Firefox Blocking Ads
I'm trying to prevent Firefox from blocking ads on a particularly site. The site is https://forums.techguy.org/. I do not have an ad blocker on and have tested this with a fresh installation of Firefox.
I've troubleshooted the issue and the causes of blocking ads on this website are due to Tracking Protection and Never Remember History. When both of these features are turned on, ads aren't displayed. If I disable either one of these features (doesn't matter which), ads reappear.
The only close solution that I can find is disabling Tracking Protection by selecting the shield icon in the URL bar and disabling tracking for this session. The problem with this solution is just that; it only disables tracking for this session. So every time I close Firefox and reopen it, I have to remember to disable tracking again. I need a permanent solution as I'm human and definitely won't remember to disable this every single time.
I'm curious as to why these ads are even being blocked. On other sites (with an ad blocker), I can still see ads. On this site, without an ad blocker, I still can't see them. Is this site doing something different in the way in which they are displaying ads?
I'm looking for a permanent solution to disable ads on just this site without having to remove the features of Firefox that I'm using. Is there anyway in the settings of Firefox to explicitly add disabling tracking for a site? Similar to how the session based solution works, but this would keep the setting every time Firefox launches. Just spit balling here. I'm not sure how else I might be able to accomplish this.
All Replies (6)
Firefox Tracking Protection prevents third party websites from tracking your visit. Many advertisements track you, so they are disabled when Tracking Protection is enabled.
By default, Tracking Protection is only enabled when you are using Firefox in Private Browsing Mode. However, you can enable it for all of the time, although it isn't recommended because it can cause issues on certain websites.
You will need to stop Tracking Protection from running in normal browsing mode. To do this, please follow these steps:
- Enter
about:configin the Firefox address bar - Click the I promise button to advance
- Change the
privacy.trackingprotection.enabledboolean tofalse - Restart Firefox
This should fix your issue. If you are interested in blocking ads in normal browsing mode, you should install the Adblock Plus add-on (or an equivalent) and then you can add exceptions to the add-on's whitelist.
Thanks for the reply. As I've stated in my original post, I know how to disable tracking protection. It's how I troubleshooted it to determine it was part of the cause. This isn't the answer I'm looking for, though. I want to keep my existing settings, but allow an exception for this one site.
It sounds like you're suggesting that Adblock (which I use) is the same as the tracking protection feature. Because you are saying disable tracking protection, install Adblock, and add an exception for Adblock. I don't believe (from what I've read) that they are the same. Tracking protection prevents collection of my browsing data across multiple websites. All Adblock does is disable ads (or most of them).
Also, note that Tracking Protection isn't the sole cause. I can enable Private Browsing (aka Never Remember History) and then disable Tracking Protection and the ads will show.
The reason that I recommended Adblock Plus is because most users are using Tracking Protection to simply block ads, even though that isn't really its function.
There is not currently a way to permanently store an exception for the Tracking Protection, mainly because it's not really designed to be run all of the time. We can never guarantee that every website will work properly with Tracking Protection enabled, and there are an increasing amount of websites that fit into this category.
If you are still looking to block websites from tracking you, I would recommend also installing Ghostery. I believe that it offers a whitelist option.
Lol I don't use tracking protection to block ads.
In my opinion, I don't see why it's not designed to be run all the time or at least give you the option with inputted white-listed sites. I actually do run it all the time and I really haven't experienced any issues with it at all. This thread is an exception, but I'm trying to show ads so it's a little counter intuitive.
Thanks for the recommendation of Ghostery. I've seen it and heard of it. Haven't used it. Might try it out.
Do you think it would be possible to develop a Firefox add-on that could essentially check my list of manually inputted white-listed sites and if I visit that site, mimic clicking the Disable Tracking Protection for this session shield icon in Firefox? Or on launch of Firefox, it could just run through all my list of sites disabling session based tracking protection for these sites? I guess I'm curious when I manually do this, what is changed in Firefox? This has to be stored somewhere in the settings, right?
Modified by usefirefox
In my opinion, I don't see why it's not designed to be run all the time or at least give you the option with inputted white-listed sites.
Unfortunately, certain websites have been designed not to function properly when they detect a tracking protection software. This is largely because they want to the advertising revenue, but some websites also want the tracking data. This isn't within Mozilla's control, as it is on the website developer's end.
Do you think it would be possible to develop a Firefox add-on that could essentially check my list of manually inputted white-listed sites and if I visit that site, mimic clicking the Disable Tracking Protection for this session shield icon in Firefox? Or on launch of Firefox, it could just run through all my list of sites disabling session based tracking protection for these sites? I guess I'm curious when I manually do this, what is changed in Firefox? This has to be stored somewhere in the settings, right?
I'm not entirely sure why there isn't a whitelist feature already. I don't think that selecting the option to disable tracking protection on the website actually saves anything. I'm fairly certain that it simply make a temporary change to the settings that have been loaded into that tab and those changes are reverted when you navigate away from the active website.
I'm not entirely sure how the tracking protection works and what back-end work it does. If you file a bug report on Bugzilla, perhaps the Firefox developers would be able to provide more information on the feature and may even look into added a whitelist in the newer versions of Firefox.
There are tons of add-on developers that provide add-ons and tools to provide various different features to Firefox. Unfortunately, there isn't currently an add-on to add a whitelist to tracking protection and I'm not sure if anyone is working on one at the moment.
Thanks for the information. I'll look into contacting the developers for more information and file a feature request. I wouldn't mind attempting to provide an add-on that would do this. I've never created one, so I'm sure it wouldn't be easy, but I'm always up for a challenge.
I'm not entirely sure why there isn't a whitelist feature already. I don't think that selecting the option to disable tracking protection on the website actually saves anything. I'm fairly certain that it simply make a temporary change to the settings that have been loaded into that tab and those changes are reverted when you navigate away from the active website.
This is actually incorrect, just so you know. You can close the tab and it will remember your selection of disabling tracking on this website. So you can open new tabs after closing the original or just open new ones and the selection is applied to all new tabs as well.