🛠️ iBrowe: Tracking Protection Exceptions and Web Compatibility

To maintain site functionality and reduce user frustration, iBrowe includes a limited number of exceptions to its default tracking protection policies. These are made carefully and transparently. All exceptions continue to block third-party cookie access.

We are actively working on new settings to allow users to customize these exceptions, as outlined in our public roadmap discussions.

📦 Filter List Exceptions

🔐 Facebook Login Buttons

Some third-party sites rely on the Facebook SDK to provide “Login with Facebook” functionality. To support basic logins while maintaining maximum privacy, we apply targeted exceptions.

Blocked by default:


||facebook.com\$third-party
||facebook.net\$third-party
||staticxx.facebook.com\$third-party

Allowed to preserve login functionality:


@@||connect.facebook.com/*/sdk.js\$script
@@||connect.facebook.net/*/sdk.js\$script
@@||facebook.com/connect/
@@||[www.facebook.com/connect](http://www.facebook.com/connect)
@@||staticxx.facebook.com/connect/
@@||graph.facebook.com/

💡 Future: These filters will become user-configurable.

📷 Facebook Embeds

To support embedded content (e.g., videos, posts), we allow specific resources while still blocking tracking endpoints.

Blocked:


||fbcdn.net\$third-party,domain=\~facebook.com

Allowed:


@@||staticxx.facebook.com/
@@||xx.fbcdn.net/
@@||[www.facebook.com/\*/plugin](http://www.facebook.com/*/plugin)
@@||[www.facebook.com/plugins/](http://www.facebook.com/plugins/)
@@||[www.facebook.com/rsrc.php](http://www.facebook.com/rsrc.php)
@@||[www.facebook.com/ajax/bz](http://www.facebook.com/ajax/bz)

Without these:
Embedded posts and buttons like “Like” or “Share” may not appear.

🐦 Twitter Embeds

To support embedded tweets, we make similar narrow allowances.

Blocked by default:


||twitter.com\$third-party
||twimg.com\$third-party,domain=\~twitter.com

Allowed:


@@||platform.twitter.com/
@@||syndication.twitter.com;
@@||pbs.twimg.com/
@@||cdn.syndication.twimg.com/

Without these:
Tweets may appear without images/videos or not load at all.

📄 Example: https://www.buzzfeed.com/jesseszewczyk/martha-stewart-scrambled-eggs-hack

📋 Other Unbreak Rules

Additional compatibility patches are tracked in:


ibrowe/adblock-lists/ibrowe-unbreak.txt

🧭 iBrowe’s Policy on Exception Handling

iBrowe integrates multiple upstream privacy filter lists like EasyList, EasyPrivacy, and uBlock Origin. Occasionally, these filters break core features on websites. Our exception policy is guided by:

✅ When Do We Add Exceptions?

  • For limited breakage: We may allow minor exceptions temporarily to avoid user pain.
  • For widespread breakage: We prioritize privacy-preserving alternatives and invest in dev resources.
  • All exceptions are clearly tagged and tracked for future revision.

📌 Tag Examples

  • revisit: Short-term exceptions with plans to replace later
  • revisit after uBO parity: Temporary rules until we support uBlock Origin-style replacements

Questions? Contact @pes10k or pes@ibrowe.com.

🍪 Third-Party Cookie Exceptions

iBrowe only allows third-party cookies in highly specific contexts, for example:

  • Cookies sent only between a specific third-party and a defined first-party

We’re developing a solution that could eliminate the need for even these narrow exceptions. Progress is tracked in:


[https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8514](https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues/8514)

Adapted and rewritten from Brave documentation:
https://github.com/brave/adblock-lists
https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/issues
Attribution: Brave Software