easylist

What the lists block

EasyList is the filter subscription that targets advertisements on English and international websites, and the repository also hosts EasyPrivacy, the EasyList Cookie List, and Fanboy's Social, Annoyances, and Notifications blocking lists. The project is maintained by Fanboy, also known as ryanbr, along with MonztA, Khrin, and Yuki2718. The EasyList portion aims to block ad scripts both generic and site specific, ad images, text and CSS ads, pre mid and end video ads, affiliate links and widgets, and the servers that host ad related content. It also covers cosmetic filtering through generic and site specific CSS, popups and popunders, and placeholders of non trivial size, described as usually at least 50 pixels tall and 50 pixels wide. Consent messages that use certain techniques are also targeted. The anti adblock section of EasyList focuses on cosmetic and generic blocks that stop sites from disrupting viewing for ad blocker users, and for legal reasons it is limited to categories such as adult websites, file or link hosting, streaming and torrent or comic sites, and historical anti adblock rules. The subscription is the default or a default option in many ad blocking tools, which is why it carries 3,101 stars and 903 forks despite being a list of rules rather than an application. The breadth of these rules is why the list remains a default choice for basic ad blocking across many tools.

EasyPrivacy and tracking

EasyPrivacy is the privacy focused companion list in the same repository, and its goal is to block tracking and improve end user privacy. The README lists what it targets: analytics, anti bot or bot checks, telemetry, tracking pixels or cookies, referrers, beacons, fingerprinting, email tracking, impression event and performance logging, user agent checks, resource miners, third party hit counters, and CNAME trackers. Notification servers and popups that carry tracking are also covered, as is linking, loading, or initializing known tracking servers or scripts, plus some unnecessary third party scripts and images. When a site attempts to track, the list places it into one of four categories. Generic blocks use common URL or tracking filter patterns from first or third parties. First party tracking covers self hosted trackers and CNAME trackers. Third party tracking covers a script hosted by a provider that is not itself a tracking company. Tracking servers are those whose only purpose is to track or analyze users, and those are blocked at the URL level. The split helps maintainers reason about each rule and helps users understand why a request was stopped. Together EasyList and EasyPrivacy form the core of what most privacy oriented filter setups rely on day to day.

Fanboy supplementary lists

Beyond the two core lists, the repository hosts Fanboy's Annoyances List, the EasyList Cookie List, Fanboy's Social Blocking List, and Fanboy's Notifications Blocking List. These address the clutter that is not strictly an ad or a tracker: cookie consent banners, social widgets and share buttons, and notification prompts that interrupt browsing. The cookie list in particular is what many users enable to suppress the consent dialogs that appear on nearly every site. Filter issues can be raised through several channels: email to the project's ProtonMail address, the project forum at forums.lanik.us, or GitHub issues on the repository itself. The README notes that accountability and responsibility remain with the list maintainers, which reflects the care needed when broad blocking rules can break legitimate site functionality. The project's homepage is easylist.to, where users find subscription links and guidance. With 1,275 open issues the tracker shows an active maintenance load, since filter lists must respond quickly as sites change their ad and tracking delivery. The combination of a long lived maintainer team, multiple focused lists, and several reporting paths is why EasyList remains a default reference point for anyone setting up ad and tracker blocking. The combination of a long lived maintainer team and several reporting paths is what keeps the lists responsive to site changes.

Editorial conclusion

EasyList carries 3,101 stars and is maintained by Fanboy, MonztA, Khrin, and Yuki2718, with its subscriptions and guidance hosted at easylist.to.