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Hello Newsletter Subscriber,
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We are very excited, because our eBlocker Open Source project has its birthday today!
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Time for a short review of what we have achieved and a preview of what's coming next:
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Review 2020
Exactly one year ago, on 12/23/2019, we took over the "intellectual property" from the former eBlocker GmbH. Since then we have accomplished incredibly much thanks to you, dear community.
Here are the main highlights:
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Q1: IT infrastructure rebuilt, service providers engaged and processes established (taxes, accounting, contracting), new website launched - also in English, eBlocker iOS app updated, eBlocker source code published.
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Q2: eBlockerOS 2.5 beta for Raspi released, virtual meetings with open source team organized, malware & parental control filter licensed, website features optimized, first press releases were published.
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Q3: Complex problems with "white cubes" upgrade solved, eBlockerOS 2.5 beta for white cubes released, HTTP monitoring released, eBlogger blog (from eBlocker.com) migrated, DuckDuckGo tracker filter for eBlockerOS released.
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Q4: Final Release eBlockerOS 2.5 for all devices released, new forum features integrated and much more we report under "Current Developments".
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Along the way, we administer the website with weekly updates, answer questions in the forum, continuously improve the IT infrastructure, handle the accounting and take care of the team coordination with monthly meetings. At the same time, we publish monthly newsletters, conduct press interviews, and seek grants, sponsors, and donations.
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We do all of this on a volunteer basis and out of passion for privacy protection!
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Unfortunately, our passion does not pay for the operating costs and we depend on your donations. Currently, only about 40% of the costs for Q4 are covered and if no Christmas miracle happens, it will become very difficult to continue the operation. Every support helps to continue offering eBlocker free of charge to everyone and it would be great if you'd support our mission.
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An important note, because we get the question frequently: Even if we can't cover the operating costs in the future, your eBlocker will of course continue to work. However, you would need to look for your own filter lists, because we cannot pay the costs for licenses and server operation out of our pocket.
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Current Developments
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Raspberry Pi 3 "freeze" problem
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We have invested a lot of time in a bug in eBlockerOS 2.5.8, which only shows up on the Raspberry Pi 3 and causes it to freeze sporadically. Our investigations have shown that the bug is in the current Linux operating system, because it can be reproduced without the eBlocker software. Since we cannot fix this bug ourselves, we reported it to raspberrypi.org and recommend not to use the Raspi 3 for eBlockerOS at the moment. As soon as we have any news about this, we will share them in the forum.
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Among other things, the next release will significantly improve the compatibility of apps with HTTPS/SSL, integrate the DuckDuckGo as well as the cookie banner blocker lists, the memory handling will be improved and first approaches to "element hiding" will be implemented. You can follow the implementation status of eBlockerOS 2.6 on github at any time.
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First feature sponsor won (Yippie!!)
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We are very happy about the commitment of the German insurance DEVK Versicherungen to our mission. In particular, DEVK supports our parental control features and sponsors the new "Personal Device Firewall" feature. Thanks to their help, we expect to be able to implement the ability to analyze and individually block connections of each internet device in Q1 2021. This will give you full control over all communication - including communication from IoT devices. We thank them very much for their trustful support and look forward to this feature with all our users.
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We would like to develop more new features for eBlocker and faster. Especially the IPv6 implementation is wanted by many, and hiding all ads and banners is on the roadmap. However, with the current donations we can hardly cover the operating costs, not to mention hiring freelancers to implement these features full time - and thus in a shorter time. Therefore, we are looking for sponsors who would like to support a feature and thus underline their commitment to privacy and parental control. Interested? Feel free to contact us: partner@eBlocker.org
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Last but not least: Improved support
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In November we "finally" finished importing the existing support documents, FAQs and knowledge base into a new support system. Now there is an instant help with comfortable search and better structure. Many documents still need to be revised, but the "quantum leap" in user comfort is already so great that we are releasing the "Instant Help" for beta testing starting today. If you would like to support us in updating the documentation, we would be very happy to hear from you: voluntary@eblocker.org
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Thank you, dear community
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Finally we would like to thank everyone who helped us to develop eBlocker in such a fantastic way. First and foremost, we would like to thank our great international team of volunteers, all donors - especially the permanent and big-dollar donors(!) - as well as the journalists and users who have covered eBlocker.
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Thanks also to all of you who are "just happy" to use eBlocker and spread the word. Because at the end of the day, word-of-mouth also helps to establish our model of free high-end software in the long run.
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We passionately continue our mission for a free internet without data collectors in 2021 and look forward to the developments together.
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Stay healthy, have a great holiday and a good start into the new year!
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Boris, Christian & the whole eBlocker team
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PS: If you donate in 2020 we will get 3% more to cover the costs, because next year the German VAT will be increased again.
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--
eBlocker Open Source UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Hudtwalckertwiete 10
22299 Hamburg
Germany
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office@eBlocker.org
www.eBlocker.org
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Geschäftsführer/General Manager:
Dipl.-Math. Christian Bennefeld
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Sitz/Registered office: Hamburg
Register: Amtsgericht Hamburg, HRB 160491
Steuernr./TaxID: 49 / 717 / 02295
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