adblockers create errors on browser console

[petitkriket]

Description

Capturing metrics with a cloud based instance floods console with errors because of the users adblockers

Steps to reproduce

1. Add Faro to the project
2. Send a metric to a Grafana.com cloud hosted instance using the Faro SDK
3. See a error clogged browser console
4. Disable adblocker
5. Console is clean

Expected behavior

1. Add Faro to the project
2. Send a metric to a Grafana managed instance using the Faro API
3. No error in the console while data is not sent and user trace is not sent
4. No error in the console while data is sent because it's whitelisted to adblockers

Actual behavior

Console is full of errors which makes seeing actual bugs more difficult

Environment

• SDK version: 1.3.9 iiffe
• SDK instrumentations: tracing is enabled
• Device type:
• Device name:
• OS: MacOs
• Browser: Chrome 121.0.0

Demo

Context

grafana saas cloud domain is present on adblocker ban lists
So I guess it would work fine on a self hosted Grafana but not on a managed one

[eskirk]

hi @petitkriket, thanks for the report.

we are aware of this issue and we have some solutions in mind to help circumvent this problem - as a user of ublock myself, I really want to fix this.

I do worry this may end up being a game of cat and mouse with easylist VS faro endpoints - especially since myself and the rest of the team fully respects the user's rights to limit whatever type of payloads their browser may be sending to endpoints across the internet.

I will check in on the progress of our solution and let you know when I know more.

[petitkriket]

thank for you swift reply ! totally agree with you on the matter of privacy. happy to know and not surprised that you're well aware of the issue, curious about the solution you and your team will pick !

the additional errors produced from the SDK creates unwanted noise IMO. a single warning would be a nice to have..

kind regards

[daniel-hayes]

@eskirk are there any updates to this? Ideally we could pause transports if the collector is being blocked by an extension, but I don't think we have the ability to catch errors coming from the SDK. I think setting up a proxy would work, but maybe also having a health check that can allow us to pause transports on load would suffice?

[eskirk]

@daniel-hayes I like where your head is at. I am going to bring this issue up in our upcoming planning meeting and see what options we have here. a health check would go a long way at reducing console noise - or even at least a more specific error showing that this request was blocked by an ad blocker. thanks for putting this back on my radar 👍🏼

[daniel-hayes]

@eskirk thanks for the update!