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Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

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Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#51

Post by mintplant »

TylerE wrote: post #30
rubyn00bie wrote: post #20

This is literally, one among many reasons (ha!), why I use Firefox. Every other browser vendor is a for-profit entity, and as such will limit good ad-blocking measures as Safari and Chrome have done recently with their new "security" policies. This is also why I don't use a VPN I don't run (or certainly not one that hasn't been audited with a good reputation), and I certainly would never fucking dream of using a free…

Mozilla is a for profit entity with some history of selling out their users (Remember Pocket). The Mozilla foundation is a non-profit. The Mozilla Corporation is a for-profit entity with hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

The Mozilla Corporation is wholly owned by the Mozilla Foundation and bound by its charter. The split structure is an artifact of corpotations being better-understood legal entities than foundations, and thus easier to deal with in various situations (hiring, contracts, etc). See also the Signal Foundation and Signal Messenger, LLC.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#52

Post by tyfon »

283627283637 wrote: post #44
rubyn00bie wrote: post #20

This is literally, one among many reasons (ha!), why I use Firefox. Every other browser vendor is a for-profit entity, and as such will limit good ad-blocking measures as Safari and Chrome have done recently with their new "security" policies. This is also why I don't use a VPN I don't run (or certainly not one that hasn't been audited with a good reputation), and I certainly would never fucking dream of using a free…

Firefox is like that really ugly flower that blooms once every hundred years, they leapfrog the competition briefly and then eventually degrade back to being crap for regular users. I'm aware of the technical politics around what causes this but that only really matters for people who choose browsers based on cyber politics. Quantum was good for six months, now we're back to the same situation where almost everyone o…

I install firefox + ublock origin + https everywhere whenever I can weather it's friends, family or colleagues. After a bit of explanation they usually understand the matter. It's all about user education.

I have had zero "relapses" back to safari or chrome so far, they all seem to like browsing without ads and tracking.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#53

Post by etaioinshrdlu »

Haha, I quietly called them out few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17823292

Their CEO is one shady dude. Evasive. Knew his company was sitting on a shady foundation and just kept it going.

Large companies buy Sensor Tower's data.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#55

Post by Krasnol »

risyachka wrote: post #29

Sensor tower is a mobile intelligence tool. Correct me if I am missing something, but what is a big deal here? And when you use free apps, obviously they sell your data (or with a high chance), they are not charities. But in return, you get hassle-free ad-blocking or VPN. It looks like a fair deal to me. Or you can find a good one that will be expensive, or do it yourself (paying the same or more, just with your time…

How about the huge difference of knowing that you give away your data and not knowing? There is nothing "fair" about it and just the fact that they are now gone from the stores should...I don't know...maybe make you think about that a bit?

PS: just because there are worse situations, doesn't make this a good one.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#56

Post by testuser66 »

ComodoHacker wrote: post #50
283627283637 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is like that really ugly flower that blooms once every hundred years, they leapfrog the competition briefly and then eventually degrade back to being crap for regular users. I'm aware of the technical politics around what causes this but that only really matters for people who choose browsers based on cyber politics. Quantum was good for six months, now we're back to the same situation where almost everyone o…

>Quantum was good for six months, now we're back to the same situation where almost everyone outside the tech bubble is using Chrome. Did Quantum became worse or you're basically saying Mozilla is bad at marketing (and having huge vertically integrated ecosystem)?

It's hard to move browsers permanently if you're not prepared. I moved to FF Quantom for a bit, but had to regularly open Chrome to get passwords etc. And the Chrome assholes removed the password export (or at least I could not for the life of me get it to work at the time)

I ended up going back for a bit and added a password manager, and now I can move between browsers easily - but as I said, it's not always straightforward, especially for _most_ non-tech users.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#57

Post by 3xblah »

cortesoft wrote: post #12
saagarjha wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It should be entirely possible to run the MITM proxy completely on-device, in which case you don't need to trust anything.

How do you block the app from phoning home with the data? You have to trust it not to do that.

I use two devices. The first runs a kernel+userland I can edit and acts as the gateway/AP and DNS server for the second, which runs some commercially-motivated, "locked-down" consumer OS.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#58

Post by yummypaint »

tyfon wrote: post #52
283627283637 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Firefox is like that really ugly flower that blooms once every hundred years, they leapfrog the competition briefly and then eventually degrade back to being crap for regular users. I'm aware of the technical politics around what causes this but that only really matters for people who choose browsers based on cyber politics. Quantum was good for six months, now we're back to the same situation where almost everyone o…

I install firefox + ublock origin + https everywhere whenever I can weather it's friends, family or colleagues. After a bit of explanation they usually understand the matter. It's all about user education. I have had zero "relapses" back to safari or chrome so far, they all seem to like browsing without ads and tracking.

Indeed. It only takes about 45 seconds to remove almost all ads from someone's online experience. Not getting ads on youtube is by itself a game changer for alot of people. Many people happily pay for blessings from monks and priests that take about the same time, except this actually improves lives in a concrete way and is free. Spread the gospel of FOSS

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#59

Post by TeMPOraL »

etaioinshrdlu wrote: post #53

Haha, I quietly called them out few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17823292 Their CEO is one shady dude. Evasive. Knew his company was sitting on a shady foundation and just kept it going. Large companies buy Sensor Tower's data.

Come to think of it, isn't the name pretty revealing? You don't build a sensor tower to block and hide information, you build one to collect data.

Re: Sensor Tower owns ad blocker and VPN apps that collect user data

#60

Post by risyachka »

Krasnol wrote: post #55
risyachka wrote: post #29

Sensor tower is a mobile intelligence tool. Correct me if I am missing something, but what is a big deal here? And when you use free apps, obviously they sell your data (or with a high chance), they are not charities. But in return, you get hassle-free ad-blocking or VPN. It looks like a fair deal to me. Or you can find a good one that will be expensive, or do it yourself (paying the same or more, just with your time…

How about the huge difference of knowing that you give away your data and not knowing? There is nothing "fair" about it and just the fact that they are now gone from the stores should...I don't know...maybe make you think about that a bit? PS: just because there are worse situations, doesn't make this a good one.

I meant general practice done legally, e.g. stating this in their policy and showing when you run the app for the first time that it will sell their not personal data in exchange for free service.

The concept is fair as some are willing to pay with money, some are ok to pay with their data. Hiding the fact that you will sell data obviously deserves the punishment.

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