Countering the Ad-Blockers being theft argument

[Mark Kaine]

1 hour ago, E-waste said:

 

It has an estimated share of 0.5%.

hey, im the 0.5%!!!

so.... awesome i dunno, i feel nothing : D

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

5 minutes ago, wasab said:

Huh? You have been paying taxes since the first day you started kindergarten in a public k-12?

no, but it was a private kindergarten and it was kinda shit, so can i has the money back my parents paid the state - for literally nothing? 

 

i actually really liked your proposal,  get all taxes you ever paid back, then from now on you have to pay for states services like any other services... sounds good to me,  sign me up!

 

This would solve so many environmental issues too, tbh... 

 

(yes im aware its completely utopian, but i still really liked the propsal!) 

 

 

well, not completely, there are actually states that work like that... the chosen few lol, utopian for everyone else ~

[wasab]

2 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

Snip

Okay, I guess you can say that if you are in the income brackets in which what you paid in taxes overcome whatever benefits you get out of it.

 

This is one reason I hate seeing payroll taxes like medicare/medicaid/social security ect because these are ponzi scheme. I know I will get bigger emergency savings in case of unemployment compared to like say unemployment benefits from the state had I saved those tax dollars into my emergency fund instead of paying to the government as a tax. Same thing for retirement social security. I will probably end up with a bigger nest egg had I invested these tax dollars into S&P compared to paying them as social security tax, especially considering the SS fund will probably go bankrupt if they continue to pay at the rate it does now.

 

Here is one thing you don't understand though. High tax is only bad for like 20% of the population, all of whom are middle to upper middle class. Lower-income households pay near to nonexistent income taxes, in fact they get this thing call a tax credit based on the number of dependents they have. The very rich like the top 1% also pay near to nonexistent income tax because well, they get their money not from a paycheck but rather from appreciation in equities and they would borrow money against these assets so their cash flow comes in as debt rather than income. This means they pay 2% interest to the bank yearly on their loans rather than like say 50%+ progressive income tax to the goverment like everyone else is. When they die, their descendants took advantage of the tax loopholes that allow their next kins to sell off their equities and whatever other assets to repay the debts without incurring any capital gains tax, which effectively means their "tax"(their interest) is 2% their whole life and that is money going to the wallstreet bankers rather than the government btw

 

This leaves people like me and perhaps you, from the sound of it, who actually shoulder the majority of the tax burden. I am single making income in the mid 100ks. This puts me squarely in the middle class. I don't qualify for tax credits or of anything for that matter and yet my net wealth is no where high enough for me to take advantage of any tax loopholes like the ultra-rich. I have no businesses, no real estate, no majority of ownership shares in some unicorn startups. All I have is 401k and my IRA but no way can I tax defer the majority of my income into these. 

 

What do you say is the perfect solution in such scenarios? If you say lower income tax and make that a reality, the poor will probably eat you for dinner and the rich wouldn't give a damn since it doesn't affect them in any way

[WereCat]

If Google and others can avoid paying taxes then why should I feel guilty about avoiding watching ads? 

[Ja Krispie]

On 11/5/2023 at 3:54 AM, NsRhea said:

I use an ad-blocker because I hate ads. I installed ad-block on every family computer because ads these days are unmoderated garbage.

Instead of installing something on each and every computer, why not setup something like pihole and point your DNS in the router to it so everything on the network uses it?

[WereCat]

6 minutes ago, Ja Krispie said:

Instead of installing something on each and every computer, why not setup something like pihole and point your DNS in the router to it so everything on the network uses it?

Because installing adblock and setting up NextDNS is faster and free

[Arika]

1 hour ago, Ja Krispie said:

Instead of installing something on each and every computer, why not setup something like pihole and point your DNS in the router to it so everything on the network uses it?

Pihole doesnt work on youtube

 

And recently discovered it doesn't block ads in most Android apps now since they seem to have started serving ads through the Google.com url

[someb0dys]

I believe the mast majority of users using YouTube and things like that do not actively use ad blockers e.g. twch illiterate 

 

Worst case scenario, they lose some money which can be compensated by the rest of Alphabet.

[Mark Kaine]

On 11/7/2023 at 7:48 PM, Bitter said:

Also knock on effect seems to be that as blockers are just getting better at a faster rate. Rather than fixing the problem they created and then decided to fix they seem to have made it worse for themselves and better for us more rapidly.

... im just curious, do people still have issues with ublock? cause for me it seems to work even faster/better recently.  

[kirashi]

On 11/6/2023 at 6:44 AM, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Back in the '00s, everything became terrorism. Domestic violence? Domestic terrorism. Insult someone? Verbal terrorism. 

The media industry has its own infatuation with theft. Copyright infringement? Theft. Not watching ads? Theft. 

Excuse me, but I think you mean to say "copyright infringement" is actually "Domestically Copyrightious Infingeyminty of the Terroristic Viscosity."

On 11/9/2023 at 11:36 AM, TetraSky said:

YOU want to use THEIR services to watch THEIR videos. In exchange they are asking you watch an ad.

...

No one is legally forcing you to watch the ads. You just have to let them play in the background, same as you would with TV ads.

 

Yes this is nonsense and no one was arguing this. It's not a moral obligation. It's a terms and services obligation.

This is why I use networking equipment that injects a link to a legal contract in every response packet sent to servers I access. The contract indicates that the server operators agree to only send data to my network that I deem meets my personal "Terms and Conditions" and that by allowing me to connect they agree to the terms. My terms also include a clause about "overruling all other contracts" that would otherwise contradict said terms. You know, the same kind of legal verbiage websites believe they're entitled to use within their own Terms and Conditions. Checkmate, corporations. /s

 

For the record, the above paragraph is partially a joke written to exemplify just how nitty grittily silly this whole argument is. Content creators should be paid for their work, however, consumers deserve safe, secure, private access to the content. Neither YouTube, nor Twitch, nor any other large corporate owned platform currently offer this kind of access. Until savvy consumers can access content without fear of being tracked, their information stolen, devices compromised, etc. they will continue looking for alternative methods to access content that meet their needs. It's a "free market", right?

 

Remember, kids: "piracy is not a pricing issue. It’s a service issue," and always will be until capitalism morphs into a more sustainable model.

https://www.gamesradar.com/gabe-newell-piracy-issue-service-not-price/

 

[Rex Hite]

The audience for ad-supported entertainment is not bound by the commercial (pun intended) arrangements made by the producers and distributors. The details of those commercial arrangements are detailed, arbitrary and picayune. The notion that the audience has an obligation to those arrangements shows a disturbing slavishness to the whims and commercial interests of others in the name of some distorted idea of ethics.

 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

On 11/9/2023 at 4:36 PM, TetraSky said:

No one is legally forcing you to watch the ads. You just have to let them play in the background, same as you would with TV ads.

Funny you'd say that, as there is in fact no obligation to let TV ads play in the background either.

 

It doesn't really matter though, since, following your line of reasoning, there may as well be an obligation to actually watch the ads: they just have to write it in their "terms and conditions"...

[Holmes108]

5 hours ago, Rex Hite said:

The audience for ad-supported entertainment is not bound by the commercial (pun intended) arrangements made by the producers and distributors. The details of those commercial arrangements are detailed, arbitrary and picayune. The notion that the audience has an obligation to those arrangements shows a disturbing slavishness to the whims and commercial interests of others in the name of some distorted idea of ethics.

 

 

People seem to be focusing on the wrong things. People like Linus or myself aren't talking about an "obligation" in the same way some of you are. I don't know anyone here who's suggesting it should be "illegal" or that you should be able to be sued for some sort of theft. 

 

All his point ever was, was for you to understand your actions, and what it means for the creator. And what it means is that the effect is essentially the same as downloading something without paying. IE the creator has not been compensated. So just recognize that, and own it. And recognize that if everyone does it, then the model would have to eventually change (not necessarily for the better), or the content might even just go away. That's really the only point that I think Linus (and those of use that agree with the broad concept) are saying.

[Mark Kaine]

13 hours ago, wasab said:

Okay, I guess you can say that if you are in the income brackets in which what you paid in taxes overcome whatever benefits you get out of it.

 

This is one reason I hate seeing payroll taxes like medicare/medicaid/social security ect because these are ponzi scheme. I know I will get bigger emergency savings in case of unemployment compared to like say unemployment benefits from the state had I saved those tax dollars into my emergency fund instead of paying to the government as a tax. Same thing for retirement social security. I will probably end up with a bigger nest egg had I invested these tax dollars into S&P compared to paying them as social security tax, especially considering the SS fund will probably go bankrupt if they continue to pay at the rate it does now.

 

Here is one thing you don't understand though. High tax is only bad for like 20% of the population, all of whom are middle to upper middle class. Lower-income households pay near to nonexistent income taxes, in fact they get this thing call a tax credit based on the number of dependents they have. The very rich like the top 1% also pay near to nonexistent income tax because well, they get their money not from a paycheck but rather from appreciation in equities and they would borrow money against these assets so their cash flow comes in as debt rather than income. This means they pay 2% interest to the bank yearly on their loans rather than like say 50%+ progressive income tax to the goverment like everyone else is. When they die, their descendants took advantage of the tax loopholes that allow their next kins to sell off their equities and whatever other assets to repay the debts without incurring any capital gains tax, which effectively means their "tax"(their interest) is 2% their whole life and that is money going to the wallstreet bankers rather than the government btw

 

This leaves people like me and perhaps you, from the sound of it, who actually shoulder the majority of the tax burden. I am single making income in the mid 100ks. This puts me squarely in the middle class. I don't qualify for tax credits or of anything for that matter and yet my net wealth is no where high enough for me to take advantage of any tax loopholes like the ultra-rich. I have no businesses, no real estate, no majority of ownership shares in some unicorn startups. All I have is 401k and my IRA but no way can I tax defer the majority of my income into these. 

 

What do you say is the perfect solution in such scenarios? If you say lower income tax and make that a reality, the poor will probably eat you for dinner and the rich wouldn't give a damn since it doesn't affect them in any way

well, ideally, as said no taxes at all *or* a better political system where not so many resources go to waste (quite literally sometimes) im not a fan of this current system... but as i already said, this is an utopian solution for *most* countries,  i guess we'll have to do with what we have currently for the time being. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Mark Kaine

[E-waste]

17 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

hey, im the 0.5%!!!

so.... awesome i dunno, i feel nothing : D

 

 

Yeah, I think I'm done worrying about it, Blink is an open-source project, forked from WebKit which originated from the KDE developers, so, I don't think it matters, open-source is open-source, and all open-source is good.  So props to Google for that.  Yep, thank you google, for improving on an existing open-source project, improving it will your nearly limitless revenue, and keeping the project open-source.  Also, thank you for making an open-source base for your browser that anyone can fork and remove any part of it.

 

I respect that, and I'm done fighting this topic.

[Bitter]

11 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

... im just curious, do people still have issues with ublock? cause for me it seems to work even faster/better recently.  

I haven't had any issues with it save for ages ago it was a bit of a memory hog. Seems like that got cleaned up a long time ago. Used to be that UBO wasa fork of UB, not sure if that's still the case. UBO was a more optimized version of UB.

 

 

As for some other comments about Firefox, I haven't had issues with it since WaterFox was a thing. Who's old enough to even remember that?

[Mark Kaine]

2 hours ago, E-waste said:

Yeah, I think I'm done worrying about it, Blink is an open-source project, forked from WebKit which originated from the KDE developers, so, I don't think it matters, open-source is open-source, and all open-source is good.  So props to Google for that.  Yep, thank you google, for improving on an existing open-source project, improving it will your nearly limitless revenue, and keeping the project open-source.  Also, thank you for making an open-source base for your browser that anyone can fork and remove any part of it.

 

I respect that, and I'm done fighting this topic.

hey as said i use Firefox (the 0.5%!?) on my phone... its good... it has tabs and can be used to browse the internet,  its just that Samsung browser has more options and is faster.

 

last time i checked there were almost no add-ons for Firefox... and i don't like i can't remove this collection thing...

 

 

 

why can't it just open on a blank page... i don't understand,  so annoying... well i still use it semi regularly,  I'd say for 10% of my browsing...

 

 

as said you should just use what works for you, i don't see chromium browsers as a big issue,  the big issue is google needs to be split up, they have way too much influence and power, and use way too much energy... i think the browser is the smallest issue (yt is the *real* issue...) as you said, at least people can fork the browser, you should try Samsung "beta"... i like it much more than none beta for some reason... 

 

also hey at least chrome isnt edge, what a mess that thing is... lol... 

 

 

ps: pro tip: Samsung (both browsers) have PiP... (also works for yt!)

 

 

can Firefox do that? i doubt it.

 

can chrome do that? hell no!

 

Samsung can tho! so its the best browser to me.

 

[Bitter]

14 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

hey as said i use Firefox (the 0.5%!?) on my phone... its good... it has tabs and can be used to browse the internet,  its just that Samsung browser has more options and is faster.

 

last time i checked there were almost no add-ons for Firefox... and i don't like i can't remove this collection thing...

 

 

 

why can't it just open on a blank page... i don't understand,  so annoying... well i still use it semi regularly,  I'd say for 10% of my browsing...

 

 

as said you should just use what works for you, i don't see chromium browsers as a big issue,  the big issue is google needs to be split up, they have way too much influence and power, and use way too much energy... i think the browser is the smallest issue (yt is the *real* issue...) as you said, at least people can fork the browser, you should try Samsung "beta"... i like it much more than none beta for some reason... 

 

also hey at least chrome isnt edge, what a mess that thing is... lol... 

 

 

ps: pro tip: Samsung (both browsers) have PiP... (also works for yt!)

All the desktop addon's also work on mobile.

I have frequently visited sites pinned on my new tab page so they're right there to click when I open a new tab. It's convenient since I'm probably going to one of those sites anyway.

[Mark Kaine]

12 minutes ago, Bitter said:

All the desktop addon's also work on mobile.

last time I checked you needed a nightly version and a hefty dose of voodoo magic tho ~

(never tried it, too much work tbh)

 

12 minutes ago, Bitter said:

I have frequently visited sites pinned on my new tab page so they're right there to click when I open a new tab. It's convenient since I'm probably going to one of those sites anyway.

ok i get it, it can be useful,  but i don't need it, that's what i use tabs for,  why learn something new when the old thing works just fine, plus i really like a blank page when i open my browser,  this thing is just distracting to me lol.

 

[Bitter]

39 minutes ago, Mark Kaine said:

last time I checked you needed a nightly version and a hefty dose of voodoo magic tho ~

(never tried it, too much work tbh)

 

ok i get it, it can be useful,  but i don't need it, that's what i use tabs for,  why learn something new when the old thing works just fine, plus i really like a blank page when i open my browser,  this thing is just distracting to me lol.

 

I'm on the normal whatever build from the play store and to install addon's I just Google it and install it. It doesn't differentiate between desktop or mobile anymore for that, they both use the same ones. If FF desktop has a plugin so does mobile. However using some of them on mobile is more difficult with a touch interface vs mouse and keyboard.

[E-waste]

18 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

last time i checked there were almost no add-ons for Firefox... and i don't like i can't remove this collection thing...

There's a few:

 

Bitwarden - Password manager.

Firefox is limited in that if you use the same email address for two websites, it tries to update them each time you use it on different sites.

 

ClearURLs, removes tracking bits from links

 

Decentraleyes, an interesting addon I don't understand it's function

 

Firefox Relay, use a custom mozmail email, and remove trackers and mask your usual email address.

 

Darkreader, choose any color background and foreground, with dark and light mode settings.

 

DuckduckGo also has a similar feature, I set mine up to give websites the @duck.com email address to also remove trackers.  In case it missed any, I set duck email to forward to my Firefox Relay account.  Then finally have that forward to my usual email.  I'll have to setup another duck email, as I cancelled the other one, unfortunately I can't reuse the name.

 

FoxyProxy

Ghostery (I think this one has some privacy issues lately)

NoScript, using it now.

Privacy Badger

Standard

Tamper Monkey

uBlockOrigin

Web Archives (view archived web content, wayback machine etc)

 

I skipped a few but there are a lot of great addons.

 

18 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

PiP

Yes, it is in Android app settings, picture-in-picture.

 

18 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

why can't it just open on a blank page

I know what you mean, but if you download Fennec from F-droid (open-source apps), it now has blank page as an option.  I used to see collections, Now it will only show up if I make one.

 

Also, Fennec restores about:config address, which firefox removed on mobile in about 2014.  I haven't used it once I found this build.

 

Anything else?

[Mark Kaine]

46 minutes ago, E-waste said:

Yes, it is in Android app settings, picture-in-picture.

oh yeah, i just tried ....it works... funny it doesn't seem to work in chrome tho, but i never use chrome on my phone anymore so idk if that ever changed...

 

46 minutes ago, E-waste said:

uBlockOrigin

yeah, its the only add-on i have installed for Firefox... my version doesn't seem to have any adblockers tho lol...

 

anyway the thing i really disliked back then ca. 2000 - 2017 was the emphasis on privacy and the tendency to delete my cookies after updates etc.  I NEED my cookies lmao, its such a hassle to log into various sites again if you lose them...

 

i *think* currently firefox saves my pws, but im not sure tbh...  

 

 

i mean, i guess i learned something,  but I dont have reasons to change my browsing behavior atm, i guess i should just browse less overall ...

 

as said i don't hate Firefox,  why else would it be on my phone... its just for my pc i dont have a necessity for another browser,  i only use chrome, i dont even have a google account (login with a none google account,  if that makes sense? ) no ms account,  nothing..... i just like to keep it simple.

 

funny enough i don't think i have a dedicated adblock installed either, just UBO...

 

ps: yep, just checked. 

 

currently installed add-ons UBO, YT channel blocker...

 

 

as said i really like to keep it minimal... you should see my windows,  almost no background processes,  a dead update orchestrator (rip), like 2 or 3 startup entries..... nothing going on really, just silence 

 

 

 

 

[E-waste]

1 hour ago, Mark Kaine said:

nothing going on really, just silence

Oh really?  I bet you might be missing some activity, so check to be sure, with Wireshark

 

http://wireshark.org

 

Also, a word on F-droid for those who see this, if you get into it, go to settings, repository and not only toggle off all but the main f-droid (not archive, unless you would like a previous version of a program) but also tap on the text "f-droid".

 

It should not be hidden away like that, but it allows you to turn off the many mirrors that will connect if you refresh by default.  Turn on auto-rotate, and go through the list of urls for the repository mirrors.  If you recognize a domain suffix for your country, select only that one.

 

This way it significantly reduces server load for the mirrors, and your connection isn't going who-knows where, to multiple different places.

 

Next, on uBlockOrigin, I found the interface very complicated, and had it explained to me, that if I went to "more", settings, and finally turned on "advanced" mode, only then could I get a basic list of domains on a webpage.

 

Just a basic list, something Ghostery, NoScript, and Privacy Badger ALL have as part of their main interface.  If this uBlock origin is supposed to be the best, I don't think it should be hiding away critical functionality with that much effort.

 

How many of the hundreds of millions (guess) of uBlock Origin users do anything other than go with default?  How many even know there is an advanced mode, and of that, how many know there is an option once advanced mode is enabled, to see the list of domains loading on the webpage?

 

A sorely small number, probably less than 2%.  That's my guess.

 

NoScript and privacy badger make it very easy to open the addon and immediately show a list of domains.  The EFF doesn't seem to think this is complex or advanced functionality, so why does uBlock Origin?  That's what I don't like about the program, and I am confident that if you enable the mode, you'll see just how many domains you've been letting load that you would rather choose to block.

 

I get it, it's based on adblock files, but how many of those contain font domains?  Why load a font domain anyway?  I guess that's just a preference, but I'm sure there are more examples.

 

With NoScript, I set the default to untrusted.  So when I go to a website I haven't visited on this install, I only mark the name of website javascript as trusted, if it needs it for menu access or I will visit the website often.  And no other domain on the website loads.  How's that for blocking stuff.

 

___

___

 

About network activity on pc, back to wireshark again, a quick way to filter the results and get a very large majority of the activity is to type:

dns

into the blank filter box, and set your network gateway to something not setup.  Or set your dns temporarily to loopback 127.0.0.1

 

Also in wireshark, click view, and in the section seperated by lines with two options, you'll see "name resolution".

 

Enable network addresses to see website names instead of ip addresses (which only works if it can get resolved by a dns server)

 

So then you can, in a virtual machine, setup Ubuntu or Debian or Fedora, and in that, install pi-hole.  In virtualbox you'll need to set the networking adapter for the linux virtual machine created to use bridged adapter, so that it is not using NAT.  Even if that were to work, it is commandline based to change the IP address, bridged network adapter setting solves that.  So you would in the virtual machine operating system, set the IP address of that to be what you wanted to use as at least your computers dns server.

 

Then, if you have domains not blocked, pi-hole will forward them you your choosen dns upstream, or, there is a guide at

 

https://docs.pi-hole.net

 

to setup unbound.  That's what I use, and I cache dns entries for multiple months at a time.  I don't want to even calculate how long it's been since I refreshed the cache.  I used a new file some time back, but I think even then, it still had a lot already loaded in the cache from a previous file, so probably a year or more of dns cache entries and things still work fine.  Imagine that.

 

So by default, a webserver will ask your computer to update the ip address of the website you are on.

 

Every 175 seconds.

 

I don't quite yet understand if it still polls the website this often, but at least it is polling it with cached data, and not needlessly requesting it every three minutes.

 

Also, it avoids upstream and the root dns servers from logging your network traffic, as they won't have any, and, this makes it somewhat more difficult for your ISP to sell your browsing data for a profit to advertisers and others.  Instead of having a nice neat list in plain text from port 53 all day every day, they'll have to comb through lots of https activity and such, manually which probably takes more time, and makes the effort slightly less profitable.  As if your monthly bill isn't good enough for them.

 

So you might be missing quite a shocking amount of network activity and be unaware, I sure was!  It is unsettling to consider all the branded websites I allowed to load daily, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Roku, and all the tracking websites and other nonsense, without at all being aware of any of it.  Could you imagine just how much network activity that must burn through, I'd rather not.

 

Most people couldn't care less, but I really REALLY do think, there should be a world-wide

 

Wireshark day.

 

It is a complex program that I hope is already being developed to be simpler to use.  It was started based on a project started in 1998, so it's been around for about 20 years or more, and I strongly believe, it should be a damn near legal requirement for all software to show exactly what websites and ip addresses are being accessed, instead of being hidden fron users.  This is what world-wide wireshark day would be for.

 

Just one day out of the year, we have wireshark appreciation day, so that more people are aware of it, and everyone except the ads and telemetry operators benefit.

 

This would allow computer users world-wide who aren't mining cobalt and banging on metal with metal tools to extract cobalt, without hearing protection, thousands of people sitting right next to one another, at least they get to be outside;  besides those poor souls, the rest of us who have access to technology as we know it, can know exactly how our computer networks are being used by the software and devices we own.

 

Of course, I doubt it will happen, and it very very unlikely, but it would be a great way to spread awareness of what our devices are doing and the computer systems they are sending and receiving data.

 

These data transmissions are already encrypted, which prevents the users to read what data is being transmitted, it is complete horseshit.  We should have the right to analyze the data being collected and sent, but I guess companies have the right to offer a closed-source software product and allow you to agree to a shitty policy.  So, it works both ways.

 

If you all are interested and install wireshark, let me know what you learn about your network, I would think it an interesting thread, and I'll go ahead and start it in the networking software forum.

[Mark Kaine]

ok, ok.... but

 

32 minutes ago, E-waste said:

So you might be missing quite a shocking amount of network activity and be unaware

if that was the case then why dont i see lots of network activity constantly?  i sometimes look at this and its really minimal,  maybe every 10 minutes a blip... i know that's enough to transfer some useful data, but if im honest i think that's just windows telemetry phoning home, its so minimal and somewhat regular intervals,  i think if there was more going on Id see it (of course game launchers like steam etc will do this too... there's really not much you can do about it)

 

i have telemetry turned "off" btw, but i know enough to know that doesn't turn it off entirely... its not something that bothers me much, actually sometimes its useful because windows detects hw changes etc and acts accordingly (well not always) 

 

 

i don't really wanna argue, but i think i get the feeling we want entirely different things from our computers,  all that stuff you're doing is interesting to me, but way too much work and seems like a huge rabbit hole too tbh.

me? i just wanna game lmao, there's no background activity worth mentioning,  unlike most other windows installations, that's all i really need to play my games without Windows nagging constantly,  or at all...

 

here's my typical system activity for example (this is while watching videos btw)

 

 

 

i said this recently,  there's nothing really going on on my system without my knowledge (aside from maybe some aforementioned telemetry stuff, but that just doesn't bother me as long its not impeding the usability of my system)

 

 

[E-waste]

20 hours ago, Mark Kaine said:

maybe some aforementioned telemetry stuff, but that just doesn't bother me as long its not impeding the usability of my system)

That's a good outlook on it.  If you want to easily filter out the local activity in wireshark type dns into the blank filter box and press enter.

 

Then, go to view, name resolution, check the middle item, network addresses.  This way, it just shows all websites requested and so you can have an easier to read list of websites that are being accessed.