

A few of which, some Firefox users have noticed seem to phone home even when the setting is toggled off in about:config. Installing:įirefox Snooping list, originally by LocalFigurezįor those of us who want our browser to behave like a browser and not a GPS anklet, this list will prove useful by blocking a plethora of tracking URLs. Likewise, not everyone has the means to flash custom router firmware or the skill necessary to do so. Autohosts will shield you while on the go, independent of whose network you logon to. If you are frequently mobile, your privacy-hardened installs of Pi-Hole, OpenWRT or DD-WRT on your home router will not protect you.

Add custom blacklists, whitelists and host sources from ~/autohosts on your desktop.Uninstall offers the ability to revert to a fresh hosts file and undo any changes made by Autohosts a backup will be copied to /tmp.If Devdom is installed, append all local virtualhosts ( if it is installed - it is -not- a requirement! Autohosts does a conditional check to ensure your dev environment doesn't break if you're using Devdom.Refreshes DNS to instantiate the re-routed changes (Mac Only).(Default custom_filters and firefox-includes) source appends Facebook trackers, Linkedin ads, Google fonts, Firefox telemetry and other harvester sites that curated lists for whatever reason, have not added to their blacklists.Installing a weekly cronjob to pull fresh/updated copies of hosts lists (default is every Sunday at 7:22pm).If you have an up-to-date hosts file, the risk is severely lessened.Īuto Hosts will automate the setup process for maintaining an up to date hosts file, by: In-browser filters won't protect you if the browser itself is phoning home. If you're a Safari user and want a pretty pre-made GUI for your adblocking, try AdGuard - note that this app is a plugin for Safari only if you want cross-browser blocking, they have paid options, or you can use something like Autohosts for free (this very repo!).Hosts file are a useful redundancy when coupled with ad blockers like uBlock Origin and uMatrix - while debugging or 'Temporarily Allow All on this Site' with Noscript can open you up to underlying attacks or privacy intrusions. Which means any traffic that would have left your system for that destination, is sent inward, to your localhost and then abandoned.ĭespite what some may suggest, hosts files are not "1980s technology" and still very useful today, as an additional layer of security. Hosts files will reroute unwanted traffic from ad farms, behavioral tracking firms and malware sites to a blackhole routing to 0.0.0.0 (localhost your PC) when a request is made to a URL on the blacklist. MDM helper scripts added to repo for mass deployment.Auto Update Ad-blocking Hosts file on Linux and Mac SystemsĪutomate hosts file updates on Linux-based and MacOS systems.
