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Welcome to the ad-free internet

economist.com

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Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#241

Post by loughnane »

ActionHank wrote: post #231
loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

Missing some Invidious and Yattee for youtube there friend. Adfree and crowd-sourced sponsor segment skipping is a glorious experience.

Forgot to mention, I've got an invidious instance set up too. I also make much use of yt-dlp. Also miniflux for rss, a remarkable tablet w/ rmfakecloud for my ebooks, and prob some more stuff.

On the YT side it feels good paying a few bucks a month for each channel i like and getting to skip the ads. I hope that picks up. I don't like paying for YT premium because then my identity is tied to my watch history.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#242

Post by Qwertious »

kmlx wrote: post #172
Gareth321 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're allowed to change the offering. They're not allowed to offer you one thing, but supply another. YouTube is currently testing their legal waters. They currently offer an "ad free" experience with the subscription of Premium. Despite this, they still serve: * In-feed ads. These include ads for content prominence (preferential placement for creators), articles with link-out, ads for Google products and services…

> Once the Digital Markets Act comes into effect in the EU in a couple of months I'll be installing alternative frontends for YouTube which include SponsorBlock. this is weird. are we sure this is a thing in the EU? because the idea of having some sort of regulation forcing a private company to have their product offered by some other party raises so many issues. it's not like youtube is some sort of public good, it'…

YouTube is a monopoly and it's putting ads in its ad-free subscription. They don't get to hide behind "it's not a public good, it's a private company". Especially when they gained their monopoly status by operating at below-cost for years, preventing fair competition from even springing up in the first place.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#243

Post by ruszki »

bambax wrote: post #103
DeathArrow wrote: post #83

I benefit from ad free internet since the first ad blocker extension was made.

Same. It's a bit weird to write a whole article on ads on the Internet and not mention ad blocking once. I don't want to see ads, any ad, ever, and so far I'm succeeding, but I wonder how long this is going to last.

If you’re on any social media, then you see ads. If you use any search engine, then you see ads. There are ads even on Wikipedia. You can see them even if you use all of the adblockers.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#244

Post by [deleted] »

robertlagrant wrote: post #237
RugnirViking wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the option being discussed at that part, the meta offering, only came into existence because europe mandated that users must be able to use the full functionality of a site without tracking/personalized ads. The paid option was facebooks attempt to do that - the question is over whether a paid option follows the intent of the law. Note the mandate is not "no ads" but rather "no personalised ads"

Ah okay - that makes sense. But still - I don't understand why if one of the options is "don't use it", an option I exercise almost every day of the year, there is a legal privacy claim. This isn't a system we'd consider access/participation in it to be mandatory, like healthcare or government.

[deleted]

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#245

Post by phone8675309 »

3D30497420 wrote: post #150
zigman1 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Naive question, but when you sign up to pay for a service you are promised various functions or improvements, one of them is no-ads experience. If company then starts showing ads, isn't that breaking at least some consumer-protection laws?

I imagine it depends on what's in the terms and conditions. I expect companies structure these to provide considerable flexibility. Plus, I'd guess it also depends on how you define what constitutes an "advertisement". For example, if Amazon/Apple/Netflix puts their newest show at the top of the "Featured" list, is that an ad? What if it is related to another show you watched? What if Facebook suggests trying a new s…

> For example, if Amazon/Apple/Netflix puts their newest show at the top of the "Featured" list, is that an ad?

Yes, if you can't disable that feature. They're clearly pushing it regardless of my preferences.

> What if it is related to another show you watched?

Yes, if you can't disable that feature because they are most likely pushing the cheapest crap they can that keeps me watching.

> What if Facebook suggests trying a new shopping-related feature?

Yes, if you can't disable that feature because I can't tell if they're just trying to be helpful or steer me toward something with higher margins for their benefit.

If I can't opt out then it's an ad

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#246

Post by pixl97 »

amadeuspagel wrote: post #133
asoneth wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The challenge highlighted in the article is that adds are increasing in areas that are harder to avoid such as billboards, hotel rooms, airline seats, ride-hailing apps.

Billboards? Is that a new thing? Airline seats? First-time ryanair flyer? If you're determined to never see an ad in your entire life, that was never possible, but if you just want to spend a lot of time without seeing ads this is just as easy as ever.

"without seeing ads this is just as easy as ever."

No. It. Is. Not.

The problem is you've internally moved the goalposts on what you consider an ad, from what would have more historically been considered an ad.

Those clothes with a big nike swoosh on them, those are ads. Individuals wear ads around everywhere. Objects are covered in their own advertising. If you have any electronics on you, god only knows what metrics they are collecting. Hell, these days if you're with anyone else that has electronics there is a non-zero chance those devices are spying on and tracking you.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#247

Post by no_wizard »

loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

There is a small cottage industry of privacy focused products that do some section of the heavy lifting (adguard comes to mind, and there is a paid DNS service that essentially does what pihole does with easier configuration as well) but no "one stop shop" as of yet, and I think in part its because

- the market isn't conditioned to want these services

- awareness of their benefits aren't obvious

- Its still within the realm of the technically literate to understand its purpose

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#248

Post by austinjp »

zigman1 wrote: post #145
Prickle wrote: post #123

The 5 minute airplane ad is nightmare fuel for me. How long until they kick up the brightness to wake you up. Imagine you are stuck in the window seat, forced to watch an ad you can't turn off? I am exaggerating obviously, but I do find it egregious that they would dare show more ads when ticket prices are already extremely high.

Question. Would you be okay with being shown an add if in turns your plane ticket price is noticeably cheaper?

It won't get cheaper, the non-ad version will get more expensive.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#249

Post by travoc »

loughnane wrote: post #217

I treasure my attention and so I've spent some time to opt out of ads. 5 years ago I couldn't tell what DNS was, now I've got an OPNsense router at home running ZenArmor/Unbound and I can can link to it from my phone over wireguard. Using ublock I've made a point to prune the pages I visit, so classes like "header" "breadcrumbs" "recommended" "sponsor" &c. are hidden. I self-host my media collection so I avoid spotif…

My children are fascinated with the ads they occasionally see at their friends' homes. Due to their self-hosted media collection and prolific ad-blocking tech at home, they are rarely influenced by manipulative advertisers or inappropriate content suggestions. I consider it my duty as a good parent to keep up the fight.

Re: Welcome to the ad-free internet

#250

Post by stalfosknight »

fastest963 wrote: post #42
alex_young wrote: post #21

Ad free internet costs ~$40 one time fee. Raspberry Pi + pihole dns.

Genuinely curious what you do when a site asks you to turn off your adblocker? PiHole doesn't have an option to whitelist an individual site like an extension does. Do you just leave the site or do you temporarily turn off PiHole?

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