Welcome to BadBlock!

[!NOTE] While BadBlock's home is Codeberg, this repo is also mirrored to both GitLab & GitHub.

Table of Contents

1. What is BadBlock?

2. Why BadBlock?

3. What does BadBlock block?

4. How to use BadBlock/Formats Available

5. The Lists

6. BadBlock Combined Lists

7. BadBlock Individual Lists

8. The Whitelists

9. Combined Whitelist

10. Individual Whitelists

11. Should I use any other lists, and if so, what?

12. General Recommendations

13. Licensing

14. Credit

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What is BadBlock?

BadBlock is a collection of comprehensive blocklists that I personally maintain covering a variety of different services, applications, & platforms with the goal of blocking... well, as the name suggests, stuff that is bad™ (More details below).

BadBlock started as a simple collection of DNS blocklists that I hosted on Codeberg for my personal use. However, people quickly took notice of the project, and it's gradually grown & evolved over time to become what you see here today.

BadBlock is NOT a compilation of other blocklists from various sources. These are all domains derived from my own research & analysis. You should NOT rely on BadBlock as your only blocklist (see recommendations below).

BadBlock also maintains comprehensive Whitelists, with the goal of ensuring that important domains are never blocked, & unblocking false positives from other lists.

Something unique about BadBlock is that the lists here are granular. BadBlock offers 3 primary combined blocklists (BadBlock Lite, BadBlock, & BadBlock+), which are built from various individual lists in the project. The combined lists are simply the presets and what I recommend people use for convenience, but by all means: feel free to mix, match, and use any of these lists however you please. :)

Why BadBlock?

Out of all the thousands of blocklists out there, why should you specifically use lists from BadBlock? What does BadBlock bring to the table? In my opinion, there are a few things that make BadBlock stand out:

• Domains added are carefully considered through my personal research and analysis. Domains added are very well-documented, with the goal of making it easy for users to understand what is blocked and why.

• BadBlock is not scared to go above and beyond and cause breakage - but only if the ends justify the means. BadBlock has no issue blocking privacy invasive features (ex. Microsoft SmartScreen, see below) and AI/voice assistants (ex. Google Assistant & Amazon Alexa). These features pose extreme privacy concerns, are typically enabled by default or through dark patterns, and the risks aren't made clear to the end-user. Therefore, BadBlock blocks them. Most other lists won't block these types of domains, out of fear of breakage & complaints from users. BadBlock is different, I believe that every user should always be in control of their digital experience. If the user still wishes to use a feature like this that I block, they may do so and create a whitelist entry, but now they are at least actively thinking & making a conscious decision to use it. However, BadBlock will not block domains that provide 'legitimate' functionality (see below). If you run into any false positives or undesired breakage as a result from these lists, please file an issue and report it.

• BadBlock's ABP lists (which I recommend using if possible, more details below) also include carefully considered rules to ensure that the lists have the most effective & efficient content blocking possible.

It should be noted that BadBlock also wishes to improve content blocking as a whole for everyone (No fun in keeping all the domains for myself! :p). I make an effort to report domains to other lists where relevant & applicable, such as HaGeZi's, and I work with other list maintainers where possible.

So, what does BadBlock block?

BadBlock will generally focus on blocking the following types of domains (where applicable) on all of the BadBlock lists:

• ⭐️ Advertising/Promotions - ✅ (On all lists)

• ⭐️ Anti-Adblock - ✅ (On all lists where relevant)

• 🤖 AI/Live Chat widgets - ✅ (On all lists where relevant)

• ⭐️ Cookie Banners/CMPs - ✅ (On all lists where relevant)

• ⭐️ Data Brokers/People Search - ✅ (On all lists where relevant, but especially Data Brokers)

• ⭐️ Data Collection - ✅ (On all lists)

• ⭐️ Tracking/Fingerprinting - ✅ (On all lists)

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Additionally, depending on the list you choose, BadBlock will also cover:

• ⭐️ Annoyances - ✅ (On Annoyances & BadBlock+)

• ⭐️ Click Tracking - ✅ (On Click Tracking)

• ⭐️ DRM - ✅ (On DRM)

• ⭐️ Undesirable/toxic domains - ✅ (On Crap)

• ⭐️ Undesired MDM/Remote Management Tools - ✅ (On Anti-Monitoring, BadBlock, & BadBlock+)

• ⭐️ Undesired Monitoring Tools - ✅ (On Anti-Monitoring, BadBlock, & BadBlock+)

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BadBlock will NOT block:

• ‼️ Anything not covered below that causes serious/notable breakage

• ‼️ CDNs

• ‼️ Certificate Validation Checks (Ex. OCSP, CRL)

• ‼️ Important security features*1

• ‼️ Legitimate functionality*2

• ‼️ Referral links/URL shorteners*3

• ‼️ Software Updates

• ‼️ Time Servers

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*1 The keyword here is important, because this doesn't necessarily apply to every feature that claims to be "security" related. For instance, in the combined BadBlock lists & Microsoft lists, Smartscreen is blocked. The reason is simple: It's extremely invasive from a privacy perspective, as it directly sends every URL you visit, names & data about the apps you use on your device, & other sensitive information to Microsoft, without any obfuscation or attempt at anonymizing the data. Not to mention this is not made clear or transparent to the user at all, & always enabled by default. Therefore, I have no problem blocking it due to the extreme privacy risk it poses. However, on the contrary, BadBlock doesn't block Google's Safe Browsing, as it is generally not a concern for privacy unless you enable the "Enhanced" mode on certain browsers, and provides real-world benefits.

*2 Legitimate functionality can be defined as things that provide an actual benefit to the end user, that the user is actively choosing to take advantage of, and that is not harming their privacy or security to an unacceptable extent. For instance, BadBlock will not block google.com in any of the lists - Even though it's highly questionable from a privacy standpoint and I don't recommend using it, it also serves as a legitimate search engine that provides value to end-users.

*3 While these domains are used for tracking, it's undesirable to block them on the network level, due to the breakage caused. We still block these domains on the separate Click Tracking list though (which we recommend for browser users), and we also make exceptions and still block domains that are also used for other forms of tracking elsewhere (ex. Adjust domains & Google AdService Domains).

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I will repeat: If you run into any false positives or undesired breakage as a result from these lists, please file an issue and report it.

How to use? / Formats available

BadBlock currently offers lists in the following formats:

• ⭐️ ABP - This is the format I would strongly recommend using if possible, as the ABP syntax is simply the most effective at blocking, and the most advanced out there. It also has very strong compatibility with most content blockers, and BadBlock takes advantage of a lot of its advanced features & blocking.

• Wildcard Domains (With and without *) - If you are unable to use the ABP lists, these lists are also provided in the wildcard domains format; one variant with the * before domains, and one without. This is also very effective at blocking, and can be a great option depending on your blocker of choice if you're unable to use the ABP lists.

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⚠️ I am NOT planning to create "HOSTS" files at this time. I would recommend reading the reasons OISD lists here, as I strongly agree with them. HOSTS files are very time consuming to maintain, unnecessarily large, and above all else: just not effective at blocking.

⭐️ I would generally recommend using AdGuard Home as your DNS content blocker of choice if possible, as it is free and open source, and offers the strongest amount of customization & features. You can see my recommended set-up for AdGuard Home here. These lists are also compatible with various other content blockers and firewalls, such as uBlock Origin (Recommended for browser users), AdGuard, Brave Shields, Cromite, [Little Snitch](https:/