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Comment by Kiro | Hacker News Reader

I hope you inform them before installing it. If someone installed something that's tampering with my browsing experience without telling me I would be pretty mad.

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yeah right! i don't know very much how to use a computer so i asked my cousin who is a professional hacker haha to set up the programs i use! i was blaffed to know that he installed a plug-in (that's how you spell it right?) that blocked all the ads that would appear in a website! how could i enjoy surfing the web without ads? real life has ads everywhere i go, so i called him immediately and ordered that he removed this "virus" that removed the ads!

Since you appear to want to learn, I won't feel bad (or pedantic) in explaining that he installed an extension, which is a browser add-on. A plug-in is also a browser add-on, but is used to describe QuickTime, Flash, Java, etc.

After I wrote the above, I double checked myself and, apparently, I am using Mozilla's definition. However, it seems Apple also differentiates among the terms add-on (the super-set), and extensions/ plug-ins (subsets).

There was an '/s' missing in his post.

I agree, especially since even ublock occasionally gets caught by those 'you're using an ad-blocker' ads that tries to get you to either disable it or subscribe. That would really confuse, say, my mom if she had no idea she had an ad-blocker.

I just tell non technical people to open those tabs in an incognito window which invariably works fine.

Removing ads isn't really tampering though: it's inarguably improving.

If someone makes my life immeasurably better without telling me, I'm thankful.

I wouldn't say it's inarguable. I'm not using Adblocker for many different reasons but that's not really the topic here. I think you should at least inform someone that you install stuff and let them give consent, regardless of what it is.

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