Make it possible to do selective whitelisting on outgoing gmail links

davidcarlton

I don't know if this is a bug or a feature, but I have one newsletter that I read in gmail that leads to links like https://www.google.com/url?q=https://embarcaderomediafoundation.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D3523dbf3d921cfe19a22d0321%26id%3Dd8556c284f%26e%3Dac0b6141ff&source=gmail&ust=1770921460208000&usg=AOvVaw0MVo8oq881_gbbwIKpT1zo

Without content blockers, that redirects to list-manage.com, which then redirects to mv-voice.com ( https://www.mv-voice.com/housing/2026/02/09/mountain-view-planning-commission-backs-major-rowhouse-project-despite-misgivings/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mountain%20View%20Online%20-%20Daily%20Express%20-%202026-02-09&utm_source=ba1b002ad7&utm_source=Embarcadero+Mailing+List+%28including+SLJ+Members%29&utm_campaign=8771b4d3e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_02_05_10_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8771b4d3e4-112236807 in this case). But with content blockers (I'm using the Orion defaults) I get an error "The URL was blocked by a content blocker".

I'm not necessarily saying the content blocker is making an inappropriate decision there (there's a lot of tracking going on), but in this case I want to whitelist it, and I can't figure out how to do that. I'd hoped that whitelisting https://embarcaderomediafoundation.us10.list-manage.com would work, but that has no effect. So then I tried whitelisting https://www.google.com/url?q=https://embarcaderomediafoundation.us10.list-manage.com/ - that does work, but as far as I can tell that ignores everything in the URL after the address, and ends up disabling content blockers on all links from www.google.com; I definitely don't want that. So I want a way to whitelist the specific links in question (links from google to embarcaderomediafoundation.us10.list-manage.com ) without whitelisting arbitrary links from google. (Maybe there's a way to do that, but I can't find it.)

davidcarlton

When filing a feedback request on the content blocker, I wanted to refer to the content blocker page, and the easiest way to do that was for me to quote some text on that page. ("The URL was blocked by a content blocker".) But that text isn't selectable, so I had to type it by hand, going back and forth between that page and the feedback form to make sure I was typing it correctly.

That page in question is a tab in my web browser, text on it should be selectable just like text is selectable on a regular web page, so I can copy and paste it.

davidcarlton

When I go to https://www.google.com/url?q=https://embarcaderomediafoundation.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u%3D3523dbf3d921cfe19a22d0321%26id%3Dd8556c284f%26e%3Dac0b6141ff&source=gmail&ust=1770921460208000&usg=AOvVaw0MVo8oq881_gbbwIKpT1zo I run into the content blocker. That's fine, so then I reload it without the content blocker, it goes through a chain of redirects, ending up at https://www.mv-voice.com/housing/2026/02/09/mountain-view-planning-commission-backs-major-rowhouse-project-despite-misgivings/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Mountain%20View%20Online%20-%20Daily%20Express%20-%202026-02-09&utm_source=ba1b002ad7&utm_source=Embarcadero+Mailing+List+%28including+SLJ+Members%29&utm_campaign=8771b4d3e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2026_02_05_10_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-8771b4d3e4-112236807 .

The problem there is that I see lots of ads on that latter page, which I don't want to see. And I can tell that they would normally be blocked by the content blocker, because if I reload that page, I don't get any content blocker complaints, but the ads disappear, and the shield icon goes from Blocked Requests: 13 to Blocked Requests: 0.

As far as I can tell (see some notes in https://orionfeedback.org/d/13197-make-it-possible-to-do-selective-whitelisting-on-outgoing-gmail-links ) the original refusal from the content blocker had nothing to do with the page that I ultimately ended up on - the content blocker was complaining about something about the original google link. So, in this situation, I wanted to disable the content blocker for the original google link, but when that link turned into a redirect chain, I wanted the content blocker to be re-enabled at the end of the redirect chain.

So my naive request is: if I disable content blockers on a link, and if that link turns into a redirect, then re-enable content blockers on the redirect. Typing that out, I feel like it would lead to annoying behaviors in some situations (requiring people to disable content blockers multiple times just to see one web page), but maybe there's a middle ground that would work better? E.g. leave the content blocker enabled while we're still within the same domain but re-enable it when we get redirected to a different domain?

davidcarlton

I've recently been trying to figure out a problem with content blockers (see https://orionfeedback.org/d/13197-make-it-possible-to-do-selective-whitelisting-on-outgoing-gmail-links and https://orionfeedback.org/d/13199-dont-have-content-blocker-whitelisting-persist-across-redirects ) and one thing that's been a problem is that I can't easily see what is causing the content blocking. The page saying I've hit the content blocker doesn't show me the rules that triggered, it just says that some unknown rule triggered; and I'm only given sledgehammers to deal with that, disabling all rules (in a way that persists across redirects), either on a one-time basis or on every single page from a given domain. So I'd like to get more insight into what's going on, and a way to respond more surgically.

I think the current experience is okay as a default, but I'd like to be able to click on a button once I hit the "The URL was blocked by a content blocker" page and see the specific content blocker rule(s) that caused the rejection, and then a way to reload with only that specific rule disabled, instead of disabling all content blocker rules. And then, if I like the results there, I'd like a way to disable that specific rule, either for all sites or a specific site.

Yannick

We're working on a new extension for Orion dedicated to blocking ads, trackers, and cookie banners, and it will be open source. It's coming in a few weeks.

davidcarlton

Yannick Oh great, I look forward to it!