The original Privoxy is certainly a good choice, especially for those who want more
+ control and security. Those with the willingness to read the documentation
+ and the ability to fine-tune their installation will benefit the most.
+
One of Privoxy's
+ strengths is that it is highly configurable giving you the ability to
+ completely personalize your installation. Being familiar with, or at least
+ having an interest in learning about HTTP and other networking
+ protocols, HTML, and
+ Internet
- Junkbuster™ (tm) is a copyrighted product of "Regular
+ Expressions"
+ will be a big plus and will help you get the most out of Privoxy.
+ A new installation just includes a very basic configuration. The user
+ should take this as a starting point only, and enhance it as he or she
+ sees fit. In fact, the user is encouraged, and expected to, fine-tune the
+ configuration.
+
Much of Privoxy's configuration can be done
+ with a Junkbusters CorporationWeb browser.
- Development of this effort stopped some time ago as of version 2.0.2. Stefan
- Waldherr started the ijbswa project on text editor
+ to edit configuration files. Also note that the web-based action editor
+ doesn't use authentication and should only be enabled in environments
+ where all clients with access to Privoxy listening port can be trusted.
+
A Sourceforge to
- rekindle development. Other developers subsequently joined with Stefan, and
- have since added many new features, refinements and enhancements. The result
- of this effort is web proxy
+ is a service, based on a software such as Privoxy, that clients
+ (i.e. browsers) can use instead of connecting to web servers directly.
+ The clients then ask the proxy to request objects (web pages, images, movies etc)
+ on their behalf and to forward the data to the clients.
+ It is a "go-between". For details, see
+ Wikipedia's proxy definition.
There are many reasons to use web proxies, such as security (firewalling),
+ efficiency (caching) and others, and there are any number of proxies
+ to accommodate those needs.
+
Privoxy has evolved from the
- Junkbuster 2.0.2 code base, and has advanced
- significantly at this point.
+> is a proxy that is primarily focused on
+ privacy enhancement, ad and junk elimination and freeing the user from
+ restrictions placed on his activities. Sitting between your browser(s) and the Internet,
+ it is in a perfect position to filter outbound personal information that your
+ browser is leaking, as well as inbound junk. It uses a variety of techniques to do
+ this, all of which are under your complete control via the various configuration
+ files and options. Being a proxy also makes it easier to share
+ configurations among multiple browsers and/or users.
- Please see the History section for more
- information on the history of Junkbuster and
- Privoxy
+ can be used to sanitize and customize web browsing.
A long time ago, there was the
+ Internet Junkbuster,
+ by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters
+ Corporation. This saved many users a lot of pain in the early days of
+ web advertising and user tracking.
But the web, its protocols and standards, and with it, the techniques for
+ forcing ads on users, give up autonomy over their browsing, and
+ for tracking them, keeps evolving. Unfortunately, the Internet
+ Junkbuster did not. Version 2.0.2, published in 1998, was
+ (and is) the last official
+ release
+ available from Junkbusters Corporation.
+ Fortunately, it had been released under the GNU
+ GPL,
+ which allowed further development by others.
So Stefan Waldherr started maintaining an improved version of the
+ software, to which eventually a number of people contributed patches.
+ It could already replace banners with a transparent image, and had a first
+ version of pop-up killing, but it was still very closely based on the
+ original, with all its limitations, such as the lack of HTTP/1.1 support,
+ flexible per-site configuration, or content modification. The last release
+ from this effort was version 2.0.2-10, published in 2000.
Then, some
+ developers
+ picked up the thread, and started turning the software inside out, upside down,
+ and then reassembled it, adding many
+ new
+ features along the way.
The result of this is Privoxy, whose first
+ stable version, 3.0, was released August, 2002.
Though outdated, Junkbusters Corporation
+ continues to offer their original version of the Privoxy is the
+>Internet
+ Junkbuster, so publishing our
"Privacy Enhancing Proxy".
Junkbuster-derived software under the same name
+ led to confusion.
There are potential legal complications from the continued use of the
+> There are also potential legal complications from our use of the
Junkbuster name, which is a registered trademark of
Junkbusters Corporation.
- And thus they "own" the rights to the name.
- (There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
+ There are, however, no objections from Junkbusters Corporation to the
Privoxy project itself, and they, in fact, still
- share our ideals and goals.)
The developers also believed that there are so many changes from the original
+> The developers also believed that there are so many improvements over the original
code, that it was time to make a clean break from the past and make
- a name in their own right, especially now with the pending
- release of version 3.0.
Privoxy is the
+ "Privacy Enhancing Proxy". Also, its content
+ modification and junk suppression gives you, the user, more
+ control, more freedom, and allows you to browse your personal and
+ "private edition" of the web.
Privoxy picks up where
- Junkbuster left off. All the old features remain.
- The new left off.
+ The new Privoxy still blocks ads and banners,
- still manages cookies, and still helps protect your privacy. But, these are
- all enhanced, and many new features have been added, all in the same vein.
+ still manages cookies, and still
+ helps protect your privacy. But, most of these features have been enhanced,
+ and many new ones have been added, all in the same vein.
The configuration has changed significantly as well. This is something that
- users will notice right off the bat if you are upgrading from
- Junkbuster 2.0.x. The "blocklist"
- file does not exist any more. This is replaced by "actions"
- files, such as default.actions. This is where most of
- the per site configuration is now.
-
Web page content filtering (removes banners based on size,
+> Web page filtering (text replacements, removes banners based on size,
invisible "web-bugs", JavaScript and HTML annoyances, pop-up windows, etc.)
+> and HTML annoyances, etc.)
Modularized configuration that allows for standard settings and
user settings to reside in separate files, so that installing updated
- actions files won't overwrite idividual user settings.
-
HTTP/1.1 compliant (but not all optional 1.1 features are supported).
-
Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
- generally a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax over
- previous versions.
+ actions files won't overwrite individual user settings.
Improved cookie management features (e.g. session based cookies).
+> Support for Perl Compatible Regular Expressions in the configuration files, and
+ a more sophisticated and flexible configuration syntax.
GIF de-animation.
+> GIF de-animation.
Multi-threaded (POSIX and native threads).
-
User-customizable HTML templates for all proxy-generated pages (e.g. "blocked" page).
+> User-customizable HTML templates for most proxy-generated pages (e.g. "blocked" page).
Improved signal handling, and a true daemon mode (Unix).
-
Every feature now controllable on a per-site or per-location basis, configuration
- more powerful and versatile over-all.
+> Most features are controllable on a per-site or per-location basis.
Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed, and security holes fixed.
+> Many smaller new features added, limitations and bugs removed.
When you connect to a web site with Privoxy,
- you are really connecting to your locally running version of
- Privoxy. Privoxy
- intercepts your requests for the web page, and relays that to the
- 's approach to blocking ads is twofold:
First, there are certain patterns in the locations (URLs)
+ of banner images. This applies to both the path (you wouldn't guess how many
+ web sites serve their banners from a directory called "real" web site. The web site sends the HTTP data stream
- back to Privoxy, where
- "banners"!)
+ and the host (blocking the big banner hosting services like doublecklick.net
+ already helps a lot). Privoxy can work its magic before it
- relays this data back to your web browser.
-
takes advantage of this
+ fact by using URL
+ patterns to sort out and block the requests for things that sound
+ like they would be ads or banners.
Since Privoxy sits between you and the
- WWW, it is in a position to intercept and completely manage all web traffic and
- HTTP content before it gets to your browser.
- Second, banners tend to come in certain sizes. But you
+ can't tell the size of an image by its URL without downloading it, and if you
+ do, it's too late to save bandwidth. Therefore, Privoxy uses various programming methods to do
- this, all of which is under your control via the various configuration
- files and options.
-
+ also inspects the HTML sources of web pages while they are loaded, and replaces
+ references to images with standard banner sizes by dummy references, so that
+ your browser doesn't request them anymore in the first place.
There are many kinds of proxies. Privoxy best
- fits the "filtering proxy" category.
-
Both of this involves a certain amount of guesswork and is, of course, freely
+ and readily configurable.
Privoxy processes all the raw content of every
- web page. So it reads everything on each page. It then compares this to the
- rules as set up in the configuration files, and looks for any matches to
- these rules. Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad
+ rule accidentally block or change something by mistake. You will almost surely
+ run into such situations at some point. It is tricky writing rules to
+ cover every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
But this should not be a big concern since the
+ Privoxy makes heavy use of
+> configuration is very flexible, and
+ includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
+ addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
+ (See the Troubleshooting section below.)
That depends on your expectations.
+ The default installation should give you a good starting
+ point, and block most ads and unwanted content,
+ but many of the more advanced features are off by default, and require
+ you to activate them.
You do have to set up your browser to use
"regular expressions". (If you are not familiar with regular
- expressions, it is explained briefly in the user manual.) Regular
- expressions facilitate matching of one text string against another, using
- wildcards to build complex patterns. So Privoxy
- will typically look for URLs and other content that match certain key words
- and expressions as defined in the configuration files. For instance a URL
- that contains "/banners", has a high probability of containing
- ad banners, and thus would be a prime candidate to have a matching rule.
So And you will certainly run into situations where there are false positives,
+ or ads not being blocked that you may not want to see. In these cases, you
+ would certainly benefit by customizing Privoxy's
+ configuration to more closely match your individual situation. And we
+ encourage you to do this. This is where the real power of
+ Privoxy will look for these kinds of obvious
- looking culprits. And also, will use lists of known organizations that
- specialize in ads. Again, using complex patterns to match as many potential
- combinations as possible since there tend to be many, many variations used by
- advertisers, and new ones are being introduced all the time.
Actually, it's a black art ;-) And yes, it is always possible to have a broad rule
- accidentally block something by mistake. There is a good chance you may run
- into such a situation at some point. It is tricky writing rules to cover
- every conceivable possibility, and not occasionally get false positives.
But this should not be a big concern since the
-
+ Yes, Privoxy configuration is very flexible, and
- includes tools to help identify these types of situations so they can be
- addressed as needed, allowing you to customize your installation.
- (See the Troubleshooting section below.)
Modern browsers do indeed have Modern browsers do indeed have some of the same
functionality as Privoxy is much more
- versatile and powerful, and can do a number of things that browsers just can't.
+> is very
+ versatile and powerful, and can probably do a number of things
+ your browser just can't.
In addition, a proxy is good choice if you use multiple browsers, or
- have a LAN with multiple computers. This way all the configuration
- is in one place, and you don't have to maintain a similar configuration
- for possibly many browsers.
-
+ have a LAN with multiple computers since Privoxy can run as a server
+ application. This way all the configuration is in one place, and you don't
+ have to maintain a similar configuration for possibly many browsers or
+ users.
+
Note, however, that it's recommended to leverage both your browser's
+ and Privoxy's privacy enhancing features
+ at the same time. While your browser probably lacks some features
+ Privoxy offers, it should also be able to do some things more
+ reliable, for example restricting and suppressing JavaScript.
+
The most important reason is because you have access to
+ everything, and you can control everything. You can
+ check every line of every configuration file yourself. You can check every
+ last bit of source code should you desire. And even if you can't read code,
+ there should be some comfort in knowing that other people can,
+ and do read it. You can build the software from scratch, if you want,
+ so that you know the executable is clean, and that it is
+ yours. In fact, we encourage this level of scrutiny. It
+ is one reason we use Privoxy ourselves.
Privoxy is licensed under the GNU General Public
- License (GPL). It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish
- under the terms of this license. Please see the is free software and licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.
+ It is free to use, copy, modify or distribute as you wish under the terms of this
+ license. Please see the Copyright section for more information on the
- license and copyright. Or the section for more
+ information on the license and copyright. Or the LICENSE file
that should be included.
-
-
There is no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise. That is
- something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
- Privoxy really is There is free
- in every respect!
-
+>no warranty of any kind, expressed, implied or otherwise.
+ That is something that would cost real money ;-) There is no registration either.
No, at least not reliably enough to trust it. Privoxy is not designed to be
+ a malware removal tool and the default configuration doesn't even try to
+ filter out any malware.
Privoxy could help prevent contact from (known) sites that use such
+ tactics with appropriate configuration rules, and thus could conceivably
+ prevent contamination from such sites. However, keeping such a configuration
+ up to date would require a lot of time and effort that would be better spend
+ on keeping your software itself up to date so it doesn't have known
+ vulnerabilities.
Privoxy should work fine with other proxies and other software in general.
But it is probably not necessary to use Privoxy in conjunction with other
+ ad-blocking products, and this could conceivably cause undesirable results.
+ It might be better to choose one software or the other and work a little to
+ tweak its configuration to your liking.
Note that this is an advice specific to ad blocking.
We, of course, welcome donations and use the money for domain registering,
- regular world-wide get-togethers (hahaha). Anyway, we'll soon describe the
- process how to donate money to the team.
Well, we always need help. There is something for
+ everybody who wants to help us. We welcome new developers, packagers,
+ testers, documentation writers or really anyone with a desire to help in
+ any way. You DO NOT need to be a
+ "programmer". There are many other tasks available. In fact,
+ the programmers often can't spend as much time programming because of some
+ of the other, more mundane things that need to be done, like checking the
+ Tracker feedback sections or responding to user questions on the mailing
+ lists.
+
So first thing, subscribe to the Privoxy Users
+ or the Privoxy
+ Developers mailing list, join the discussion, help out other users, provide general
+ feedback or report problems you noticed.
+
If you intend to help out with the trackers, you also might want to get an account on SourceForge.net
+ so we don't confuse you with the other name-less users.
+
We also have a Developer's Manual.
+ While it is partly out of date, it's still worth reading.
Our TODO list
+ may be of interest to you as well.
+ Please let us know if you want to work on one of the items listed.
Software
+ in the Public Interest (SPI), which allows us to receive tax-deductible
+ donations in most western countries.
Once we have added you to the team, you'll have write access to the CVS
- repository, and together we'll find a suitable task for you.
We intend to use the donations to pay for our domain after transfering
+ it to SPI. Our goal is to make sure there's no single point of failure
+ and the bill gets paid and the site keeps running even if a some of
+ the currently active developers were to suddenly disappear for a while.
We would also like to spend some money on more reliable hosting,
+ on hardware to help make sure Privoxy
+ keeps running on platforms the developers currently can't test on,
+ and on technical books to educate our developers about said platforms
+ or to improve their knowledge in general.
If you enjoy our software and feel like helping out with a donation,
+ please have a look at
+ SPI's donation page
+ to see what the options are.