Nano Defender and uBlock Origin

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Let's write an article quickly to shed some clarity on the history of Nano Defender and of uBlock Origin. Chances are you've heard about it: pandemonium recently happened with Nano Defender and with Nano AdBlocker and we realized that all this has generated a lot of confusion among people. Confusion that can lead to making incorrect gestures such as deleting uBlock Origin for fear that it is somehow dangerous.
Let's say it right away: uBlock Origin is safe. Continue to use it safely.

What happened with Nano Defender and uBlock Origin?

A brief introduction: Nano Defender it's a Fork Of uBlock Origin, it means that most of the code is the same as uBlock Origin but then took a different path from the original. The developer, in fact, is different. Lately Nano Defender was sold to a different group of developers ¹ who, in a short time, added some malware. That is, malicious code which, apparently, recorded all the sites visited and the operations performed ².

It seems that the only version affected by this problem is the one present for the Browsers Chrome. And it has in fact already been removed from the store ³ and if you have Chrome updated should have already removed it automatically.

The key points of the story:

• If you have installed Nano Defender or Nano AdBlocker on Chrome/Edge/Brave delete it immediately and possibly change the passwords of the sites you have used in the last few days.
• In theory the version of Nano Defender on Firefox It shouldn't have this problem (for now). However, the extension is not particularly recommended, so the advice is to do without it.
• For blocking ads always and only use uBlock Origin. Be careful because there are also other versions. Use only the one called uBlock Origin or this: Firefox And Chrome/Brave/Edge. It is the one developed by Raymond Hill (gorhill).
• Notify friends and family who use AdBlock different from uBlock Origin. Advise them to use only that and check that they have not installed it Nano Defender or Nano AdBlocker

It is very important to always only use extensions recommended by reliable sites and never install random things. In fact, it often happens that they are deleted and reported as malware extensions for both Chrome and Firefox.

We know that it is not easy to distinguish between a reliable site or not. TheAlternatives but he is trying hard to always be consistent: you can see for yourself here they are not here tracers, there is no advertising and there is no intention to make money with clickbait. Oh, and we will never do Amazon affiliations. So we have no problem talking about AdBlock and similar!
We refer to sites and people who have always stood out for the protection of privacy, ignoring charlatans and conspiracy theories. So what you read here is generally reliable and we are sure that those who have been following us for a long time will be able to confirm it.

1. Announcement on GitHub[↩]
2. What happens in the new version[↩]
3. Page removed from the Chrome store[↩]

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