Concepts
☝️ If DataUnlocker were predictable, it would be preventable too!
As you can guess, ad block & antitracking community will try to prevent tracking by constantly (manually or automatically) monitoring changes on different websites of Internet. This especially concerns to well-known websites. Hence the static (one-time) DataUnlocker installation won't be able to last long and traffic can start being blocked soon again.
Luckily, DataUnlocker offers a dynamic setup with the use of so-called automatic installation refresh. Once integrated with your website or web application, it ensures your DataUnlocker installation (a script and a proxy endpoint) can be automatically updated once either of those appear in the URL or content filtering lists. This leaves no chance for adblock community to find and block DataUnlocker as any observable patterns would be immediately changed once blocked.
Automation pipelines
DataUnlocker offers so-called automation pipelines to automate certain tasks, such as refreshing DataUnlocker's installation, when for instance the used proxy endpoint appears in the URL filtering lists.
The pipeline consists of multiple steps. Some of these steps like webhooks have to be configured before the pipeline is started, which you can do by clicking on the step. When you first visit the automation menu of the DataUnlocker's property, you will see this:
Click on the "Changes required" items to fill the required data for webhooks. Please also check other steps; their configuration is also important to make a flawless setup.
After running a few pipelines, you will see the pipeline run history just above the pipeline itself. You can click on the previously ran pipelines to inspect their results.
How automation works
DataUnlocker consists of 2 main parts:
- A proxy endpoint which is used to deliver blocked requests to their destination.
- DataUnlocker's script, which is injected to the website's HTML code.
They technically allow Google Analytics and other trackers to continue doing their job despite installed ad blocking software. What ad blocker community can do to prevent DataUnlocker from working is:
- Blacklist the proxy endpoint used by the script or
- Find patterns in DataUnlocker's script which will neutralize it
DataUnlocker sends notifications to the property owners regarding making any necessary actions, including replacing blacklisted proxy endpoints. But it can be covered by just an automatic installation refresh, which is triggered when the proxy endpoint finally lands in the content filtering lists, which are scanned regularly by DataUnlocker. This pipeline will:
- Change the blacklisted proxy endpoint and
- Replace DataUnlocker's script with the new one, which changes any observable patterns in the script too.
DataUnlocker's customers just need to implement a few webhooks in their infrastructure to get things working. Learn how to do it in automatic installation refresh overview.