01_data

Data Directory

This directory contains the processed datasets and browser extensions used in the study.

Datasets (RDS Files)

File	Description	Rows	Used In
blocker_effectiveness_df.rds	Main dataset - Ad/tracker blocking metrics per website and browser instance	9,000	All main analyses
blocker_effectiveness_unavg_df.rds	Unaggregated version (individual run data)	~45,000	Robustness checks
blocker_effectiveness_firefox_df.rds	Firefox browser comparison data	-	Firefox comparison
blocker_effectiveness_firefox_html_trackers_unavg_df.rds	Firefox HTML tracker data (unaggregated)	-	Firefox analysis
blocker_effectiveness_early_mv3_unavg_df.rds	Early MV3 transition data	-	Temporal analysis
blocker_effectiveness_strat_tranco_rank_df.rds	Stratified by Tranco website rank	-	Robustness checks
blocker_effectiveness_strat_employee_df.rds	Stratified by company employee count	-	Robustness checks
ads_trackers_dt.rds	Raw ads and trackers data table	-	Data processing
ads_validation_df.rds	Validation dataset for ad detection	-	Validation
runs_stats_df.rds	Crawling run statistics (timing, etc.)	50	Section 3 (Methods)
top_1000_websites_tranco.rds	Tranco Top 1000 website list	1,000	Sample description

Main Dataset Schema (blocker_effectiveness_df.rds)

Variable	Type	Description
cleaned_domain	character	Website domain (e.g., "google.com")
instance_blocker	factor	Ad blocker name with version (e.g., "Adblock Plus MV2")
instance_group_blocker	factor	Manifest version group: "MV2", "MV3", or "MV3+"
avg_blocked_ads	numeric	Average number of blocked ads (across 5 runs)
avg_blocked_trackers	numeric	Average number of blocked trackers (across 5 runs)
ad_blocker_name	character	Ad blocker name without version

Other Input Files

File	Description
01_table.xlsx	Ad blocker overview (Table 1 in paper)
02_table.xlsx	Additional table data
03_table.xlsx	Validation data
top_1000_websites_tranco.csv	Original CSV from Tranco list

Browser Extensions

The extensions/ directory contains the exact versions of ad blockers used in the experiment:

Ad Blockers (MV2 vs MV3 pairs)

Ad Blocker	MV2 Version	MV3 Version
Adblock Plus	adblock_plus_free_ad_blocker_3.25.1_MV2	adblock_plus_free_ad_blocker_4.5.1_MV3
AdGuard	adguard_adblocker_MV2	adguard_adblocker_mv3_beta_MV3
Stands	stands_adblocker_MV2	fair_adblocker_mv3_beta_MV3
uBlock Origin	ublock_origin_MV2	ublock_origin_lite_MV3

Helper Extensions

Extension	Purpose
http-recorder	Records HTTP requests for analysis
super_agent / super_agent_mv3	Cookie consent automation
azerion	Additional helper functionality

Loading Data in R

# Load main dataset
library(readr)
blocker_effectiveness_df <- read_rds("01_data/blocker_effectiveness_df.rds")

# View structure
str(blocker_effectiveness_df)
head(blocker_effectiveness_df)

# Basic stats
nrow(blocker_effectiveness_df)  # 9,000 rows
length(unique(blocker_effectiveness_df$cleaned_domain))  # 1,000 websites
length(unique(blocker_effectiveness_df$instance_blocker))  # 9 browser configs