Comment by rmsaksida | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rmsaksida | Hacker News Reader

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Some of the scripts loaded by Wired when you access this article:

> http://ads.rubiconproject.com/header/11644.js

"Rubicon Project, the digital advertising infrastructure company, is on a mission to automate buying and selling for the global online advertising industry"

> https://tags.bkrtx.com/js/bk-coretag.js

"BlueKai is a cloud-based big data platform that enables companies to personalize online, offline, and mobile marketing campaigns"

> https://www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js

"Google Analytics is a freemium web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic."

> http://b.scorecardresearch.com/beacon.js

"Through our global research efforts, ScorecardResearch collects data that assists companies around the world in providing products and services that better meet the needs of consumers"

And of course:

> http://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

"Instagram is a photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook, Inc"

> http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js

It's Facebook.

As some consolation, I'll note that the article is completely readable with JS disabled.

The Web has become unusable without uMatrix.

...or regular uBlock Origin in 'expert mode':

Check 'I am an advanced user' in the settings, then click on either 'requests blocked' or 'domains connected' in the drop-down to access dynamic filtering. Block everything third-party by default by clicking in the right side of the second column. Load a site with lots of third-party content, disable the block (by clicking in the middle of the third column, greying-out the block) for only those things which seem to be essential to show page content and you're done.

While not as fine-grained as uMatrix, uBlock Origin generally is the quicker way to go from 'empty page' to 'only the content I want' on sites which, without blocking, are tracker-ridden dark-pattern hell-holes.

"unusable" is a very extreme word for this.

Not really, it is as unhealthy for your personal integrity as waste water is for your physical well-being. Both can be made palatable by filtering, neither of them should be used without treatment.

"Unusable for the privacy-aware" does the job

Privacy issues aside, it has a noticeable effect on battery life.

Not to mention performance and usability.

I never bothered with uMatrix until I picked up a cheap computer to use while traveling. Firefox was borderline unusable without it.

"unpalatable for the privacy-aware"

Firefox on one of my older/slower computers was borderline unusable on some sites before I installed uMatrix.

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