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Ads chew through half of mobile data

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Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#32

A lot of web pages only work for me on my iPhone if I use reader mode. Otherwise, the page keeps resetting over and over again. Firefox, but I assume Safari is probably the same, since Apple mandates they all be based on WebKit.

Same for me with Firefox, every video and ad coated site basically. iPhone 12 Mini

Tbh it's probably been a net positive, I just instantly bail after the first refresh

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#34

I'm using DNS66 on Android to block ads at the DNS level. I wouldn't browse on mobile without it.

Same, with NextDNS. I used to deal with rooting and Magisk to use a hosts file based approach (Adaware) but as Android has become more locked down, DNS blocking has become the much less invasive solution.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#35
Ads are ok if they’re fixated on a page and aren’t intrusive but holy crap, some sites just takes to other sites when you click something and then when you come back it’s not the same page so you got to go back again and the cycle resets. I can’t imagine places where internet is super expensive and you deal with daily

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saving the article text locally and gzipping it (which lacks html tags, but should be approximately right), it's ~1.5 kB. So 2kB for the article and say 5kB for a cacheable site-wide template is what things "ought" to be. My 1GB mobile data plan should be enough to read at least 10s of thousands of pages in a month. Instead at 60MB, I could read... 16. Naturally I never use mobile data, and my only real use for a pho…

I’m due for a new phone and I’m strongly considering going to a dumb phone with a tablet around the house for browsing. I can carry a Kindle or something to kill time waiting for a train.

Question for the thread*: are we at a point where we build apps that chew through ad/user data, but put ourselves in a position to not have our data chewed on?

*Mostly asking because I have come across this sentiment before, not because I think op(s) are engaged in this

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#38
AFAIK, a lot of mobile ad blockers work by proxying your traffic through their servers.

There may be more, but the only one I know works totally local is Firefox Focus.

You can install it, set it as the ad blocker for iOS Safari and never actually use it as a browser.

It’s not 100.0% effective. But, it makes a big difference with minimal hassle.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#39

A lot of web pages only work for me on my iPhone if I use reader mode. Otherwise, the page keeps resetting over and over again. Firefox, but I assume Safari is probably the same, since Apple mandates they all be based on WebKit.

You can try adguard on iOS. It’s an app that you buy as an extension for safari but the block lists are very good and you can enable DoH systemwide as well.

Re: Ads chew through half of mobile data

#40

A lot of web pages only work for me on my iPhone if I use reader mode. Otherwise, the page keeps resetting over and over again. Firefox, but I assume Safari is probably the same, since Apple mandates they all be based on WebKit.

You can try adguard on iOS. It’s an app that you buy as an extension for safari but the block lists are very good and you can enable DoH systemwide as well.

I was trying to figure out why this doesn’t happen to me, and it’s probably AdGuard. Highly recommended.
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