Introduction
Privoxy is a web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for protecting privacy, filtering web page content, managing cookies, controlling access, and removing ads, banners, pop-ups and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a very flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. Privoxy has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
Privoxy is based on Internet Junkbuster (tm).
Support and Service via Sourceforge
We value your feedback. In fact, we rely on it to improve Privoxy and its configuration. However, please note the following hints, so we can provide you with the best support:
Get Support
For casual users, our support forum at SourceForge is probably best suited: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=211118
All users are of course welcome to discuss their issues on the users mailing list, where the developers also hang around.
Report Bugs
Please report all bugs only through our bug tracker: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=11118&atid=111118.
Before doing so, please make sure that the bug has not already been submitted and observe the aditional hints at the top of the submit form.
Please try to verify that it is a Privoxy bug, and not a browser or site bug first. If unsure, try toggling off Privoxy, and see if the problem persists. The appendix of the user manual also has helpful information on action debugging. If you are using your own custom configuration, please try the stock configs to see if the problem is configuration related.
If not using the latest version, chances are that the bug has been found and fixed in the meantime. We would appreciate if you could take the time to upgrade to the latest version (or even the latest CVS snapshot) and verify your bug, but this is not required for reporting.
Request New Features
You are welcome to submit ideas on new features or other proposals for improvement through our feature request tracker at http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=361118&group_id=11118.
Report Ads or Other Actions-Related Problems
Please send feedback on ads that slipped through, innocent images that were blocked, and any other problems relating to the default.action file through our actions feedback mechanism located at http://www.privoxy.org/actions/. On this page, you will also find a bookmark which will take you back there from any troubled site and even pre-fill the form!
New, improved default.action files will occasionally be made available based on your feedback. These will be announced on the ijbswa-announce list and available from our project page.
Other
For any other issues, feel free to use the mailing lists. Technically interested users and people who wish to contribute to the project are also welcome on the developers list! You can find an overview of all Prixoxy-related mailing lists, including list archives, at: http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=11118.
License
Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Privoxy Developers <developers@privoxy.org>
Some source code is based on code Copyright © 1997 by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters, Inc. and licensed under the GNU General Public License.
Privoxy is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details, which is available from the Free Software Foundation, Inc, 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the
Free Software
Foundation, Inc. 59 Temple Place - Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA
History
In the beginning, there was the Internet Junkbuster, by Anonymous Coders and Junkbusters Corporation. It 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 users to consume ads, give up autonomy over their browsing, and for spying on them, kept 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 release, 3.0, is due in May 2002.
