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Firefox 57's Speed Secret? Delaying Requests from Tracking Domains (zdnet.com)
An anonymous reader quotes ZDNet:
A Mozilla engineer has revealed one of the hidden techniques that Firefox 57 -- known as Quantum -- is using to improve page load times... It delays scripts from tracking domains, such as www.google-analytics.com. The technique was developed by Mozilla engineer Honza Bambas, who calls it "tailing". It works by delaying scripts from tracking domains when a page is actively loading and rendering...
Tailing only briefly prevents the tracking scripts loading, rather than disabling them entirely. Page load performance is improved by saving on network bandwidth and computing resources while loading a page, in a way that prioritizes site requests over tracking requests. "Requests are kept on hold only while there are site sub-resources still loading and only up to about 6 seconds. The delay is engaged only for scripts added dynamically or as async. Tracking images are always delayed. This is legal according all HTML specifications and it's assumed that well built sites will not be affected regarding functionality," explains Bambas.
Tailing only briefly prevents the tracking scripts loading, rather than disabling them entirely. Page load performance is improved by saving on network bandwidth and computing resources while loading a page, in a way that prioritizes site requests over tracking requests. "Requests are kept on hold only while there are site sub-resources still loading and only up to about 6 seconds. The delay is engaged only for scripts added dynamically or as async. Tracking images are always delayed. This is legal according all HTML specifications and it's assumed that well built sites will not be affected regarding functionality," explains Bambas.
Everyone that already runs adblocking won't notice this anyway.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
And why shouldn't we? No one wanted to be tracked. And even more corporatist a-holes like Google have persistently gone out of their way to obscure the end users ability to even know how the system works. Screw them. It's our hardware, and it's our data. If you have a problem with this then Google should release a version of their OS that you can pay and doesn't track us and avoid the situation entirely.
It isn't a false sense of speed at all, you really are getting the content you actually want faster.
That's why I use both noscript and also uMatrix!
Unless I, the user, have a reason for wanting javascript I won't turn it on . And even if I do, I don't want your cross-site scripting! uMatrix prevents that. And if something really needs a third party script, I can turn on just the specific third parties that are related. For example, I might allow a few google domains if I'm intentionally loading a map, but if I'm not using the map I'm not going to turn those on. And even if I am, I certainly don't want the analytics.
It seems to be getting better, actually; 5 years ago almost every site had third party JS for important functions, now more and more sites are hosting their own scripts for core functionality.
Too bad some websites have noticed the NoScripters and made their website unusable once your disable JS execution.
I say to them, Thank you! I'm glad we agree that it is best if I use another site. Everybody wins!
Lets not fight about this adblock stuff. Not everybody agrees, and that is wonderful, it is a sign of Freedom. There is no need to be passive-aggressive and make the site appear to work at first, and then fail later when you get to the heart of the content. Detect what is detectable, and be honest and straightforwards; if you don't want me as a user, great! I can agree to that, no problem!
I notice that no one has mentioned these, why not?
It's not like any of us asked to be tracked, or get any benefit out of it. Our online existence has become a huge source of income while government and big business know far too much about our private lives. Maybe we should be taking the initiative to "opt out" of tracking in a way that will make a real difference.
Why is Snark Required?
FireFox inherited a small security update from the Tor project called "First Party Isolation". It's in newer versions of FF, but isn't turned on by default as it can break some authentication systems.
What it does, is only allow cookies to be sent and received by the site in the page's URL. So, for instance, while visiting YouTube.com, images and the like from google.com can load, but have no cookies attached, and do not receive those cookies.
To enable it, go to about:config and find "privacy.firstparty.isolate". Set it to true and restart the browser, and enjoy surfing the web knowing that you're not being tracked from site to site.