My blog https://journal.paoloamoroso.com is hosted at Write.as but is linked to my custom domain paoloamoroso.com. When I visit the blog with Firefox on Linux uBlock Origin reports one tracker associated with cloudfront.net and cdn.writeas.net:
What is the tracker for? Can it be removed?
Hey @PaoloAmoroso, it looks like cdn.writeas.net serves assets like fonts, CSS, and JavaScript over Cloudfront’s content delivery network. @matt would know more, but is this something new that you’ve noticed?
Thanks, yes, I know these servers are part of the Write.as infrastructure. But I wonder what that tracker is for, and whether it’s necessary for Write.as.
I installed uBlock Origin only recently and noticed the report, hence my curiosity.
Hmm, it seems like uBlock Origin might be resolving the cdn.writeas.net domain and finding it points to Amazon’s CloudFront, and then blocking the whole thing on those grounds.
I’d say it’s a little overzealous on uBlock’s part, and you can safely un-block cdn.writeas.net. As @angelo mentioned, we only serve static files on that domain – there’s no tracking involved (as always).
Thanks for the insight Matt.
Personally, I actually wouldn’t mind such a tracker even if it was there. But my readers may care and reach out to me for information.
