Privacy is impossible?
| 3 min read
A week ago I set up pfSense on my network, almost replacing the modem firewall. pfSense also handles some other things, but one of the ideas I had was to manage access a bit more robustly and ad pfBlockerNG.
This also comes with the added (questionable) benefit of me being aware of how the internet works these days. And the absolute insanity going on with tracking, spying and other useless data wasting practices.
pfBlockerNG is a plugin for pfSense that supposedly blocks trackers, ads, malware/bot networks coming in from the internet. Sounds kinda neat and useful! Since I'm in the business of ads, I didn't really set up much ad blocking. But the safety and privacy part is very interesting to me. So I focused on blocking bot nets and trackers.
According to the logs just visiting the homedepot.com.mx homepage, it blocked 161 tracking requests. Which is insane if you think about it. When I went to the website of a supermarket I shop at, that number jumped to over 200. So about 40 more. just because I happen to visit their homepage. I haven't searched anything yet, or logged in, nor is there any reason to 'personalize' anything yet.
Visiting Reddit has been a sore point since then, too. Normal function barely works with the plugin active. Everything is slow, the infinite scroll will fail quickly. Embedded content simply doesn't load half the time. Even posting a question or opening commments often fails with unspecified errors.
And it's happening on other sites like Amazon, Github or even WordPress too. They are all malfunctioning in one way or another. Making using the internet very frustrating. When I turn off the plugin, everything works like normal.
I'm spammed with popup questions about where I live, for a personalized experience like I should. On some sites I have to click through so many stupid popups before seeing the content, it's insane. Right fandom.com? Yeah! Fuck you! And worst of all, sneaky trackers can spy freely and gather whatever information they think they need.
Allow all that madness into my browser, wasting lots of bandwidth and the sites work, and respond to my clicks.
And all I can think of is fuck off! Why do you need analytics this invasive just to show me a homepage properly? It's so absolutely unnecessary.
I've tuned the plugin a lot, Gemini had some ideas. I read the manual and turned off IP blocking. For DNS Blocks (DNSBL) I swapped out some of the lists. This has the homedepot website working, without their insane tracking. Yeah, turns out I can just browse and look at things without them knowing how many nosehairs I have, where in the world I am and if I might be interested in sniffing glue. Who would've thought?
But Reddit is still a stinking pile of fuck you. I'm not sure what to do about it. The logs are inconclusive. And whitelisting their spy programs for the sake of Reddit functioning seems like a loss too. I am logged in to the site, they know who I am and what my IP is. Everything else? Not relevant for what I do on there.
Gotta fight back... I have to resist those systems. But it's like swimming against the current of a river. And the more I struggle with it, the further downstream I end up.
Any sense of privacy seems more and more forbidden, or downright impossible.