AdGuard for Windows Stealth Mode: changes are coming
It has been 2 months now since the release of Adguard for Windows v.6, and we’ve got loads of different reports from our users in that period on issues caused by Stealth Mode.
The massive feedback greatly helped us to determine which Stealth Mode options are likely to cause troubles, and to take measures to prevent that in future. In the next version we will change some of stealth mode options to fix it.
Let us share with you how we plan to further develop Stealth Mode and describe each of the upcoming changes in detail.
Blocking third party cookies
This was probably the most problem-causing option. It may sometimes cause troubles with websites authorization, especially when the website uses some complex multi-domain authorization.
So, in the next Adguard version, instead of simply blocking third-party cookies we will introduce a new option: self-destructing cookies. Third party cookies lifetime will be limited by N minutes (the exact period will be user-defined, default value being equal to 30 minutes).
Hiding user agent
We admit we have made a mistake here. By default we use some hard coded user agent of a chromium/linux browser, and this may mess with some websites functionality. For instance, when you use Internet Explorer 11 and set this option on, youtube starts complaining on your browser.
Instead of this we will use a user agent of the same browser/OS, but strip it from everything non-standard.
Hiding IP address
We currently use some hardcoded IP address of some TOR node. The downside is, this IP address is often blacklisted.
So, we will not use a TOR node IP by default after the update. Also, an important addition will be a possibility for a user to set any IP manually.
Separate whitelist for Stealth Mode
Last but not least. Currently there is no easy way to disable stealth mode for a particular website. This is just wrong. There should be an easy way for a user to turn Stealth Mode off for a website without having to disable other modules.
In the next version we will introduce a simple configurable whitelist for Stealth Mode that should facilitate life for anyone who is actively using it.
This is all for today! Stay tuned and keep sending us feedback – as you can see, it is invaluable to make Adguard better.
