- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
- cross-posted to:
- privacy@programming.dev
I used to have uMatrix runing on my browser. It basically works like a firewall, preventing cookies, scripts and other stuff running on your browser without your consent.
It gives you much more control than uBlock, but it is also known for breaking websites if you don’t set what you allow the browser to run properly. I remember it being quite tedious, as I had to go through the process of setting those things properly on each new website I was visiting.
Maybe some of you use it already, and would like to share the experience. Maybe others didn’t know about it and would like to give it a try. Either way, I don’t hear that many peopl talking about this tool, so I thought of sharing it here.
Have a wonderful day!
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Used to love uMatrix, but it has been archived now for five years, not safe to use ay more.
Before and update uBlock wasn’t able to do as much stuff as it does today, once that happened I stopped using uMatrix since it became redundant.
I used to use uMatrix, but stopped when @gorhill stopped recommending its use. The way I figure, if I’m gonna trust the guy, then I’m gonna trust the guy.
he is one of the few people on the planet who I admire and trust. Without him, Internet would be unbearable
Around 2020 I asked for advice, about something better than Adblock Plus and everybody said ublock, everybody.
I use uBlock Origin + uMatrix at the same time. The default blocked stuff from both works for me fine. uMatrix has great flexibility to allow certain stuff. And uBlock has ability to block additional stuff with the element picker, either temporary or permanent. Both tools have additional settings that the other might not cover. So what I usually do:
- let uBlock block ads and some other stuff
- block some stuff manually with uBlock
- let uMatrix block additional stuff but allow me to finetune easily
- allow certain domains or categories in uMatrix one by one for certain sites when I need to
i use numatrix, it’s a fork of nutensor whichbwas a fork of umatrix. it’s regularly updated and available on firefox AMO
unlike nutensor/umatrix or even ublock origin it even has keyboard shortcut feature, so paired with vimfx i almost never have to touch the mouse
I did for a long time but Ray stopped maintaining it so I stopped using it.
i mean it still works. it has no external dependencies, it has no known bugs afaik, it just trucks along. no maintenance necessary.
normalize software being “done”.
A fair opinion. I simply try to avoid building a personal dependency on something that isn’t maintained so I’m less impacted if it suddenly breaks or there’s a vulnerability.
It’s a great tool though. One of the best security extensions bar noscript.
I’ve read something about Javascript compatibility issues years ago, which lead me to switch to uBlock Origin 100%. Search engines suck for such things, so i’ve asked Haiku via duck.ai:
UI & Interface Issues
Mozilla Discourse Support Thread (2017-2018): https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/support-umatrix/5131?page=5 Mozilla
Documented issues include:
- Column truncation: The “OTHER” column gets cut off when scroll lists appear in Firefox
- Settings button broken: The gear icon for accessing settings is non-functional on Firefox 56+
- Popup window sizing: The popup window is too narrow, cutting off the right half of the interface
- Cloud storage export: Export functionality breaks on Firefox nightly builds
JavaScript Blocking Issues
GitHub Issue #902 (January 2018): https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix/issues/902 GitHub
Reports of JavaScript blocking not functioning properly on Firefox 56/57, with the logger showing blocks that don’t actually prevent script execution.
There’s also nuMatrix, but that seems buggy, with outdated default lists, disappearing new lists.
Edit: formatting
uBlock Origin can do so much beside blocking ads, like replace extensions (like Consent-OMatic or the many small ones I sued to use to protect my privacy) or block specific parts on any webpage.
I use it and love it. Without it, I feel naked browsing. It shows which sites load what from where.
No, I use Adnausem and Consent-o-matic so ads are silently ‘clicked’ in the background to mess with my advertising profiles and cookie popups are actively opted out of not just hidden.
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Thanks for this intelligence. I’ve been looking for such a tool but didn’t know where it was available.
