this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2023
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Privacy

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Alt text: a screenshot of an article that is over 90% covered by ads.

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[–] [email protected] 55 points 1 year ago

I'm sorry to inform you that there might be some content leaking through your ads.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Browsing the internet on mobile devices has gotten so bad in the last few years. It's all but guaranteed that at least quarter of the space on any website is going to be taken up by floating ads that don't move as you scroll. Some of them it's over half. I cannot understand how normal folks navigate the web without adblockers.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yo, after I switched to Firefox, I realized its mobile app offers ad blocking add-ons for mobile. Holy shit was that a dealmaker for me. I actually want to browse the web on my phone again.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

uBlock Origin is very powerful thing. It can remove link tracking (I posted links before if you're interested); it can remove parts of site; it can change JavaScript and its response. Basically, everything is possible.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Do I still need the "I still don't care about cookies" extension if I add the filter list?

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

I was trying to learn c++ there was this really great and free site. I decided to turn ads on for them since everything was high quality and free.

There were a few ads that played, but they changed every few minutes. The ads were not the same width, so they they changed they pushed the text around.

So in the middle of reading all the text would jump around and make you lose your place.

It basically made their site completely unusable.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The intrusiveness of ads is bad, but the fact that code I don't want and didn't explicitly authorize is running on my machine is a massive security hole. Not too long ago hackers infiltrated the ad networks of major newspapers and replaced the ads with propaganda.

We have no idea how many times exploit code has been put on these ad servers. And we're just supposed to trust a bunch of sysadmins to make sure the javascript that lets them track us hasn't been replaced with something nefarious?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

For me the tipping point was when ads started becoming malicious. As long as ads are not static and are being served by unaudited and unregulated third parties, they have no home on my browser. I feel bad about it because I understand that some independent sites legitimately need the revenue but unless they provide information about how they vet their ad providers or they only serve static ads, I’m going to block them.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I realize you're not asking for help, but this person needs uBlock Origin or something similar to block the entire element, not just the ad content...

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Good VPNs have adblockers.

Everyone on the Internet should have one now. Also a password generator.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

[object Object]

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I wonder how Firefox's new reader toggle would handle this. It basically strips things down to the core textual content of the page.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

Works pretty well. Reader Mode is great at unfucking user-hostile site designs like this.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

God bless Firefox reader mode.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

ads were a terrible monetization strategy from the start. I've never felt bad about adblocking, if you require payment for upkeep offer me a subscription service.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

Is that a joke im too desktop PC to understand?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Due to garbage like this I started using NextDNS, though I still feel bad about ad blocking.

I wanted to use HDMI capture card with my phone, and it only worked with one app. An app that displayed ads over the content.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Have you tried AdAway it can block ads in apps

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That uses local VPN mode which would not allow me to use Proton VPN.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If you dont mind me asking - how would root improve this Situation? (I've got little to non knowledge about rooting)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Besides it being more effective at blocking ads and trackers it won't require a VPN connection to work

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This, you don't have to even run a program. Every phone uses the host file all day all the time anyway, you're just telling it to load nothing instead of usual behavior of "no it's not hosted here, go get it online" you're just saying "no, don't go get it, it's hosted here" except it's not, so it isn't retrieved at all.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It would give you access to the host file Before anything connects to the internet, it checks the host file to see if the address is already located there. (Why download it again if it's already stored locally?) So one can use the host file to list all the ad networks you done like and POOF all those ads are gone (unless you're actually hosting them from your phone, but you're not so it will return null)

The problem is, the host file is a system file you can't access without root access. Try it on your home pc 🖥 https://winhelp2002.mvps.org/hosts.htm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Proton VPN does have tracking and ad blocking integrated, not sure how good it workes as i usually use my pihole

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

What do you mean? I'm just excited to learn more about Fehirliff

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I AdBlock per-site, everything white listed by default

This bullshit would be an definite enable-adblock