Web User - UK (2020-01-22)

Beat online obstructions

Discuss website obstructions at http://www.facebook.com/webusermagazine 22 Jan - 4 Feb 2020 49

filterlisttoyouradblocker,although
thisisn’taseffectiveasthebrowser
add-on.
On your Android phone or tablet,
you’ll need to use a mobile browser that
supports extensions, such as Firefox
(bit.ly/firefox493), or use Opera (bit.ly/
opera493), which lets you block cookie
notices by going to Settings, ‘Ad
blocking’ and choosing ‘Block cookie
dialogs’. On an iPhone or iPad, your best
option is to install AdGuard for Safari
(bit.ly/adguard493) and select a cookie-
blocking filter such as I Don’t Care
About Cookies or Prebake.

Close website overlays
Overlays that urge you to sign up for a
website’s newsletter, pay for a monthly
subscription or any other option that
isn’t relevant to a casual visit can be just
as annoying as cookie notices, especially
when a tiny or non-existent ‘X’ makes
them difficult to close. Fortunately, you
can bypass these obstructions to access
the content behind them by using a
browser tool called Behind the Overlay
for Chrome (bit.ly/btochrome493) and
Firefox (bit.ly/btofire493). It hasn’t been
updated for a couple of years but still
works very well. Either click its toolbar
button or press Ctrl+Shift+X on your
keyboard to remove the overlay from
the current page.
A similarly useful extension is Quora
Login Bypass for Firefox (bit.ly/
quora493), which closes the overlay
that requires you to sign up for and into
the popular knowledge site Quora to
read its questions and answers.

Blockwebsitenotifications

Has anyone ever intentionally clicked

Allow when told that a website wants to

show them notifications? We very much

doubt it and, although these requests

are easily dismissed by clicking Block,

you may find it more convenient to

disable site notifications altogether.

To do this in Chrome, click the menu

button in the top-right corner, choose

Settings, then Advanced and select ‘Site

settings’. In the Permissions section,

click Notifications and switch off ‘Ask

before sending’.

In the new Chromium-based Edge

browser, go to Settings, select ‘Site

permissions’, click Notifications and

deselect the same ‘Ask before sending’

option there.

In Firefox, click the menu button,

choose Options, then ‘Privacy &

security’ and scroll down to Permissions.

Click the Settings button next to

Notifications and select ‘Block new

requests asking to allow notifications’.

You can also remove any sites for which

you’ve allowed notifications and click

Save Changes.

Disable live-chatpop-ups

When you’re quietly browsing a website

and minding your own business, the last

thing you need is a customer-service

agent popping up in the bottom-right-

hand corner of your screen with a chirpy

“Hi there!” and an offer to answer any

questions you may have. We know

they’re only trying to help and that,

behind their smiling stock photo, they’re

more likely to be a chatbot than a real

person, but it’s unnerving and

distracting to feel that you’re being

watched.

Any ad blocker worth its salt should

prevent these nuisance widgets from

opening but, if that seems too heavy-

handed, you can install Hello Goodbye

instead (hellogoodbye.app). Available

for Chrome, Firefox and Safari, this

extension blocks chat requests from the

most widely-used services as well as

other pushy notifications, such as those

telling you someone has just bought or

booked a particular item. You can easily

disable the add-on when you need to

talk to a customer representative or bot,

by clicking its toolbar button.

We’vepreviouslydescribed

noisyautoplayingvideosas

theworstwebmenaceofthe

lastfewyearsand,although

they’renolongerasprevalent,

plentyofwebsitesstillinsist

onbotheringyouwiththem.

Commendably,Firefoxnow

makesit easytoblockallautoplay

content.GotoOptions,‘Privacy&

security’,Permissionsandclickthe

Settingsbuttonnexttoautoplay.

Clickthe‘Defaultforallwebsites’

drop-downmenu,choose‘Block

AudioandVideo’andclickSave

Changes.

Chromeletsyoumutethesound

onautoplayingvideos(in‘Site

settings’,Sound)butnotdisable

STOP AUTOPLAYING VIDEOS

them by default – presumably

because many advertisers rely on

autoplay. One workaround is to

install the extension AutoplayStopper

(bit.ly/autoplay493), which prevents

Flash and HTML5 videos from playing

automatically, replacing them with a

still-image thumbnail.

In the new Edge, you can turn off

autoplay by going to Settings, ‘Site

permissions’, ‘Media autoplay’.

You can prevent all websites from sending

you requests to show you notifications

I Don’t Care About Cookies automatically
hides cookie notices on almost all sites Customer-service chatbots (see right) can

be irritating but Hello

Goodbye will block them

Behind the Overlay lets you access
obscured content with a single click