[HN Gopher] LibRedirect: Redirect YouTube, Twitter, Instagram to...
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LibRedirect: Redirect YouTube, Twitter, Instagram to privacy
friendly services
Author : kls0e
Score : 121 points
Date : 2022-09-20 19:01 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| phpdave11 wrote:
| I am using an alternative which doesn't require any additional
| browser extensions, but it does require that each client installs
| a custom root certificate.
|
| I have a split-DNS setup where I override the DNS entries for
| certain sites like reddit, twitter, and youtube so that they
| point to a local server. The local server returns privacy-
| friendly versions of those sites (e.g. spikecodes/libreddit).
|
| I use the root certificate to sign SSL certificates for those
| domains which will be trusted by each client on the network as
| long as they've installed the custom root certificate.
|
| That way, when I visit a reddit link from a google search, it
| automatically returns the privacy friendly version of the site,
| as long as the root certificate is installed.
|
| This is especially nice using when using iDevices, because those
| don't support native browser extensions.
| Starmina wrote:
| iOS does support browser extensions since iOS 15
| Tijdreiziger wrote:
| Only on Safari.
| hcarrega wrote:
| Orion browser support Firefox and chrome extensions
| ignoramous wrote:
| > I have a split-DNS setup where I override the DNS entries for
| certain sites like reddit, twitter, and youtube so that they
| point to a local server.
|
| Neat setup but exercise caution with the root-cert (I guess
| cert pinning isn't a thing on Browsers, yet?).
|
| > _I am using an alternative which doesn 't require any
| additional browser extensions... This is especially nice using
| when using iDevices, because those don't support native browser
| extensions._
|
| I use ghostarchive.org to view YouTube videos (that fit its
| limits), nitter.net for twitter threads, and archive.is for
| reddit threads.
| jaimehrubiks wrote:
| I've been using this for some time. I noticed that it works with
| Troddit, my favorite Reddit web client https://www.troddit.com/,
| you just need to go to custom and add it there.
|
| I use it mainly on Android with kiwi browser so I don't need to
| download apps
| mimimi31 wrote:
| For Reddit I've just been relying on uBlock Origin to block
| trackers, with some custom rules to get rid of all the
| superfluous sidebars, header bars, banners, avatars,
| achievement icons etc. The cleaned up interface actually looks
| very similar to Troddit's "Classic Rows" style.
| TakeBlaster16 wrote:
| I like the name! Could be stylized either LibRedirect or
| LibreDirect.
| NackerHughes wrote:
| How does this compare against the similar Privacy Redirect?
| https://github.com/SimonBrazell/privacy-redirect
| worg wrote:
| it has more services, ProxyTok for tiktok and Scribe.rip for
| Medium instances at least in my case are useful
|
| edit: formatting
| kls0e wrote:
| there is a libreddit thread about it:
| https://libreddit.foss.wtf/r/selfhosted/comments/xdlpj1/libr...
| LibRedirect is essentially a fork of the aforementioned
| extension that is actively being maintained and developed
| atestu wrote:
| Why does it need to access my data for all websites? Why not
| limit it to the websites it redirects?
| ajvs wrote:
| Because you can add arbitrary instances so the extension needs
| access to anything.
| rnhmjoj wrote:
| I must do my usual shilling for privoxy here. You can implement
| the better part of this extension with a few privoxy actions:
| # redirect twitter to nitter
| {+redirect{s@https?://(mobile.)?twitter.com@https://nitter.eu@}}
| twitter.com mobile.twitter.com # redirect reddit
| to teddit
| {+redirect{s@https?://(www|old).reddit.com@https://teddit.net@}}
| www.reddit.com old.reddit.com # etc.
| SahAssar wrote:
| Do you consider the potential security risks from such a setup?
| Like if you access your bank or email over privoxy do you think
| about the risks of adding such a layer?
| rnhmjoj wrote:
| I don't see any risks particular to privoxy: it's a piece of
| software that has bugs like any other, browsers and
| extensions included.
| weberer wrote:
| This is invaluable whenever someone links to a Twitter thread
| here and I don't want to spend the effort dodging sign-up modals
| and piecing together 30 fragments of what would just be a normal
| paragraph on any other site.
| bozhark wrote:
| Your comment made me click the link, exactly what I've been
| looking for
| jay3ss wrote:
| If you have an Android device, Fritter is a pretty good Twitter
| client. You can read threads and follow accounts without having
| an account. It's a little buggy sometimes, but overall it's
| pretty good.
| odysseus wrote:
| Too bad it's not available for Safari yet, even though Safari
| supports porting in of Chrome extensions.
|
| There's a workaround though: Use Jeff Johnson's Stop the Madness
| Safari extension, and hit the redirects tab - screenshot:
| https://underpassapp.com/StopTheMadness/support-safari.html#...
|
| (not affiliated with Jeff, just a happy customer of many of his
| apps)
| melony wrote:
| Wasn't Bibliogram EOLed? Is there an alternative to it?
| therealmarv wrote:
| Similar app for Android phones:
|
| https://f-droid.org/packages/app.fedilab.nitterizeme/
|
| https://f-droid.org/packages/app.fedilab.nitterizemelite/ (only
| for sharing links)
| perlgod wrote:
| Fantastic extension. I self-host Invidious, Teddit, Nitter, and
| Bibliogram and configured LibRedirect to use only my private
| instances. Unfortunately, the community instances are often
| either overloaded or down entirely. It's hard to imagine going
| back to the "real" sites...they are all so user-hostile.
|
| Since Android doesn't support browser extensions, I accomplish
| the same thing using the Bromite browser along with a handful of
| UserScripts to redirect youtube/twitter/etc to my private
| instances.
|
| Edit: Yes, I know Firefox for Android supports extensions, but
| the work required [0] to actually install any extension other
| than the handful "blessed" by Mozilla borders on hilarity.
| Firefox for Android seemed pretty good a few years ago, but at
| some point since then Mozilla has done a full redesign of the GUI
| and the whole thing now feels janky to me. I tried using it for a
| couple days and just couldn't bear it. My impression is that
| Mozilla is letting it languish.
|
| For simplicity, I use the exact same setup for all my family's
| Android phones (GrapheneOS with a persistent wireguard connection
| back to the house) and Firefox was just too strange for the non-
| technical people to use.
|
| In addition, GrapheneOS makes some pretty compelling arguments
| [1] against FF-based browsers.
|
| Lest anyone accuse me of being a Firefox hater, I do use it on
| the desktop.
|
| [0] https://www.ghacks.net/2020/10/01/you-can-now-install-any-
| ad...
|
| [1] https://grapheneos.org/usage#web-browsing
| geoffeg wrote:
| I've considered hosting my own Nitter and Bibliogram instances
| but I have to wonder if that reduces their privacy veil a bit.
| Wouldn't the requests from those instances be coming from a
| single IP, thereby potentially allowing their respective
| services to still track you? (Sure, you're avoiding the
| analytics from those service's web front-ends or apps but that
| can probably mostly be achieved by disabling JS.) I've
| considered adding a VPN or TOR gateway between the nitter and
| bibliogram instances I host to make them harder to track.
| perlgod wrote:
| I agree. If you're the only user of your instance, they can
| easily track you server-side by your IP address. You could
| mitigate this by routing your egress traffic (either from the
| individual device or network-wide, from your router) through
| a VPN.
| triyambakam wrote:
| How do you host them?
| perlgod wrote:
| I host everything from a server in my basement. Each local
| application gets a dedicated Rocky Linux VM on a proxmox
| hypervisor, with the VM/DNS/app configuration managed though
| a custom ansible framework that I've developed for my
| "homelab" over the years. Don't currently mess with
| containers.
|
| My mobile devices have an always-on wireguard VPN back to my
| house so I can access everything while out and about.
| monopoliessuck wrote:
| Firefox supports (many) browser extensions.
| betwixthewires wrote:
| In addition to iceraven (mentioned in another reply) there's
| also Kiwi browser, a chromium based mobile browser with
| extensions support.
|
| Also, there's a web extension called Redirector that allows you
| to do these redirects in a much more generic way.
| sneed-oil wrote:
| Iceraven supports extensions
| jonas-w wrote:
| With firefox nightly you can install any extension you want
| with addon collections.
| honkler wrote:
| I wish it could also redirect paywalled articles
| hjek wrote:
| Well, there are other add-ons for that.
|
| https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywal...
| betwixthewires wrote:
| There's also Redirector, a general purpose web extension that
| lets you redirect any URL with wildcards or regex, and ignore
| patterns as well. You can use it to do this, or anything else you
| want. Works on mobile too with Kiwi (a chromium fork with
| extensions support) and Iceraven (Firefox on mobile limits
| extensions you can install).
| Liquix wrote:
| Users of Privacy Redirect and LibRedirect may find it worthwhile
| to check out farside [0]. The long lists of mirrors can be
| replaced with singular farside links (e.g.
| https://farside.link/libreddit) which will always redirect to
| working instances.
|
| [0] https://farside.link/
| Entinel wrote:
| Didn't the devs behind bibliogram say they were done because of
| how aggressively Instagram tries to block these alternatives?
| Maybe I'm misremembering that
| triyambakam wrote:
| I'm naive - what is not privacy respecting about using Wikipedia?
| jonas-w wrote:
| Have a look at the git repo.
|
| https://codeberg.org/orenom/wikiless#why-i-should-use-wikile...
| howenterprisey wrote:
| Basically nothing from the Wikipedia end. They're very
| particular about privacy. Governments are another matter.
| ajvs wrote:
| I remember reading a while back about how some intelligence
| agency uses the browsing history of individual users to
| correlate their interests and build a profile on them. Either
| way, it's best to not centralise this data (or make yourself
| hard to fingerprint).
| monopoliessuck wrote:
| I've been using this[0] which works with regex patterns. It
| doesn't work on Firefox mobile, but then neither does OP's
| extension.
|
| 0: https://github.com/einaregilsson/Redirector
| snthd wrote:
| >It doesn't work on Firefox mobile
|
| HTTPS Everywhere works.
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/hpy82f/redirect_tw...
| papa-whisky wrote:
| I have also been using this extension (redirector) for a long
| while, for the same purpose. One thing I like about OPs
| extension is that it can randomise which instance of
| teddit/nitter/etc you get redirected to. And it's also surfaced
| a lot of alternative front-ends I didn't even know existed!
| I'll definitely be trying it out.
| anthk wrote:
| Also: https://simple-web.org
|
| Usable even under Lynx/Links/Netsurf/Dillo.
| daptaq wrote:
| I've been using this for a while, and it works well but it also
| often redirects me to broken instances, which is not inherently
| that horrible (most of the time these are just hosted by people
| in their spare time with spare funds), but in that case I'd like
| to see automatic redirection and some memory that this host
| wasn't accessible, so the plugin should try to avoid it in the
| near future.
| pessimizer wrote:
| Right now it seems the only solution for broken instances is to
| open settings and remove the instance manually. Interestingly,
| there's a speed test for instances in the settings, but it just
| tests them one after another, flashes a number, then moves to
| the next in a fairly useless fashion. I'm assuming this half-
| implemented feature is actually just a first step towards
| automating the thing a bit.
| Liquix wrote:
| This is the aim of the farside [0] project. For example instead
| of juggling a list of up/down invidious mirrors, just plug in
| https://farside.link/invidious and it will automatically
| redirect to a working instance.
|
| [0] https://farside.link/
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(page generated 2022-09-20 23:00 UTC)