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libredirect / browser_extension

A browser extension that redirects popular sites to alternative privacy friendly frontends
https://libredirect.github.io
GNU General Public License v3.0
3.29k stars 121 forks source link

iOS Safari Extension #100

Closed TanKot closed 2 years ago

TanKot commented 2 years ago

This would be a very useful feature, if it were free unlike privacy redirect who has made it paid. This is a pretty big issue on iOS but would be fixed if you would do it.

ManeraKai commented 2 years ago

I don't have any iOS device and I don't know Swift. If someone can help though.

TanKot commented 2 years ago

Oh Ok.

Mennaruuk commented 2 years ago

Sadly, I find this highly unlikely. Apple went out of its way to be the first to destroy content blockers and redirectors on Safari for macOS and iOS. No webRequest API? That means when you type in Twitter.com/jack, Twitter actually gets pinged and knows you sent over a request to them, so thanks to Apple when you use an extension that redirects you to a privacy-respecting site, Safari will very happily pay the privacy-disrespecting site a visit before taking you over to Nitter.

that’s another worry I have for desktop because LibRedirector currently uses onBeforeRequest, and guess what, companies that have browser shares of 92% will gut onBeforeRequest next year, so an alternative has to be found. That’s Apple for you: one day they’ll make an ad about privacy, the next day they’ll gut the API without which privacy extensions won’t work well, and the day after they’ll make Facebook lose $10 billion by gutting personalized ads 🤕

ManeraKai commented 2 years ago

If there's no webRequest api then it's the same problem as with manifest v3 with the chrome web store: https://github.com/libredirect/libredirect/issues/45#issuecomment-1059010144

Mennaruuk commented 2 years ago

Yes you hit it right on the nail. Should this extension stay on the web store and switch to the less powerful Manifest v3? Difficult decision. Take a look at the Privacy Redirect Safari repo: there are several issues about sites not working bc of this, and the author has to constantly tell users about the limitations. I must mention that “Don’t be evil” Google will update Chrome in June ‘23 so that all Manifest v2 extensions will stop working. Which is why I think it boils down to either switching to v3 or telling users to use Firefox/Brave and losing out on a good number of them. Ugh!!

ManeraKai commented 2 years ago

there are several issues about sites not working bc of this, and the author has to constantly tell users about the limitations.

Yeah I see: https://github.com/smmr-software/privacy-redirect-safari/issues/10#issuecomment-963470001 I just can't change to v3 at all because of the problems you mentioned. Really sad.

I'll close this issue.

Deagan commented 2 years ago

I'd like this or something similar for iOS as well! Hopefully, once regulations force Apple to make their OS more open next year, Firefox/Chrome will have native functionality with Manifest v3.

godly-devotion commented 1 year ago

I ended up writing a userscript to redirect reddit and twitter (most used websites) to libreddit and nitter instances. Its slightly clunky but I guess this will do for now.