German webmail providers trying to trick users into removing adblockers

http://tech.eu/news/united-internet-deception-adblock-plus/

Using a translator on that site I see:

It appears they are lumping some tools that perform privacy/security enhancing manipulations in with tools that perform privacy/security degrading manipulations. Seems they are also trying to play-up instances where people install nefariously modified versions of ad blockers.

FWIW, it looks to me like United Internet brands include: 1&1, GMX, Web.de, mail.com, Arsys, Fasthosts, InterNetX, United-Domains, Affilinet, sedo, and United Internet Media.

 

That's why im not using any of those providers.

 

Yes, me too. And I don't know any of them also

hqsec

 

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meld...blocker-Keine-Taeuschungsabsicht-2126503.html

 

What? Oh...

That's funny. What would be even funnier is if United Internet was behind the Acceptable Ads program from the start.

What's scary is that they were willing to mimic Firefox's notificationbox/infobar as part of their scheme to lure people into removing some protective tools. That's the kind of thing that ought to get their sites listed as malware domains, at least for awhile.

Back to funny: Their having to try to defend their own MailCheck addon and paint it as an exception. Given their behavior and attitude, perhaps that and any other of their tools should be avoided until every line of code is carefully inspected.

 

https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/antiadblockfilters.txt

http://www.golem.de/news/adblocker-...ne-gefahr-durch-adblock-plus-1402-104859.html

 

Every browser extension is a potential security risk, that's nothing new. Yet when GMX tries to infect your computer with malware through compromised advertisements (malwaretising), AdBlockers will protect you

 

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/03/03/adblock_nobbling_campaign/

 

I wonder what kind of response they are looking for from the ABP devs. They already released a new version of ABP which includes a list to block these removal nags nearly 2 weeks ago, before this entire thing became news.

https://adblockplus.org/releases/adblock-plus-251-for-firefox-released

I'm sure an update for other browsers is coming soon. For now, you can simply add the list manually from the EasyList site.

v2.5.1 explicitly includes this list.

 

+1

 

Hopefully something less Putinesque than 'If we'd switch Adblock Plus off for just 20 minutes, there would be a huge uprising among our users.'

http://www.horizont.net/aktuell/dig...abschalten-gibt-es-einen-Aufstand_119217.html

 

Hoorah for referencing a 14th of February article before any of this even happened. I mean, it's not like they reacted to this issue before it even became news or anything. /s

 

Actually, this became an issue well before February 14:

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2336521&postcount=250

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2340049&postcount=260

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2340049&postcount=261

 

Adblock Plus Expands Tracking Filters

It now blocks 8,600 different trackers in it's Easy Privacy filter list, more than double
the number a year ago.(4,200)

Adblock Plus’s CEO and co-founder Till Faida says that Adblock is on track to hit
300 million downloads by next week, with active monthly users at between 50 million
and 60 million at the moment.


http://techcrunch.com/2014/03/12/adblock-plus/

 

I think its funny they can trick people, I say its fair game. If people are stupid enough to fall for the trick then let them, how are they ever gonna learn if we baby them and do everything for them. Learning this way is a good tool and what harm do they incur? the minor bother of advertisements while they figure out what they did wrong and the content providers benefit as well. Nobody loses in this exchange of a learning experience.