BYbyoogle·Dec 8, 2015
I linked to Disconnect’s apparently abandoned open-source project (https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect), which I presume is the basis of Focus’s blocking.
In Focus by Firefox, a Content Blocker for iOSdisconnectme
disconnect
JavaScript2013–2015
disconnectme / disconnect
disconnect
Disconnect is a browser extension that makes the web faster, more private, and more secure.
7Distinct people
13Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
810GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Disconnect is a browser extension that makes the web faster, more private, and more secure.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by month13 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2013-06-18 19:26:13 UTC to 2015-12-08 18:46:49 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 2013 | 2013-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Jul 2013 | 2013-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2013 | 2013-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2013 | 2013-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2013 | 2013-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2013 | 2013-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2013 | 2013-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| Jan 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Feb 2014 | 2014-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2014 | 2014-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Apr 2014 | 2014-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2014 | 2014-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2014 | 2014-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2014 | 2014-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2014 | 2014-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2014 | 2014-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2014 | 2014-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2014 | 2014-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2014 | 2014-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jan 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Feb 2015 | 2015-02-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mar 2015 | 2015-03-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Apr 2015 | 2015-04-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| May 2015 | 2015-05-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jun 2015 | 2015-06-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jul 2015 | 2015-07-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Aug 2015 | 2015-08-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sep 2015 | 2015-09-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 2015 | 2015-10-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nov 2015 | 2015-11-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dec 2015 | 2015-12-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
What Hacker News says
13 sourcesAs the original developer of Disconnect, on which Focus’s blocking is said to be based, I (with my development team) created a new, open-source ad blocker for Chrome, Opera, and iOS called Adblock Fast (http://adblockfast.com/ and https://github.com/rocketshipapps/adblockfast on GitHub) because I think Disconnect became abandonware after I left the project a year and a half ago – there was one commit made to Disconnect in 2015 (https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/commits/master).
In Focus by Firefox, a Content Blocker for iOSThere are two plugins they currently offer. One blocks sites from tracking you, while the other allows you to search using your favorite search engine with added security (no ip logging, more anonymity, etc.).
For more information checkout the Github project page for each project below.
https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect
https://github.com/disconnectme/search
In Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, fasterThe source is at: https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect
In Disconnect: open source extension makes the web more private, secure, fasterDisconnect is open source, licensed under the GPL: https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/
In Ask HN: Deactivating Facebook and moving out of Google services enough?That's a pretty cheap shot:
* Disconnect has more than a million active users and Ghostery has more than two million.
* Disconnect is also as public as ABP: https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect.
In NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hackingSee the commit message at https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/commit/691897e21d....
The unencrypted list is at
https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/b27abbf033c6....
And formatted as JSON at https://disconnect.me/services-plaintext.json.
The encrypted list is also trivial to decrypt with the SJCL code in https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firef....
In NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hackingThanks.
#2 first: Code to block everything marked as content with one click was either just checked in or is about to be.
For #1: Disconnect groups tracking requests by company. If you want to see all the Google services that Disconnect filters, you could look through the filter list (services are grouped by category and company here, so start at lines 33, 1,882, and 2,326): https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/b27abbf033c6....
In NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hackingWhy is the Disconnect trackers list (https://services.disconnect.me/disconnect.json, referenced in https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firef...) an encrypted blob?
That seems to go against the OS nature of the project.
In NSA uses Google cookies to pinpoint targets for hackingAnd open source apparently! https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect
In Adblock Plus “typo correction” feature adds affiliate IDs to linksAMO process too sluggish or does Disconnect have something to hide? I personally really enjoy this "open source" code: https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firef...
In A Popular Ad Blocker Also Helps the Ad IndustryOh wow, step away from the Internet for an evening and this happens. Yes, I am a Ghostery developer.
Here is what Ghostery has to say about this non-story: http://purplebox.ghostery.com/?p=1016023438
Regarding Disconnect's openness, take a look at https://github.com/disconnectme/disconnect/blob/master/firef...
That's Disconnect's master tracking list. I'd say it bears an uncanny resemblance to Ghostery's tracker library, but then I'd be breaking all sorts laws tampering with encryption.[1]
Please feel free to browse Ghostery's source code. All our extensions[2] are zips of unobfuscated JavaScript.
--
[1] Nice take on the old "disable right-clicking on images". Not so nice to take tracker definitions from competitors and then brag about having the biggest library.
[2] IE is a bit special, as always, but that's out of our control for now (h