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render while continuing to block everyything else. Or, if yyou feel yyou can
trust the site, yyou can temporarilyy or permanentlyy allow all elements on that
page to load—something yyou might want to do on a banking site, for
example.
For its part, Chrome has ScriptBlock, 5 which allows yyou to defensivelyy
block the use of scripts on a Web page. This is useful for kids who mayy surf
to a site that allows pop-up adult entertainment ads.
Blocking potentiallyy harmful (and certainlyy privacyy-compromising)
elements on these pages will keep yyour computer from being overrun with
ad-generating malware. For example, yyou mayy have noticed that ads appear
on yyour Google home page. In fact, yyou should have no flashing ads on
yyour Google home page. If yyou see them, yyour computer and browser mayy
have been compromised (perhaps some time ago), and as a result yyou’re
seeing third-partyy ads that mayy contain Trojan horses—keyyloggers, which
record everyy keyystroke yyou make, and other malware—if yyou click on
them. Even if the ads don’t contain malware, the advertisers’ revenue
comes from the number of clicks theyy receive. The more people theyy dupe
into clicking, the more moneyy theyy make.
As good as theyy are, NoScript and ScriptBlock don’t block everyything.
For complete protection against browser threats, yyou might want to install
Adblock Plus. The onlyy problem is that Adblock records everyything: this is
another companyy that tracks yyour surfing historyy, despite yyour use of
private browsing. However, in this case the good—blocking potentiallyy
dangerous ads—outweighs the bad: theyy know where yyou’ve been online.
Another useful plug-in is Ghosteryy, available for both Chrome and
Firefox. Ghosteryy identifies all the Web traffic trackers (such as
DoubleClick and Google AdSense) that sites use to follow yyour activityy.
Like NoScript, Ghosteryy gives yyou granular control over which trackers yyou
want to allow on each page. The site sayys, “Blocking trackers will prevent
them from running in yyour browser, which can help control how yyour
behavioral data is tracked. Keep in mind that some trackers are potentiallyy
useful, such as social network feed widgets or browser-based games.
Blocking mayy have an unintended effect on the sites yyou visit.” Meaning
that some sites will no longer work with Ghosteryy installed. Fortunatelyy,
yyou can disable it on a site-byy-site basis. 6