how to use ublock origin

ublock origin firefox.how to use ublock origin.

The main goal of uBlock Origin is to provide people with protection from the ever-increasing invasion of privacy on the Internet. This is a free and open source ad blocking and content filtering add-on for multiple web browsers.

Read : how to disable pop up blocker

The developers call it a “broad spectrum content blocker” and not just an ad blocker, and for good reason. uBlock Origin is one of the most advanced and versatile options to enhance your online privacy with minimal CPU or memory usage.

What Is uBlock Origin?

uBlock Origin (uBO), developed by Raymond Hill (gorhill on GitHub.com), is the industry’s leading cross-platform browser extension for filtering content on the web. Unlike similar plugins, uBO filters content including ads, trackers, pop-ups, malware, coin mining programs and JavaScript elements.

uBO is an open source project with contributions from various developers on GitHub. Generally speaking, the open source uBO is transparent and more trustworthy than some of its closed source competitor apps, which often sell user data to third parties for profit.

There are three modes available in uBO: Easy, Medium and Hard.

In Easy Mode, the settings remain at default with a few options available allowing you to enable some advanced privacy and security settings through the control panel.

Medium mode is for advanced users and requires in-depth knowledge of the add-on, allowing users to manually decide what content is filtered and what is allowed. This is the recommended mode for privacy-conscious users.

Hard mode is similar to medium mode on steroids and will likely result in more website outages, eventually improving security a bit.

uBO is available from the Google Chrome Web Store, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Opera, and as a Mozilla Firefox add-on (including Android and iOS versions). Unfortunately, it is no longer available for Apple Safari.

Note. When installing uBO, make sure the add-on is uBlock Origin. There are several add-ons posing as uBO, including ublock.org and uBlock (without Origin). These scam versions steal user data for profit.

Easy Mode: Cosmetic Filtering

uBO provides two powerful tools to allow users to perform “beauty filtering”. These tools are Element Zapper and Element Picker. Both tools let you choose which website elements to remove from the website, but Zapper is temporary and Picker is permanent.

To use Zapper, click the uBO icon.

Then select the zipper.

Specific elements should now highlight when hovering over them. Just click on an element to remove it.

To use the element picker, click the uBO icon and select the color eyedropper.

Click the item you want to remove, then click Create.

To view these filters, open the uBO toolbar by clicking the gear icon.

Then select the My Filters tab.

Here you can easily remove the added filters by deleting the row and selecting Apply Changes.

If uBO breaks a website you need to access, you can selectively allow access to content on websites or individual web pages. For this:

Select the uBO icon in the upper right corner of the window.

Press the blue power button to disable uBO on a website, or Shift + press the blue power button to disable it for a single page.

This allows you to whitelist certain pages where you don’t need to activate uBO.

Easy Mode: Using Static Filter Rules

uBO comes with several built-in and third-party filter lists. They can be enabled or disabled as desired to enhance your online privacy.

uBO developers recommend enabling:

All uBlock Origin FiltersEasyListPeter Lowe Ad Server ListEasyPrivacyBlacklisting Malicious Internet URLs

To make sure they are enabled, open the uBO dashboard and select the Filter Lists tab.

It is possible to add custom filters, but be aware that some of them may be of poor quality and cause even more damage to the website for little privacy benefit.

uBlock Origin Advanced Options

uBO has several advanced settings that any user can enable. These settings may increase the efficiency or functionality of uBO. However, it is very important to fully understand advanced custom features before modifying them, as the add-on is easy to break, and misconfiguration can leave you less secure than with the default settings.

To enable advanced settings:

Open the uBO control panel.

On the “Settings” tab, check the box next to “I am an advanced user”.

Dynamic Filtering: Medium Mode and Above

uBO uses two types of filtering – static filtering and dynamic filtering. Static filtering is the default and filters website content based on the filter lists mentioned above.

Dynamic filtering allows users to add rules that override static filtering, giving you more control over the type of content you can block or allow. This can be toggled by clicking on the uBO icon and selecting the Less and More buttons.

With dynamic filtering enabled, clicking on the uBO icon now looks like this:

In the first column we have the type of requests made in plain text and in bold the websites making those requests. You will notice that there is a colored bar next to each hostname.

Green means everything is allowed from that hostname, yellow means some things are blocked, some things are allowed, and red means everything is blocked. By default, there are no dynamic filtering rules.

The second column shows the global rules. These are rules that apply to all websites. By default, each field will be light grey. This means that the rules do not apply.

The third column contains local rules that will only apply to the site they were added to. For example, if you block the hostname youtube.com globally, it will never load into your browser. However, if you only block it locally (say, on a blog), it will load on all other sites except this one.

Plus symbols mean that certain content is allowed, while minus symbols mean that content is blocked. There may be a combination depending on the automatically applied filter lists.

If you hover over the second and third columns, you will see a gray-red border. The red box sets the blocking rule, meaning that the content will be blocked. The gray box specifies a “none” rule that allows you to override the global blocking rules for content types and URLs.

How to Save and Revert Filtering Rules

Implementing content blocks will help you achieve maximum privacy, but it can also cause many websites to crash. With that in mind, uBO has simplified the experiments. You can erase all the rules and start again by clicking on the eraser.

You can also lock your rule set if you find a suitable combination by clicking on the lock.

How to Use Dynamic Filtering

Dynamic filtering is uBO’s advanced content filtering mode that allows users to manually enter rules to control the content that websites can load and display.

Here are two ways to use dynamic filtering:

1. Block third-party scripts and frames

It is generally recommended to globally block all third-party frames and scripts. They are like built-in “websites within a website” and are often the weak link in websites that attackers target with malware (and they’re annoying).

You can block all third party scripts/frames by clicking the red square in the global column next to those elements.

But let’s say you want to be able to view embedded YouTube videos on a certain website. First you need to scroll down to the youtube.com URL and click on the gray box in the local column. This site will now only load third-party YouTube footage.

Also, you may find that blocking all frames and scripts causes the website to break. In this case, trial and error should use the local “noop” override button (gray field in the local column) for each domain until the website is up and running again.

2. Block social media trackers

There is no reason for social media websites or search engines to track your activity outside of their platforms. To block their permissions, open the uBO dashboard and click the red square in the global column for each social network URL (for example, Facebook.com). The only problem is that this will also block them when you try to load the website directly.

To work around this, create a “noop” for each site by clicking the gray box in the local column for each site. Websites will now only load when you access them directly, rather than being tracked by other websites you visit.

Is uBlock Origin Worth Using?

uBlock Origin is one of the safest and most reliable content filtering add-ons. It’s an open and transparent app, but even better, developer Raymond Hill refuses to accept donations and says he has no intention of ever monetizing uBO.

uBO also refuses to charge companies for whitelisting certain “acceptable advertisements” for profit, unlike other ad blockers, including Adblock Plus (ABP). In addition, uBO has the best performance among other ad blockers, including AdBlock, Adguard and Ghostery.

Overall, uBO is probably the best option whether you just need an ad blocker or a powerful content filtering add-on to protect your personal information.

Stay Secure Online

Due to the growing number of scams, malware, and data mining on the Internet, many people are turning to extensions to filter content while browsing the web. uBlock Origin is one of the best ad blocking plug-ins with a bunch of extra features to help protect your privacy, especially when combined with a VPN.

ublock origin firefox

ublock origin firefox