201–210 of 445 posts
Sure, but ad-blockers are also basically adware that scans through the entirety of all websites you visit. Very similar snooping to custom keyboards etc...
Er, not as a group they aren't. Like, I'm sure there are bad adblockers, but if you stick with uBlock Origin you'll be fine.
It is infuriating that Google seems to be doing nothing about scam ads. For years I have been seeing "Click to install iPhone update!!!" ads on YouTube mobile. Easy to have huge profit margins when your company hires no humans to do things like customer support and ad vetting.
The big "DOWNLOAD NOW" ads placed on webpages for software downloads are pretty bad too. Whenever I'm setting up a fresh windows machine I haven't grabbed an adblocker yet and am not used to seeing ads so they get me every now and then.
Lately, I find myself using more and more plugins to make the "modern web" tolerable. To list a few:
Channel Blocker (lets me block channels from search results on Youtube); uBlock Origin; Disconnect; F.B Purity; Consent-O-Matic (auto fill cookie consent forms); Kagi Search; PopUpOFF; Facebook Container; Privacy Badger; ClearURLs; Return YouTube Dislike
Basically, if I visit a website and don't like the experience, I either never go back (Kagi lets me exclude it from search results) or find a plugin to make it tolerable.
What I really want now is the ability to exclude entire websites from any permissions I grant to plugins. I feel like in the last year, I've read a couple stories about companies buying successful plugins and then using them to track you or show ads or whatever. I'm worried this will be the next stage in the battle for our attention -- best case: companies will buy popular plugins to track us and show us intrusive ads; worst case: nefarious actors will buy them to scrape information we think is private and collect it.
IE: I just want to be able to say "Hey, Firefox... those permissions that I granted to plugins x, y, and z? They don't apply to www.myfavoritebank.example.com"
Is there a browser that has that feature yet? I spent a few hours trying to figure out if Firefox did. It did not appear to.
edit: Added semicolons to separate plugins in list b/c HN stripped the newlines from my comment.
Is it time for an open source adblocker that only blocks bad actors? I am perfectly fine with ads, I've previously run sites where it was a small source of income myself. I know it would be in a cat and mouse game with the bad guys but if it blocked most of them it would certainly help a lot of people.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Safari on iOS does allow extensions. It also is a “real” browser, whatever that means. iOS does not, however, allow _alternate rendering engines_, which is different.
Acting like you don't know what a real browser means in this context just so you can be mock offended. Oh you Apple users.
Make ad brokers share responsibility for losses due to scam ads. If the ad broker is unable to clearly identify the advertiser for lawsuit purposes, the ad broker should face consequences. They're assisting the criminal by helping them hide.
Maybe I’m naive here, but aren’t the vast majority of ads brokered by Meta and Google these days? Am I thinking too high level?
Similarly to all the stories (with two currently in the front page of HN, eBay and PayPal) about algorithms that are just insufficient for the range of realistic scenarios these companies must deal with on a regular basis.
It's merely the equation of profit outweighing customer service. Admittedly, they're working on a scale that's difficult to comprehend, but that shouldn't absolve them of aiding and abetting criminal use of their systems.
Google's and Meta's profit motives are the base cause of this continuing escalation of the ubiquity and user-hostility (to put it mildly) of internet advertising.
It's only been predictable for the last 20 years...
https://youtu.be/YlGklt4BSQ8 (first aired in March 2000)
https://youtu.be/XPGgTy5YJ-g (April 1999)
Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions to take?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are correct ads have become popups of late 90s. Yet, very few browsers do, as most of them depend directly or indirectly on ad revenue. AFAIK only Orion browser [1] comes with full 1st party and 3rd party ad and tracker blocking, by default. [1] https://browser.kagi.com
Brave browser is literally built to block ads.
Does anyone have any adblockers they recommend that still show "safe" ads (e.g. non-malware) by default, without having to whitelist every site? I'd be open to the security benefits of an adblocker if I could still passively support all the sites I visit. Edit: changed "good" to "safe" for clarity
The only "good" ads are those you have to specifically go out of your way to view because you want to view them; such as product catalogues. All other ads are physiological assault and should be made illegal. Particularly those ads which exist "IRL" and can't otherwise be blocked, such as billboards.
It is infuriating that Google seems to be doing nothing about scam ads. For years I have been seeing "Click to install iPhone update!!!" ads on YouTube mobile. Easy to have huge profit margins when your company hires no humans to do things like customer support and ad vetting.
It's gross.