22h ago

firefox also isn't immune

https://mastodon.social/@gwynnion/114541537909461004

143 comments

I want my web browser to actively defend me against tracking/enshittification/exploitation/hostile design, then show me cleaned-up web pages with all the ads and shit removed, then get out of the way.
I want it to show me the information (which is not same thing as the "page" as a whole) that I'm looking for without modifying it or hallucinating some kind of AI summary, but I want it to aggressively get rid of as much of the extraneous crap obfuscating said information as possible.
- and ironically, LLMs could be great for this! recognizing what's ads and what's content, what's slop and what's high-effort, wading through the cesspool of feeds and dark patterns to find the stuff that's relevant to you.
  unfortunately, the money is in using LLMs to generate more slop and make things even worse, not make it better.
  
  I could believe it for advertising versus content (to an extent), but I think it would not be useful in 'slop' versus content, for the same reason it's output is slop. If an AI approach can detect slop, then a related AI approach can generate better slop that it could no longer detect.
  But it could also make advertising more baked into a content that is hard to extricate.
- Thank fuck for uBlock origin
  
  yeah, whenever I have to look at someone else's browser and it's an ad-filled hellscape I'm really grateful for uBlock. The internet would be completely unusable for me without it.
  Same when people talk about how creepily the ads target them based on circumstantial stuff it feels like an alien experience bc even if I get targeted despite employing quite a few tracking blockers, I never actually see the ads lol.
  ( like that story of the father hearing about the daughter's pregnancy because he got spammed with baby care ads after the daughter googled some medical symptoms)
  bonus recommendation for those of us who still have to use Facebook: F.B. Purity is great
  
  And Firefox's reader mode, and noscript.
  
  also consent-o-matic and canvas blocker
  
  Reader mode on mobile is a let down because there's no way to force it.
  
  Actual proof of good in the world
  
  i had 2-3 other ones for extra protection.

143 comments