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Hush: Noiseless Browsing for Safari

164 points| ggoo | 5 years ago |daringfireball.net | reply

86 comments

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[+] llacb47|5 years ago|reply
So this is basically a wrapper for Fanboy's cookie monster list? This is really nothing special IMO.

Plus, the fact that the filters are inside of the app source and not fetched from a remote repo means that filtering errors (false-positives) will take hours or maybe days to be fixed, as the dev will need to push out an update (or pull Fanboy's upstream fixes), it will need to be approved by Apple, and then the user will need to update the entire extension.

Compare this with uBo or Adguard, where one can manually check for updates and pull a new version of a single filter list or every filter list in ten seconds. In uBo, the user can also badfilter the offending line in the list or disable uBo from running on a specific domain.

In general, as evidenced from this issue list, cookie consent lists are somewhat problematic and can break sites. Some of these issues may be fixed by now. https://github.com/ryanbr/fanboy-adblock/issues?q=%22easylis...

[+] radicaldreamer|5 years ago|reply
All these "apps" are required because Apple doesn't allow extensions like uBo to work with Safari and they force ("strongly encourage") developers who want to create simple extensions to go through and make a whole app with the right entitlements on both iOS and Mac.
[+] galad87|5 years ago|reply
It doesn't need to be approved by Apple. The app can download a new list directly. Or run in background and update the list when needed.
[+] terramex|5 years ago|reply
Your mileage may vary but the first 3 websites I opened after installing it:

- https://twitter.com/ still shows cookie banner at the bottom

- https://botland.com.pl still shows cookie banner at the bottom

- https://www.17track.net started showing "You are seeing this message because ad or script blocking software is interfering with this page." at the bottom of the page and asked me to solve a captcha

[+] mikhailt|5 years ago|reply
Is there any work being done to revert the requirements of cookie banners, age consent, etc? These are all utterly pointless and easy to bypass.

While we're at it, get rid of the forced "piracy is harmful" ads on every media disc too. Pirates don't actually see these messages, they're stripped out in the final copy, so the actual legal customers are the only one suffering through it as they can't be skipped either with the skip button, which is silly.

We need to do a better job of cleaning up our laws that has turned out to be worthless.

[+] ryukafalz|5 years ago|reply
I think the cookie banner requirements are just fine: they're only required if sites are tracking you. It's a good sign that if I'm on a site that's not bothering me with a cookie banner, it's respecting my privacy: https://github.blog/2020-12-17-no-cookie-for-you/

Making the widespread surveillance that was previously invisible visible (and annoying) seems like a good move to me.

[+] _jstreet|5 years ago|reply
I wonder that too. Would this be something the W3C would look into introducing some configurable cookie-consent (i.e. "Accept all", "necessary only", "block all" options) that browser vendors could then pick-up on and adopt so that it wouldn't require manual checks at each website visit?
[+] Nextgrid|5 years ago|reply
Cookie banners aren't required per-se, and when the website wishes to do tracking that would require consent under the GDPR, the regulation mandates that the consent prompt should be clear, opt-in (aka pre-ticked checkboxes aren't allowed) and that accepting should be as easy as declining (so if opting in takes one click, so should opt-out).

The problem is that the GDPR is not being enforced seriously so these breaches of the regulation aren't being cleaned up. I'm not sure if it's malice or outright stupidity and the companies legitimately believe they are compliant (there is tons of bad and incorrect advice out there).

If you want things to change and you're in Europe, you should start by questioning the incompetence of your local data protection agency as they are the ones that have the power to investigate breaches & impose fines. In the UK, the Open Rights Group is raising money to sue our data protection agency for its incompetence/unwillingness to enforce the regulation, so maybe it's worth checking out: https://action.openrightsgroup.org/help-us-protect-your-data... (no affiliation)

[+] rozab|5 years ago|reply
Do Not Track should have been made legally binding. Hell, with any sane interpretation of GDPR it would be.
[+] rakoo|5 years ago|reply
> Hush is a throwback to the days when good clever people made good clever things

It is sad the author believes that cookies banner is here only because website owners don't care about design anymore. Banners are absolutely annoying by design because owners want people to be annoyed and click "I accept everything" to not be annoyed anymore. Owners could very well make those banners disappear with one simple trick: just don't collect any information.

The "golden past" isn't one where they used to care about users' experience, it's one where they didn't have to care about users' privacy. I personally highly welcome the change and try to websites that don't care about my privacy by default.

[+] jolux|5 years ago|reply
Plenty of those cookie banners specifically make it harder to opt out of inessential cookies, though. That part bothers me a lot.
[+] bombcar|5 years ago|reply
Many websites implemented the banner because other websites are implementing them. There’s a lot of bandwagons out there.
[+] bombcar|5 years ago|reply
I get the name makes sense for what it does but I long for the days that products weren’t simple English words - searching “Hush” on the App Store found many results - none of which looked like this.

Which brings me to the annoyance of “go here search this”: a regressing to AOL keywords when URLs exist is madness.

[+] jccalhoun|5 years ago|reply
I also wish the name or subtitle was more accurate. When I read "noiseless" I thought it muted all your tabs or something not that it got rid of "visual noise" or something.
[+] nicbou|5 years ago|reply
uBlock Origin has a few lists that disable annoyances. They are disabled by default, but they're arguably the most important lists.

It's weird to borrow someone's laptop, and see a barrage of ads, notices, bars and other visual spam.

[+] LeoNatan25|5 years ago|reply
It’s strange that even today, people are still not aware they should be using ad blockers with as many lists as they could live with. It’s no longer just about sanity and protecting attention, but now also about security, as we’ve heard more and more about malware running rampart from ad distribution servers.
[+] benhurmarcel|5 years ago|reply
> It's weird to borrow someone's laptop, and see a barrage of ads, notices, bars and other visual spam.

"Hey you should be using an ad blocker, it avoid ads and viruses, and makes websites faster. Do you mind if I install you one?"

[+] JosephRedfern|5 years ago|reply
The Ad Blocker situation on Safari is pretty poor. I've ended up with Ghostery, but really miss uBlock Origin.
[+] romanovcode|5 years ago|reply
uBlock Origin does not work on Safari so this statement is irrelevant.
[+] riggsdk|5 years ago|reply
I find their privacy policy rather disturbing.

Basically they initially say no data ever leaves the device but then they go on to say:

1) in case of a problem they gather detailed log data

2) They “may” store third party tracking cookies

3) Third parties will get access to my personal information (though they seem to promise they won’t abuse it) hmm

4) They directly write that they can’t guarantee the safety of my personal information

I think I’ll pass on this one.

Privacy policy: https://hush-1.flycricket.io/privacy.html

The extension was also posted here (where I originally posted the above comment): https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=trastknast

[+] trastknast|5 years ago|reply
Author here. Apple requires you to have a privacy policy available online to even submit the an app for review. I used this from a generator I found online with the intention to update this one in the next app submission to point to the repo, but it blew up yesterday and just haven't gotten around to doing that yet. No bad intentions, what's said on the website is true, and you can verify that in the code.
[+] mikkelam|5 years ago|reply
I've been using "I don't care about cookies" for years now https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/i-dont-care-a...

It's fantastic. Browsing the web on my iPhone, I feel like slaying myself. Current state of the web is just fucking annoying.

[+] dheera|5 years ago|reply
Exactly. I don't care about cookies because I block all of them anyway except on sites I need to login to, which means those sites won't be able to remember cookie accept/decline settings either because ironically they need another cookie to store that setting.

I used a bunch of custom CSS until I got tired of it, then I started using uBlock Origin which also helps block other annoyances like those stupid "Can I help you?" chat bubbles and other popups on various websites.

[+] Nextgrid|5 years ago|reply
AdGuard is available on iOS too. It's using the same list as the one from the article (plus a few more).
[+] kowlo|5 years ago|reply
I'm going to check Hush out - I hope it works as intended. I've been using Safari as my main browser for a while now, and it has been a little (very) painful since the update that broke uBlock origin. It seems a pi-hole isn't enough!

It would be great to browse the web without all the noise!

[+] tlavoie|5 years ago|reply
Actually, Pi-Hole can take additional lists, just like the browser extensions.

Under "Group Management", select "Adlists".

[+] skycocker|5 years ago|reply
It would be awesome if it worked on Google.com / YouTube.com and some of my local news websites. Uninstalling for now, but I’ll try it again in a few weeks - the idea is very promising to me and the world desperately needs this. My day just got better thanks to this developer, even though there is still room for improvement. Good luck!
[+] rognjen|5 years ago|reply
I find it difficult to take articles with such an aggressive tone and that exaggerate unimportant points seriously.

For instance:

> you’re back to approving cookie access every single goddamn time you load an article at The Guardian

I honestly don't remember the last time I saw a popup there and I read it daily. I think the consent lasts quite a while.

Furthermore, the drivel about clever people, clever things… what? How is that related to blocking a banner that sites are legally mandated to have?

Doesn't make me want to try the extension, just makes me think that someone has just discovered adblock or was paid to write it.

[+] wodenokoto|5 years ago|reply
... but still no adblocker for safari
[+] ludwigschubert|5 years ago|reply
Not sure what you mean, are you missing a specific ad blocker? There are some ad blockers for Safari, both on macOS and on iOS. 1Blocker, AdGuard, Wipr, are examples I know to work well. (Many are paid, though, or have paid “premium” tiers.) Edit: others in this thread also mention Ghostery, KaBlock.
[+] Kudos|5 years ago|reply
> Hush is a throwback to the days when good clever people made good clever things, polished them to perfection simply because they care, and just shared them with the world

Spoken like someone who doesn't need to worry about their income.

[+] sritchie|5 years ago|reply
If someone gets into that situation, isn’t this exactly what you’d hope they’d be spending their time doing, for the rest of our sakes?
[+] dunkeylim|5 years ago|reply
Always a reason to criticize everything.
[+] moistbar|5 years ago|reply
I was thinking it sounded beyond arrogant. Wording like that is a surefire way to get me not to use your product.