New tab page: Ad block stat count incrementally increases

[lukemulks]

Description

I've repro'd this issue a few times on Windows, but not 100% of the time. That said, I'm seeing it enough times to open an issue, in case anyone else reports it.

On Brave Core, win10, I've noticed that in some instances, when I have a few tabs in a window, if I open a new tab, the ads blocked stat counter will continually increase while in view.

The inactive tabs behind the new tab do not indicate any autoplay occurring, and I'm observing the ad block count increase in the new tab page.

From a typical user POV, it seems like unexpected behavior, since it doesn't appear that other tabs are active, and autoplay is not running.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open brave core
2. Load a few tabs from the same window with different web pages in each tab.
3. Open a new tab. In some instances, I'm observing the ad block count increase.

Actual result:

In some cases, I see the "ads blocked" brave stat count increase.

Expected result:

"ads blocked" count should remain static with all other inactive tabs in the background.

Reproduces how often:

Intermittent.

Brave version (chrome://version info)

Brave | 0.55.6 Chromium: 70.0.3538.16 (Official Build) dev (64-bit)
-- | --
Revision | 16ed95b41bb05e565b11fb66ac33c660b721f778-refs/branch-heads/3538@{#306}
OS | Windows
JavaScript | V8 7.0.276.9
Flash | (Disabled)

Reproducible on current release:

Website problems only:

• Does the issue resolve itself when disabling Brave Shields?
• Is the issue reproducible on the latest version of Chrome?

Additional Information

[srirambv]

Reproduced on Linux with only Chrome pages in background. Saw stats increment on its own but wasn't a running count just a few increments

[Miyayes]

I have been able to successfully reproduce with high consistency on MacOS 0.55.20. Number of trackers blocked will increase rapidly in view. Was also reported here: https://www.reddit.com/r/BATProject/comments/9r5s7o/espncom_causes_glitch_in_the_new_brave_browser_ad/

Steps to reproduce:

1. Go to ESPN.com;
2. Open a new tab with the stats dashboard. You should see the tracker count increasing rapidly before your eyes.

Remarks: When inspecting ESPN.com with developer tools, the network tab shows a constant stream of attempted requests. It could be that the tracker counter is actually working "properly" and counting those endless requests as attempted trackers.

Sometimes ESPN.com will never fully load, in which case you will not reproduce. But a few refreshes will have ESPN.com fully load, and then the above occurs. I have pasted a screenshot of my network tab; the requests are endless and tracker count is rapidly incrementing.

[srirambv]

@Miyayes if you play any video on ESPN then you can see this consistently increase. This is similar behaviour of #426. The only difference being now it stops at 99+ instead of showing the actual count.

[Brave-Matt]

Had a user point out what @Miyayes mentioned above:
https://community.brave.com/t/bug-the-tracker-counter-on-new-tab-keep-running-suddenly/35813/4?u=mattches
Using this site: http://www.espncricinfo.com/

[srirambv]

+1 from https://community.brave.com/t/brave-browser-stats-skyrocketing-without-additional-browsing/35317

@rebron @bbondy we should probably fix this soon. There are several reports on this already both internal and on community.

[bbondy]

Added this to Shields project, and upped it from P3 to P2 so it gets attention.

[bbondy]

I found this rule applied to allow similar domains on easyprivacy:
@@||imrworldwide.com^*/ggce354.swf$domain=espn.go.com|espndeportes.com|espnfc.co.uk|espnfc.com|espnfc.com.au|espnfc.us|espnfcasia.com

So I think we should just add another rule like this to our list:
@@||imrworldwide.com^*/ggce354.swf$domain=espn.com|espncricinfo.com

[srirambv]

Verification passed on

Brave	0.58.11 Chromium: 71.0.3578.80 (Official Build) beta(64-bit)
Revision	2ac50e7249fbd55e6f517a28131605c9fb9fe897-refs/branch-heads/3578@{#860}
OS	Linux

• Verified visiting http://espn.com and opening articles on the site didn't continuously increase the ad/tracker block count on NTP
• Verified http://cdn-gl.imrworldwide.com/novms/js/2/ggcmb510.js being continuously requested and blocked does not increase the block count
• Verified visiting this page and playing the video didn't continuously increase the ad/tracker block count on NTP

Verification passed on

Brave	0.58.11 Chromium: 71.0.3578.80 (Official Build) beta (64-bit)
Revision	2ac50e7249fbd55e6f517a28131605c9fb9fe897-refs/branch-heads/3578@{#860}
OS	Windows

• Verified visiting http://espn.com and opening articles on the site didn't continuously increase the ad/tracker block count on NTP
• Verified http://cdn-gl.imrworldwide.com/novms/js/2/ggcmb510.js being continuously requested and blocked does not increase the block count
• Verified visiting this page and playing the video didn't continuously increase the ad/tracker block count on NTP

Verified passed with

Brave	0.58.11 Chromium: 71.0.3578.80 (Official Build) beta(64-bit)
Revision	2ac50e7249fbd55e6f517a28131605c9fb9fe897-refs/branch-heads/3578@{#860}
OS	Mac OS X

• Verified visiting http://espn.com and opening articles on the site didn't continuously increase the ad/tracker block count on NTP
• Verified http://cdn-gl.imrworldwide.com/novms/js/2/ggcmb510.js being continuously requested and blocked does not increase the block count
• While visiting this page and playing the video, the ad/tracker block count on NTP did continuously increase. Logged watching video on ESPN continually increases Ads/Trackers blocked on new tab page - follow up to 1311 #2505