[Resolved] Recently Blocked Sites

[borilus]

Is there an option to prevent a list of recently blocked sites being logged?
I'm aware that the data can be hidden by an option under appearance but I would prefer to not have it gathered.
Boril

[Tom T.]

Is there an option to prevent a list of recently blocked sites being logged?
I'm aware that the data can be hidden by an option under appearance but I would prefer to not have it gathered.
Boril

May I ask why?

Many times, a function that you want will not work until you go to the "Recently Blocked Sites" menu and allow one or more.

If privacy is a concern (example: you share the machine with others), note that you can clear the Recently Blocked list at any time by clicking "Reset" at the top of that menu. Nothing is stored permanently on the hard drive in that regard, so once you close the browser, there should be no evidence of it for the next user.

[borilus]

I prefer to set the options in Firefox to record nothing so I'd just like to do the same with Noscript.
Understand the use in trouble shooting and optimizing settings but logging could be turned back on temporarily if needed.
Aside from that I don't see why Noscript needs to log most of the sites I visit even if for just the duration of the session?

Boril

[Thrawn]

Aside from that I don't see why Noscript needs to log most of the sites I visit even if for just the duration of the session?

Tom T. already mentioned it: frequently NS has recently blocked something that you need to unblock. IIRC, it's possible (especially when being redirected around) that a page gets broken by something that doesn't show up as a blocked script on the current page. Going to your recently-blocked sites list is the way to fix it. It's not about logging; it's about extra flexibility.

Actually, if I were going to modify that submenu, what I'd want is a way to mark sites as Untrusted, so when I glance at it and see that NS has recently blocked trackers and such, I can ensure that I won't see them again. But the blacklist is just a convenience anyway, since I never use Scripts Globally Allowed.

[borilus]

So my understanding now is that NS records my visits to all websites that have scripts (most) and maintains and increments that data until Firefox is closed or the the data is cleared by manual reset.

Users do not have the option to turn this behaviour off.

So my conclusion is that either I ask for an enhancement or cease to use NS if I consider this a serious concern?

Boril

[therube]

Try setting the preference, noscript.recentlyBlockedCount, to 0 & see what that does?
And while there, have a look at noscript.showRecentlyBlocked too? (I see there is a UI for that.)

[borilus]

Try setting the preference, noscript.recentlyBlockedCount, to 0 & see what that does?
And while there, have a look at noscript.showRecentlyBlocked too? (I see there is a UI for that.)

Excellent. Setting the count to 0 does exactly what I wanted.

Thanks for the prompt and accurate response. I wasn't looking forward to losing NS as this is one of the great extensions.

Boril

[Tom T.]

So my understanding now is that NS records my visits to all websites that have scripts (most) and maintains and increments that data until Firefox is closed or the the data is cleared by manual reset.

No. Not at all. No way. Nein. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

If a site is in your Whitelist or Untrusted list (Blacklist) permanently, the fact that you visited the site causes no changes or logging of any kind, because NS didn't have to do anything differently.

If you Temporarily Allow a site in NS, it remains visible in the menu, and in the Whitelist (in italics) until you either Revoke Temporary Permissions or close the browser. The Revoke is a single click on the menu. No further evidence remains.

What shows mostly in Recently Blocked: You visit example.com. It tries to run script. You decide to allow or temp-allow it.
If it then wants to run other embeddings, you may see an entry in Recently Blocked: "Allow all from http//www example.com" - meaning, allow the embeddings (Flash, IFRAME, etc.) which were NOT allowed by script permission alone. This happens when you have set NS to default-block such embeddings, and especially if you "Apply to whitelisted sites too". Still nothing permanent.

I'm glad that therube's about:config preference worked for you, but when some site is broken and you can't make it work, you may well have to change that back, reload the page, and then see what is in Recently Blocked that you may need to allow.

I think it's easier just to click Reset if it's a privacy concern, but please be reassured that those are not "logged" anywhere, in the manner in which you're afraid of. No one will get your browsing history from NoScript after you either close the browser or reset the RB.

The fact that a site is in your whitelist doesn't indicate when/last/if you visited it.

I hope this is reassuring and useful.

[barbaz]

Bump.

As I don't use the Recently Blocked Sites feature, I had noscript.recentlyBlockedCount set to 1, but apparently something, at some point, reset it to its default value of 10 without my knowledge

Please completely disable Recently Blocked Sites when the menu item is not selected to be shown in NoScript Options -> Appearance, so that it won't matter if the count pref resets "by itself" again.
I might even be able to take a shot at making such a patch myself.

(If this seems to be an issue unique to my setup, any insight what might be responsible for resetting only that one pref?)

[barbaz]

I might even be able to take a shot at making such a patch myself.

I just did, in 2.6.8.31rc1, and a quick check indicates that this is all that's needed:

Code: Select all

diff -r ./orig/components/noscriptService.js ./mod/components/noscriptService.js
5510a5511
>     if (!this.getPref("showRecentlyBlocked")) return;

Tested in SeaMonkey nightly from today's revisions.

@Giorgio?

[mikep1655]

If you Temporarily Allow a site in NS, it remains visible in the menu, and in the Whitelist (in italics) until you either Revoke Temporary Permissions or close the browser.

Yes, but that means close all your FF windows, not just the one(s) where you visited the site(s) in question.

What shows mostly in Recently Blocked: You visit example.com. It tries to run script. You decide to allow or temp-allow it.
If it then wants to run other embeddings, you may see an entry in Recently Blocked: "Allow all from http//www example.com" - meaning, allow the embeddings (Flash, IFRAME, etc.) which were NOT allowed by script permission alone.

You don't have to explicitly block, allow or temporarily allow anything - if a site wanted to run 3rd-party scripts then the list of those will appear in Recently Blocked even if you ignored them to the point of not even looking at the list. And they'll remain in Recently Blocked after you leave the site and after you close the window.

This happens when you have set NS to default-block such embeddings, and especially if you "Apply to whitelisted sites too". Still nothing permanent.

Permanent enough to persist from FF PB windows into normal ones.

I suspect the problem is rooted in the persistence of the FF windows themselves. It didn't happen when start Private Browsing closed all your existing windows before opening a private one, and then closed it before re-opening them when you stopped PB. Now that PB just opens a new window in addition to the ones already open.....

I think it's easier just to click Reset if it's a privacy concern,

Yup - another manual step to remember along with revoking temporary permissions.

[barbaz]

bump

[Giorgio Maone]

Please check latest development build 2.6.8.35rc1, thank you.

[barbaz]

Thanks!

Got it from AMO though, as the link at http://noscript.net/getit#devel returns a 404...

[Giorgio Maone]

Got it from AMO though, as the link at http://noscript.net/getit#devel returns a 404...

Fixed, thanks.