Making ad-blocking optional in Spyware Blocker

[neiby]

I know this was discussed in the past at some point, but I'd really like the ability to disable the ad-blocking features in SB. We have a situation where we need to continue to block spyware and sites that are known to be malicious, but we want to otherwise allow ads. This is not currently possible with SB without manually adding all of the relevant ad sites to the pass list. That is possible, but not really feasible or easily manageable.

I don't know if it's even really possible to separate out the ad blocking functions from SB, but I'd love to see it as an option if it is possible.

I created an enhancement request just in case:

http://bugzilla.untangle.com/show_bug.cgi?id=7707

[dmorris]

there shouldn't be any more ad-sites in spyware blocker - they have been removed for the most part.

if you find one just tell us or submit it above.

[lschafroth]

there shouldn't be any more ad-sites in spyware blocker - they have been removed for the most part.

if you find one just tell us or submit it above.

hmmm.. that means I should go check my pass lists and remove the ones no longer needed in Spyware Blocker. Cool.

Lannie

[neiby]

We were seeing some ads being blocked, but we were also seeing content distribution sites being blocked. For example, video from some local news station websites would not play if we had SB enabled. However, as soon as we disabled it for testing, someone nearly got a virus because of an infected ad. lol We can't win!

[neiby]

Here's an example. For some reason, it is blocking cookies from ad.doubleclick.net even though I don't have cookie blocking enabled.

As for the video on the website that isn't playing, I see that SB is blocking images.ibsys.com, which is delivering the video player and the video. I guess I can just open that up, but I'm not sure why it's being blocked in the first place.

[neiby]

After looking a little closer, it appears that all of the ad stuff being blocked is because of the cookie blocking, which shouldn't be happening because I don't have cookie blocking enabled.

[neiby]

For example, try to go to www.weather.com with SB turned on. It doesn't load properly. Maybe it's because of all the freaking snow we're getting right now!

[neiby]

The cookie blocking thing appears to be a bug. Can anyone confirm? SB appears to be blocking cookies even though the checkbox to block cookies is unchecked.

[dmorris]

tracking cookies are still considered spyware/adware. They track user behavior with the intent of profiling it to serve better ads, but the final intent is not important - it doesn't allow needless tracking of user behavior.

weather.com works fine for me - check the event log to see whats getting blocked.

[neiby]

On weather.com, stuff from ad.doubleclick.net was being blocked, as well as stuff from 2mdn.net. The top banner (not an ad) was not loading, as well as a couple of other page elements.

If cookies are blocked even when the checkbox is unchecked, would it make sense to remove the checkbox? From a user's perspective, I would assume that if I leave the box unchecked then those things will not be blocked. If they're going to be blocked anyway, maybe just take away the option to make it less confusing.