Add list of persian trackers to ghostery

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Hi Keyvan,

Thanks for using Ghostery!

We'll take a look! Typically we ask for the name of the tracker and a site where we can see it in action. But I'll forward this on to Dev and see if they have everything they need.

Thanks again!

Thanks for consideration.
If they need more info tell me, I can help.

Thanks Keyvan. In general, for us to accept trackers into Ghostery database, we'd like to see the tracker + several sites its deployed on. I'll go through your list and add it to my own watch list and will add to the database as I encounter them unless you can provide some examples for us. Thanks.

Several of these trackers are already known to Ghostery, e.g. Adpersia, Free Online Users, MyPagerank, NetBina, PersianStat, RadarURL, Statcounter, Tinystat, and WebGozar.

Previous discussion: https://getsatisfaction.com/ghostery/...

Each time we add a tracker definition, Ghostery gets a little slower, and consumes more memory. So, we really don't want to impose this burden on every user in the world, without good reason to believe it's going to add some value. We've already incorporated data for over 1,500 trackers.

Our goal isn't to have the largest collection — just the most useful, and (hopefully) an accurate one. To accomplish this, we need to be able to see multiple examples of actual deployment. So, we won't import your list directly — nor anyone else's. But, you might be able to use it as a starting point. This requires a certain amount of technical knowledge and skill; it's not for everyone.

Here's what I recommend:

You'll need to use Firefox (or a derivative) for this.

• https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox...
• https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fire...

Go to Help > Troubleshooting Information (or open about:support).

Under Application Basics, there should be a row labeled Profile Directory, with an "Open Directory" button. Click it.



Locate the ghostery folder.



In there, you should find an empty file named user.bugs.db.



user.bugs.db supplements the official database (bugs.db). You can look at bugs.db, but don't make any changes; you'd lose them when Ghostery downloads updates. You do need to be careful to avoid conflicting definitions, otherwise things won't work properly.

Here, I've taken the first five lines of your "3rd party blocking rules," and converted them to a JSON array that Ghostery can parse:

[
{"type":"tracker","aid":"10001","cid":"10001","pattern":"adweb\\.ir\\/","name":"adweb.ir trap","id":"10001","affiliation":""},
{"type":"tracker","aid":"10002","cid":"10002","pattern":"alborzdownload\\.com\\/","name":"alborzdownload.com trap","id":"10002","affiliation":""},
{"type":"tracker","aid":"10003","cid":"10003","pattern":"avaserver\\.com\\/","name":"avaserver.com trap","id":"10003","affiliation":""},
{"type":"tracker","aid":"10004","cid":"10004","pattern":"ashiyane\\.org\\/","name":"ashiyane.org trap","id":"10004","affiliation":""},
{"type":"tracker","aid":"10005","cid":"10005","pattern":"arzoonkala\\.com\\/","name":"arzoonkala.com trap","id":"10005","affiliation":""}
]

(Yours will be much more comprehensive.)

The various ids need to be unique values above 10000. Pattern is a JavaScript Regular Expression.

• https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/d...

Because patterns are expressed here as a quoted strings, you must double backslashes (\ becomes \\).

Ghostery applies toLowerCase() to URLs before matching them, so you'll need to ensure that your patterns don't contain any upper case letters (A-Z becomes a-z).

The value of "name" specifies what should be displayed in the Alert Bubble when a match is found. If you don't know what to put here, the domain name usually suffices.

Copy your candidates into user.bugs.db.

Changes take effect when Firefox is restarted. Your trackers will be categorized as User Added in Ghostery's Options.

» You need to make sure ABP and Ghostery aren't fighting over the same trackers.

Now, just browse the web the way you normally do. When one of your trackers appears, note which one it was, and where Ghostery found it.

When you can show that a particular tracker is present on multiple sites (I usually look for 20 or more, then list ones that serve as good examples), you can propose it be added to the global database. Good examples tend to have few, if any, other trackers that Ghostery doesn't already know about.

We'll attempt to reproduce your findings (some sites use geolocation to serve different content to various regions, so our view might not be identical to yours), and determine whether we have something eligible for inclusion. We'll classify your tracker into the most appropriate category, and try to find who's responsible for it, whether there's a published privacy policy, etc. This will be summarized on a knowledge page, e.g.:

• http://www.ghostery.com/apps/adpersia

(As you can see, there's a lot more involved in adding an entry to Ghostery than ABP.)

It usually only takes a few days before your new tracker entry starts being distributed. It may be a month (or more) before we know how effective it is; that can only be determined once GhostRank data has been processed. You should remove your tracker entry from user.bugs.db when you receive ours.

Remember, we're most interested in things other people are likely to encounter. We can try to guess what might be popular based on lists like this:

• http://www.alexa.com/topsites/countri...

but that's not the same as having firsthand knowledge.