11 Mar 2026
How to block ads on Firefox
Get uBlock Origin from the Firefox add-ons site. That’s about it.
Some other extensions technically work for most of the random adtech, but the most important ads to block are the ones on Google Search (where the FBI warns that you are likely to click on a fraudulent ad) and YouTube.
Every once in a while YouTube tries some anti-adblocker trick, but you can check the uBlock Origin subreddit for status updates. Usually they fix it pretty quickly.
Firefox also has some built-in advertising features, which can be turned off.
And you can test how well you are protected using Cover Your Tracks from EFF.
More info
Bonus links
Google’s
Ad Tech Litigation Defense Grows as Publishers Pile on by Katie
Arcieri. Publishers including Vox, The Atlantic, Business Insider,
McClatchy Media Co., Slate, and Advance Publications in recent months
sued Google in the US District Court for the Southern District of New
York, which consolidated the cases. They are pursuing unspecified
damages on top of the millions of dollars sought by the other
publishers—including Gannett Co., Mail Media Inc., and Emmerich
Newspapers—that are already part of the multidistrict litigation that
began in 2021.
(The Federal antitrust case found Google guilty, so
most of the legal work for these has been done already. Finally the
publishers get to be the ones to free ride instead of the other way
around.)
The
one science reform we can all agree on, but we’re too cowardly to do
by Adam Mastroianni. We can satisfy both the scientists and the
scalpel-wielding politicians by ridding ourselves of the one
constituency that should not exist. Of all the crazy parts of our crazy
system, the craziest part is where taxpayers pay for the research, then
pay private companies to publish it, and then pay again so scientists
can read it.
I
dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too by Sam Medley.
Installing Linux not only saved three machines in my house (my
laptop, desktop, and our media PC); it resurrected the joy of using a
computer.
A
Hack is Not Enough by Gio. Just because something is morally
right doesn’t mean that institutional power will never be able to kill
it, and just because enforcing regulation would be technically difficult
doesn’t mean it won’t be done.