. I’d be very interested in seeing the results of other configurations that the forum may be using.
Thanks!
(In the configurations below FF=Firefox hardened to specifications in Techlore’s most recent Firefox hardening video, Quad9 DNS=the secure version)
-FF-Quad9 DNS-no extensions = 66% ad and tracker blocking
-FF-Quad9 DNS-uBlock Origin= 79% effective (allows Amazon ads and all Social Media trackers)
-FF-Quad9 DNS-AdGuard= 84% effective
-FF-Quad9 DNS-AdGuard+uBlock Origin= 95% effective (allows only Amazon ads and Pinterest tracking)
-FF-ad blocking Mullvad DNS-uBlock+AdGuard= 94% effective
-Brave-Quad9 DNS-no extensions= 76% effective
-Brave-Quad9 DNS-uBlock Origin= 76% effective (this surprised me. uBlock made no difference)
IOS, ProtonVPN has NetShield Enabled, and Mullvad has every blocker enabled. Both browsers are in Private Browsing. Safari is configured by guides across the net, such as Techlores video and The New Oil. NextDNS has my custom configuration:
Brave + ProtonVPN = 94%, does not block Amazon or Pinterest.
Brave + MullvadVPN = 100%
Safari + Ka-Block! Extension + ProtonVPN = 83%, does not block Amazon, Bugsnag, Sentry, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit, TikTok, or Huawei.
Safari + Ka-Block! Extension + MullvadVPN = 98%, did not block Sentry, or Reddit.
Brave + NextDNS = 100%
Safari + NextDNS = 84%, does not block Sentry, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, Yahoo, Yandex.
Linux, all DNS is done via Portmaster firewall. Quad9, Adguard, Cloudflare (no malware filter), and Foudation for Applied Privacy (FAP) are the default servers Portmaster comes with. For Librewolf, uBlock is set to allow all scripts (setting to block all, breaks the site). With tweaking (on uBlock’s Medium mode) I could get Librewolf to 100%. DNS cache was cleared between cycles. Both Aggressive and Standard settings in Brave kept giving me the same results:
Brave + Quad9 = 87%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube.
Librewolf + Quad9 = 84%, does not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube.
Brave + Adguard = 87%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube.
Librewolf + Adguard = 79%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Brave + FAP = 87%, did not block doubleclick, Fastclick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube.
Librewolf + FAP = 82%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube.
Brave + Cloudflare = 84%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Librewolf + Cloudflare = 79%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Brave + NextDNS = 84%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Librewolf + NextDNS = 85%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Brave and Librewolf configs + MullvadDNS = 87%, did not block Doubleclick, FastClick, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Youtube.
Tor browser = 13% - 57% - 26% - 82% - 16% = I did this test 5 times, because I noticed that the results had large swings on them. I wonder if it has something to do with the Nodes Tor connects to, to make the connection? On each launch it uses different nodes, hence the varied results. It’s why this is the only result I’m mentioning all the scores, instead of what was not blocked.
Something felt off about the desktop results. So I did them another 2 times (so a total of 3). The data here is the average of the 3. Between each test, I cleared DNS cache, browser cache, localstorage, cookies, and so on. Still kinda felt off. I then decided to test both a fresh install of Chrome and Firefox, with no config changes between them:
Firefox + NextDNS = 99%, did not block Sentry.
Chrome + NextDNS = 99%, did not block Sentry.
Do these settings look unusual to you? They do to me. They go contrary to pretty much every result I’ve done. So, I then tried with a fresh Librewolf profile, to see if I had a corrupted profile… Nope, the same result. Now I do not want to say the test is wrong, but it’s not aligning with my own biases, that other tests have confirmed. So even though both Chrome and Firefox tested better, I still am highly unlikely to recommend Chrome.
Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m going to bleach my computer, making sure not to have any Chrome residue left behind. No offense to those who use it… it’s not for me.
CalyxOS 4.2.3 Android 13 Orbot version 16.6.3-RC-1-tor.0.4.7.10 (On w/ VPN mode off) ProtonVPN (Connected)
Chromium version 106.0.5249.79 = 88%
TOR Browser version 102.2.1-Release (11.5.6) = 76%
Brave version 1.45.127 = 74%
DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser version 5.142.2 = 7%
I don’t think the site is working correctly. I disabled everything with uBlock Origin’s dynamic mode, and the site still says that it had connected to some domains even though I could see in the Ublock that everything was blocked. Also, uBlock’s medium mode doesn’t seem to work normally on this site since it should block all third-party scripts and frames by default, but for some reason, it isn’t doing that with this site. So, I wouldn’t necessarily make any big conclusions just based on this site since it differs so much from normal websites.
So the first bunch of tests I did was strictly with the IOS app. Then I did tests on the desktop. The desktop results were very different compared to the IOS ones. Here is the post, it’s just below op, on this thread. In the case of my quote, I was referring to the IOS tests. It’s what Polly originally linked to (as I didn’t finish getting everything, at that point).
The thing that surprised me was that I use ublock+Librewolf. The strict mode in Librewolf blocked many trackers, but the website showed that the trackers were not blocked. Funny.
Not related to the thread in any way but just a reminder that ad-blockers are merely a convenience tool and relies on badness enumeration to “improve” privacy on the web. Ad-blocker makes your fingerprint really unique, has privileged access on the websites you visit hence has a large attack surface, and doesn’t prevent tracking of any kind. It merely filters out known tracking third party sites. Websites can always run their own tracking code to track you. Only reasonable browser that can give protection against trackers on the web is Tor.(This is not a recommendation to always use tor or anything like that, use what your threat model fits, but realistically only tor can serve protection against trackers.)
