canvas fingerprinting AdBlock Plus with EasyPrivacy helps stop Canvas Fingerprinting

[NewsBot]

Ever since our start, Lunarsoft has taken great strides in avoiding having any advertisements on our website. Thanks to this, people do not have to worry about their privacy when browsing any part of Lunarsoft. This also means you don't need to worry about canvas fingerprinting.

 

Canvas fingerprinting is a new "unstoppable" method to track users online for advertising purposes. The data gathered includes graphic drivers, browser version, operating system and possibly some settings like ClearType. While some reports are claiming that it's impossible by bypass, the Adblock Plus team has found ways and methods to stop canvas fingerprinting.

 

Though Adblock Plus cannot stop a browser from receiving images used for canvas fignerprinting they are able to stop your computer from transmitting the "fingerprint". This stops the tracking that canvas fingerprinting uses in it's tracks.

 

The AdBlock Plus team has even stated that,

When you add the EasyPrivacy filter list in Adblock Plus this won't make Adblock Plus block tracking cookies directly. Instead, Adblock Plus will block the script that would try to set these cookies. And guess what: blocking that script doesn't just prevent cookie-based tracking, it also lets you deal with canvas fingerprinting or evercookie or any other tracking approach. In particular, the rules to prevent AddThis tracking were added to EasyPrivacy almost five years ago.

 

AdBlock Plus is available for Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Android. Be sure to use EasyList and EasyPrivacy when you install AdBlock Plus. You can also check out our wiki page about Blocking Malware and Advertisements Safely along with our PC Security wiki page.

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[greenknight]

The NoScript extension for Firefox and other Mozilla-based browsers will also block them, but it's more of an inconvenience - good to hear there's something else.

[Tarun]

I tried NoScript a while back - I think it was 1.6/1.8 series - and found it to be extremely overkill compared to what most people really need.

 

AdBlock Plus however, I've been using for years with no issues. Though I do find it silly how someone forked it because of the addition of the checkbox option to allow unobtrusive advertisements.

[greenknight]

NoScript is definitely for security fanatics - which I am, I confess.

[Tarun]

Why do you feel you need it?

[greenknight]

Because I'm paranoid. Seriously, testing new software like I do means venturing into unknown Internet territory sometimes, so I need extra security. The whitelisting approach taken by NoScript is inherently more secure since even unknown exploits are blocked, and it includes anti-XSS and anti-clickjacking, too. Almost every new exploit I learn about, it turns out that NoScript blocks it.

 

Adblock+ is more oriented toward faster browsing, though it provides some security improvement as well. In my time on the Firefox help forums, I noticed Adblock+ was one of the most troublesome extensions, frequently broken by Firefox updates. Though it's usually fixed quickly, I run more than one Firefox nightly build with updates every day, so I didn't think Adblock+ was a good choice for me.

[Tarun]

Strange. I run Adblock Plus with the Nightly x64 builds and for years it's never caused me a single issue.

[greenknight]

This was a long time ago, they may have gotten better. Also, 64 bit builds are low priority for Mozilla, they may not get built for a few days when problems occur - it may be that new features the break Adblock+ also break X64 updating.