[gentoo-user] [OT]: "New to aliexpress" pop up - how to block it?

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi,

that drives my insane:
While searching items for my DIY Nixie clock on aliexpress I get
one certain popup with each new access to aliexpress asking
me, whether I am new to aliexpress and offers me a coupon.

I have no othe chance than clicking on this [beep] pop up
to be able to see the page contents.

I searched the web for according informations how to block
this [beep] popup, but I only get informations how to
remove a certain kind of adware virus from Mac and Windows.

Since this virus pops up an advertisement of constantly changing
goods and is page filling I am sure I am not suffering from this.

If anyone out there has solved this problem without disabling
the possibility to /buy/ something on aliexpress PLEASE HELP
ME. I AM NEAR INSANITY! ;) :)

Thanks a lot in advance for any life saver!
Cheers
Meino

[R0b0t1]

You might be able to block the element on the page using uBlock
Origin, but unfortunately that type of ad is very hard to remove. If
you have to interact with it is harder to select using uBlock's
interface.

You can also use Greasemonkey to block more invasive ads, but I never
had much luck with that. It's designed to do more than filter
background content.

I feel like I need to ask whether or not you've done something like
disable cookies. I'd not suggest doing that, at most delete all of
them when you close your browser session. It's impossible to use most
pages without having cookies enabled (this makes automating things
with web libraries infuriating).

R0b0t1.

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi R0b0t1,

For "normal browsing" I created a profile for firefox which is privacy
enhanced -- blocking all sorts of things. This profile works half
with the sites I normally visit.
Aliexpress get screwed up when visited using this profile.

So I created a second profile, which I use for Aliexpress only. This
one has only some privacy related things enabled. Aliexpress works --
including poping up this [beep] "Are you new to Aliexpress?" popup.
Cookies are enabled with this profile.

As soon as I login into Aliexpress the popup disappears -- now
Aliexpress is satisfied, because tracking my searches is now
personalized.

Its the same reason for why buying via Aliexpress App on a
smartphone/tablet is cheaper than using a PC.
I am using XPrivacy on my Android tablet which shows, blocks
or allows ANY access to permissions like "Get your location"
et cetera -- I instantly deleted that App after I saw, what this
App wants to know.

Cheers
Meino

[Peter Humphrey]

Have you tried Ghostery?

http://www.ghostery.com

--
Regards
Peter

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Peter,

no, due to this reason:

"Ghostery is owned by Evidon, a company that collects and provides data to advertising companies."
Source here:
https://lifehacker.com/ad-blocking-extension-ghostery-actually-sells-data-to-a-514417864

Cheers
Meino

[R0b0t1]

Does it do this on every page load or just the first time you interact with it?

> As soon as I login into Aliexpress the popup disappears -- now
> Aliexpress is satisfied, because tracking my searches is now
> personalized.
>

If you can't find a way to target the overlay with uBlock Origin you
might try looking at https://greasyfork.org/en and using Greasemonkey.
Unfortunately all the premade scripts I could find were simple things
like pricing changes.

> Its the same reason for why buying via Aliexpress App on a
> smartphone/tablet is cheaper than using a PC.
> I am using XPrivacy on my Android tablet which shows, blocks
> or allows ANY access to permissions like "Get your location"
> et cetera -- I instantly deleted that App after I saw, what this
> App wants to know.
>

It's sad to see another website doing this. There's a few that make it
all but impossible to use the service without logging in or supplying
information one way or another. If the creator of the website doesn't
want you to use it, I'm not sure there's a lot that can ultimately be
done about it.

In a similar vein, my phone now displays advertising. The state of
computing has me despondent.

R0b0t1.

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 16 Jul 2017 09:59:54 tu...@posteo.de wrote:
> On 07/16 08:51, Peter Humphrey wrote:

--->8

> > Have you tried Ghostery?
> >
> > http://www.ghostery.com
>

> Hi Peter,
>
> no, due to this reason:
>
> "Ghostery is owned by Evidon, a company that collects and provides data to
> advertising companies." Source here:
> https://lifehacker.com/ad-blocking-extension-ghostery-actually-sells-data-> to-a-514417864

I hadn't read that; interesting. But note that it only says your data are
collected if you choose to "support" them, and apparently the data are
anonymised. Actually, when I looked just now I found that choice made for me
by default. I've now changed it - thanks for the pointer!

I'll continue to use Ghostery for the moment, as it seems highly effective in
stopping all manner of intrusions.

--
Regards
Peter

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Peter,

How far would you trust a company, which makes money from selling
my/your data and is promoting a tool to prevent exactly this?

Me: Not a single radius/wave length of a quantum...

"Anonymised data" is a bad joke in post Orwell times...

Cheers
Meino

[tu...@posteo.de]

I did the following:
*** Surf to www.aliexpress.com (no popup and no way to search despite
the fact that a search bar is shown.)
*** Click on any product -- product will be displayed and popup pops
up (hence the name), click the popup to remove it. Search bar now works.
*** Click "reload tab"...the whole [beep] starts from the beginning.

> > As soon as I login into Aliexpress the popup disappears -- now
> > Aliexpress is satisfied, because tracking my searches is now
> > personalized.
> >
>
> If you can't find a way to target the overlay with uBlock Origin you
> might try looking at https://greasyfork.org/en and using Greasemonkey.
> Unfortunately all the premade scripts I could find were simple things
> like pricing changes.

Why Greasemonkey is especially use ful in this case?
(this is curiosity -- and NO expression of doubt, R0b0t1! :)

>
> > Its the same reason for why buying via Aliexpress App on a
> > smartphone/tablet is cheaper than using a PC.
> > I am using XPrivacy on my Android tablet which shows, blocks
> > or allows ANY access to permissions like "Get your location"
> > et cetera -- I instantly deleted that App after I saw, what this
> > App wants to know.
> >
>
> It's sad to see another website doing this. There's a few that make it
> all but impossible to use the service without logging in or supplying
> information one way or another. If the creator of the website doesn't
> want you to use it, I'm not sure there's a lot that can ultimately be
> done about it.
>
> In a similar vein, my phone now displays advertising. The state of
> computing has me despondent.

For your phone: Root it, install XPosed/XPosedInstaller, install XPrivacy, install
Bootmanager, install PreventRunning, install AFWall -- and your
phone is yours again. Buying XPrivacy is worth every cent (it is
cheap!) and it can be bought directly by its developer Marcel
Bokhorst via Mony transfer -- no need to feed Google again!

For more drop me a PM.


> R0b0t1.
>

[tu...@posteo.de]

See also here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery

cite:
"Some say that Ghostery, Inc. plays a dual role in the online
advertising industry. Ghostery blocks sites from gathering personal
information. But it does have an opt-in feature GhostRank that can be
checked to "support" them. GhostRank takes note of ads encountered and
blocked, and sends that information back to advertisers so they can
better formulate their ads to avoid being blocked.[22] Though Ghostery
claims that the data are anonymized, patterns of web page visits
cannot truly be anonymized.[23] Thus not everyone sees Evidon's
business model as conflict-free. "Evidon has a financial incentive to
encourage the program's adoption and discourage alternatives like Do
Not Track and cookie blocking as well as to maintain positive
relationships with intrusive advertising companies," says Jonathan
Mayer, a Stanford grad student and privacy advocate."


Cheers
Meino

[R0b0t1]

I've managed to block something similar using uBlock Origin, but it
was really hard to select it with the GUI picker that creates blocking
rules for you.

The technical term for what the website is using is called a popover
and I remember people talking about blocking them with uBlock Origin
because they are hard to block, but I can't find anything relevant to
this discussion in Google.

>> > As soon as I login into Aliexpress the popup disappears -- now
>> > Aliexpress is satisfied, because tracking my searches is now
>> > personalized.
>> >
>>
>> If you can't find a way to target the overlay with uBlock Origin you
>> might try looking at https://greasyfork.org/en and using Greasemonkey.
>> Unfortunately all the premade scripts I could find were simple things
>> like pricing changes.
>
> Why Greasemonkey is especially use ful in this case?
> (this is curiosity -- and NO expression of doubt, R0b0t1! :)
>

Greasemonkey injects JavaScript onto your webpages based on filter
criteria, so you can effectively do anything your browser can do when
displaying the webpage. Some of the more impressive feats are
reengineered webpages that are better than the original service, most
of them are mundane and only alter a few values on a webpage.

You can also use it for laser-guided adblocking if you need to.
Unfortunately Greasemonkey requires quite a bit of knowledge about
itself, web development, and the page you are trying to modify, so I
can't be of much help apropos.

>>
>> > Its the same reason for why buying via Aliexpress App on a
>> > smartphone/tablet is cheaper than using a PC.
>> > I am using XPrivacy on my Android tablet which shows, blocks
>> > or allows ANY access to permissions like "Get your location"
>> > et cetera -- I instantly deleted that App after I saw, what this
>> > App wants to know.
>> >
>>
>> It's sad to see another website doing this. There's a few that make it
>> all but impossible to use the service without logging in or supplying
>> information one way or another. If the creator of the website doesn't
>> want you to use it, I'm not sure there's a lot that can ultimately be
>> done about it.
>>
>> In a similar vein, my phone now displays advertising. The state of
>> computing has me despondent.
>
> For your phone: Root it, install XPosed/XPosedInstaller, install XPrivacy, install
> Bootmanager, install PreventRunning, install AFWall -- and your
> phone is yours again. Buying XPrivacy is worth every cent (it is
> cheap!) and it can be bought directly by its developer Marcel
> Bokhorst via Mony transfer -- no need to feed Google again!
>
> For more drop me a PM.
>

I might take you up on your offer but the main issue is my phone isn't
a flagship device so I can't expect a ROM to exist for it. I suppose
I'll check.

R0b0t1.

[Peter Humphrey]

On Sunday 16 Jul 2017 10:59:21 tu...@posteo.de wrote:
> On 07/16 10:48, tu...@posteo.de wrote:
> > On 07/16 09:18, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > On Sunday 16 Jul 2017 09:59:54 tu...@posteo.de wrote:
> > > > On 07/16 08:51, Peter Humphrey wrote:
> > > --->8
> > >
> > > > > Have you tried Ghostery?
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.ghostery.com
> > > >
> > > > Hi Peter,
> > > >
> > > > no, due to this reason:
> > > >
> > > > "Ghostery is owned by Evidon, a company that collects and provides
> > > > data to advertising companies." Source here:
> > > > https://lifehacker.com/ad-blocking-extension-ghostery-actually-sells
> > > > -data-> to-a-514417864> >
> > > I hadn't read that; interesting. But note that it only says your data
> > > are
> > > collected if you choose to "support" them, and apparently the data are
> > > anonymised. Actually, when I looked just now I found that choice made
> > > for me by default. I've now changed it - thanks for the pointer!
> > >
> > > I'll continue to use Ghostery for the moment, as it seems highly
> > > effective in stopping all manner of intrusions.
> >

> > Hi Peter,
> >
> > How far would you trust a company, which makes money from selling
> > my/your data and is promoting a tool to prevent exactly this?
> >
> > Me: Not a single radius/wave length of a quantum...
> >
> > "Anonymised data" is a bad joke in post Orwell times...
> >
> > Cheers
> > Meino
>
> See also here:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghostery
>
> cite:
> "Some say that Ghostery, Inc. plays a dual role in the online
> advertising industry. Ghostery blocks sites from gathering personal
> information. But it does have an opt-in feature GhostRank that can be
> checked to "support" them. GhostRank takes note of ads encountered and
> blocked, and sends that information back to advertisers so they can
> better formulate their ads to avoid being blocked.[22] Though Ghostery
> claims that the data are anonymized, patterns of web page visits
> cannot truly be anonymized.[23] Thus not everyone sees Evidon's
> business model as conflict-free. "Evidon has a financial incentive to
> encourage the program's adoption and discourage alternatives like Do
> Not Track and cookie blocking as well as to maintain positive
> relationships with intrusive advertising companies," says Jonathan
> Mayer, a Stanford grad student and privacy advocate."

Hmm. Plenty to think about there.

--
Regards
Peter

[Urs Schütz]

AdblockPlus, "Select an element to hide". Selecting the red window with
the mouse will add something like this to the blocking list:
aliexpress.com##.ui-window.ui-window-normal.ui-window-transition.ui-newuser-layer-dialog
and
aliexpress.com##.newuser-container

Urs

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Urs,

thanks a lot for the hint!

But.,..

...take a look into the so called "privacy" policy of AdPlus.org (or
whatever those think "privacy" means):

From: https://adblockplus.org/privacy

cite:
Collection and processing on AdblockPlus.org
When using AdblockPlus.org, we automatically collect the following data in order to provide you with our services, and for security reasons:

A list and explanations follows ...

As previously mentioned "anonymiyed data" is a joke in the post Orwell
era of today.


Cheers,
Meino

[Urs Schütz]

I do not see anything surprising in the AdblockPlus privacy policy.
Which points bother you? Maybe I did not look close enough...

Urs

[Dale]

tu...@posteo.de wrote:
>
> Some weeks ago I came accross a site which privacy policy consist of
> one sentence,
>
> "Nothing will be recorded."
>
> That's it. I tend to trust such a lot more than these poems of
> privacy...
>
> But may be I am only an old paranoid...
>
> Cheers
> Meino
>
>
>
>


But how can you trust that nothing is recorded? After all, they may
claim it but doesn't mean they do it.

Just saying.

Dale

:-) :-)

[tu...@posteo.de]

On 07/16 08:00, tu...@posteo.de wrote:

> Hi Urs,
>
> In general do not trust phrases like "we record the IP addresses for
> statistical reasons only.....deleted after 30 days" and such. There is
> no anonymized data nowadays. And the longer such privacy policies are,
> the more I mistrust them.
>
> Even Google has a text called "privacy policy"...

>
> Some weeks ago I came accross a site which privacy policy consist of
> one sentence,
>
> "Nothing will be recorded."
>
> That's it. I tend to trust such a lot more than these poems of
> privacy...
>
> But may be I am only an old paranoid...
>
> Cheers
> Meino
>
>
>

PS:

Found here:
https://gigaom.com/2014/05/11/not-all-ad-blockers-are-the-same-heres-why-the-effs-privacy-badger-is-different/

"Ghostery makes money by tracking the trackers while blocking them and
selling data about third party trackers, which it calls Ghostrank.
Disconnect takes a pay-what-you-want approach, but it is still
developed by a for-profit company founded by a former Google engineer.
Adblock is donation-supported, but many users confuse it with ***>Adblock
Plus, which has generated controversy for having advertisers pay to
land on a whitelist <*** . While Adblock and Adblock plus allow users to add
upload their own blacklists and whitelists, Ghostery and Disconnect do
not even allow users to add new filters."
(marks be me are not part of the citiation)

Cheers
Meino

[tu...@posteo.de]

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Dale,

it's more the brevity and the "thats it" character of their privacy
policy as such, which make me to trust them more than such textmonsters
which are overcrowded with conditions,
whens, buts, and phrase explaining circumstances.

And yes: You are right -- there is no science here, its all about
feelings. As long I have no physical access to their servers its
all about trust and there is no knowledge at all.

It's better to not to tear down the wall...whats behind it may scare
us deadly...

"It's a sad world..."

Cheers
Meino

[Mick]

On Sunday 16 Jul 2017 20:08:03 tu...@posteo.de wrote:

> PS:
>
> Found here:
> https://gigaom.com/2014/05/11/not-all-ad-blockers-are-the-same-heres-why-the

> -effs-privacy-badger-is-different/
>
> "Ghostery makes money by tracking the trackers while blocking them and
> selling data about third party trackers, which it calls Ghostrank.
> Disconnect takes a pay-what-you-want approach, but it is still
> developed by a for-profit company founded by a former Google engineer.
> Adblock is donation-supported, but many users confuse it with ***>Adblock
> Plus, which has generated controversy for having advertisers pay to
> land on a whitelist <*** . While Adblock and Adblock plus allow users to add
> upload their own blacklists and whitelists, Ghostery and Disconnect do not
> even allow users to add new filters."
> (marks be me are not part of the citiation)
>
> Cheers
> Meino

I tried to configure Chromium to stop loading adverts on a particular website.
After half an hour of fighting with embedded frames/JavaScript/etc. eventually
I managed to block half a dozen CDNs and add servers. A week later to my
surprise I saw adverts loading again when I visited the same website! What
the ... ? They are rotating CDN addresses and domain names, probably to make
user attempts to block their payload futile.

What annoys me most is websites which download GB of advertising videos and
won't stop whatever you try. Some will continue to download c*ap on your PC
even after you leave the page! Chromium has a setting to block this, but I
have not tested it to see whether it works as ... advertised. :-)

--
Regards,
Mick

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi Rick,

"Chromium" is based on Googles "Chrome", isn't it?
Is Chromium 100% Google-free?
Or does is only changed big brothers name?

Sorry for being so pessimistic...

Cheers
Meino

[Mick]

> Hi Rick,
>
> "Chromium" is based on Googles "Chrome", isn't it?
> Is Chromium 100% Google-free?
> Or does is only changed big brothers name?
>
> Sorry for being so pessimistic...
>
> Cheers
> Meino

I assume by "Rick" you refer to me, but either way, this explains the
differences:

https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/master/docs/chromium_browser_vs_google_chrome.md

--
Regards,
Mick

[tu...@posteo.de]

Hi *M*ick,

sorry for the confusion...its late (here). It was a long fay and I need some sleep.
Will take a look tomorrow.
Thanks for the link anyway...

Cheers
Meino

[Neil Bothwick]

On Sun, 16 Jul 2017 10:44:47 +0200, tu...@posteo.de wrote:

> > In a similar vein, my phone now displays advertising. The state of
> > computing has me despondent.
>

> For your phone: Root it,...

I used to do that, but the amount of software I used that started to
refuse to run on rooted phones increased to the point that when I got my
latest phone I left it unrooted.

That was when I realised how annoying the ads had become.


--
Neil Bothwick

One-seventh of life is spent on Monday.