This is the main reason I completely ditched Reddit, if you use the new Reddit interface instead of the old one (old.reddit.com), you’ll see a constant request being made to “https://www.reddit.com/svc/shreddit/events” (open your DevTools > Network tab, can’t see on Firefox idk why).
The problem is, if you add this to your Ublock Origin filters the website won’t load properly, that’s why uBO team didn’t block it already.
You’ll notice this request isn’t only being made from a interval but also when you do basically any action in the site, like pausing or resuming a video (send timestamps of when did you pause or resumed).
It sends other kind of data like what subjects you’re seeing when closed a tab or the related subjects of a post you click, this all can be used to trace a perfect profile of you and things you like.
You can avoid that by using the old.reddit but it still has the same kind of tracker, even tho you can block it here without major issues.
By my analysis, old Reddit interface does the same but to a random URL path that always starts with “reddit.com/api/something”. Ex.: reddit.com/api/friends So you can block anything that starts with “www.reddit.com/api” in your custom filters (after all you’re using old.reddit.com), then you’re mostly free from Reddit trackers (more or less). Side effect is, you won’t be able to use the chat in the old interface.
Do you know if there’s anything that can be blocked from the Javascript side of things? (uMatrix lets me handle that on a case-by-case basis)
It seems you can’t block this request, I tested using mitm proxy, you can stop requests being made, so when you do it, the Reddit home page stop loading, if I resume but discard the request (same thing as blocking), the page doesn’t load anymore.
Back when I noticed this, I asked on uBO origin subreddit, and the uBO Team told me there’s nothing they can do, they tried and all attempts broke the site, that’s why I said this tracker is unblockable.
I suggested them to intercept the request, change the parameters with fake ones, then proceed, so it’s sending a wrong info in the tracker, they said they tried it already but didn’t work.
Okay, thanks much for looking in to that!
What I know for sure-- when “old” Reddit is eventually abolished, that’ll be my last participation with the site, other than maybe when useful search engine results come up.