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uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

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Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#451

Post by wackget »

socalgal2 wrote: post #442

Wishing that Apple would add OS level AI so I could use it to hide ads in apps. It doesn't need to manipulate the app. It just needs to recognize them and black them out. Apple doesn't have to block anything directly, they can leave it to users to do so they are just respecting the user. As a simple one, the Facebook has this dark pattern where they put an unread count marker on Loops to try to get you to click it. I…

Apple will never, ever add anything even close to that kind of functionality. This is a company which took SEVENTEEN YEARS before it allowed iPhone users to have gaps between app icons on their home screens.

If you have ANY hope of Apple letting you have enough control over your device to visually block ads in apps then you are stratospherically shit outta luck.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#452

Post by Yaa101 »

joshuat wrote: post #438
ajkjk wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping we can mostly ban ads in my lifetime (on the basis that companies should not be allowed to freely try to manipulate unconsenting strangers. and that it makes the world suck to live in and we don't have to put up with that). Nothing would make me happier honestly.

This would also mean a lot of currently "free" services becoming paid in some other fashion, which I think people would be equally up-in-arms about. I'm no fan of ads and I am willing to pay for services I use to avoid seeing them - but I've learned over recent years that most people simply do not agree with that premise.

And the paid services that at some point do show ads?

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#453

Post by alex1138 »

joshuat wrote: post #443
beloch wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where Facebook has gone, I fear other U.S. social media is headed. Reddit recently blocked access to old.reddit.com for users who are not logged in, which suggests they're doubling down on user tracking. On top of that are the increasing privacy, censorship, and disinformation concerns that come with using any U.S.-based social media. There is clearly a need for facebook/reddit alternatives for useful groups like the…

I find the fall of Reddit to be particularly upsetting. In its prime it was one of the best social networks I'd ever used and I found incredible value in it - but after having my app blown up by their API changes and the continued (unsurprising) push away from their old open platform to a more "curated" experience, it doesn't feel like the same place anymore.

I want someone to actually smack Steve Huffman. Not hard, but enough to get through the veneer of We Take Your Feedback Very Seriously And-

No. Enough. The community is fucking screaming at you

Someone that loves their users does not fire the mods in response to API change protest. And censorship galore, and too much power concentrated in the mods and site

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#454

Post by kdksjxjwjd »

amelius wrote: post #283
dudhsudhd wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see how presenting an image would allow you to interact with the page, especially if all you are doing is modify the image you’re presenting, not the page itself.

Think of it as looking at your screen through AR goggles, where the goggles modify the image before it reaches your eyes. Everything happens at the image level so there's no way Meta can obfuscate the DOM to make ads pass through.

So the ads are still served, just… hidden. Self-defeating, no?

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#455

Post by frollogaston »

jimrandomh wrote: post #282

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

I'm like this with YouTube. It's fair that they don't want me blocking ads and will try their best to prevent it. If they ever succeed, I'll leave without complaint. Already never use it on my phone cause adblocking is annoying on there.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#456

Post by [deleted] »

aanet wrote: post #218

Controversial opinion: This entire thread reads like a game of cat-and-mouse. People trying to block intrusive ads, and FB reaching into the depths of code and making it nearly impossible for anyone to do so en masse. I've been there. Tried to uncheck all the boxes on their ad platform; used all manners of ad blockers, etc; used incognito mode; used Tor; etc. etc. etc. At some point, you realize that the only way to…

[deleted]

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#458

Post by phoghed »

frollogaston wrote: post #455
jimrandomh wrote: post #282

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

I'm like this with YouTube. It's fair that they don't want me blocking ads and will try their best to prevent it. If they ever succeed, I'll leave without complaint. Already never use it on my phone cause adblocking is annoying on there.

I just pay them a pittance in exchange for no ads for the whole family across all devices.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#459

Post by RajT88 »

tshaddox wrote: post #321
jimrandomh wrote: post #282

Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

> Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. Surely a better way to think of this is that a person's AI agent will simply find, via whatever means necessary, the information that the person is interested in. It's hard to imagine the person will still be operating on the old "pull"…

Hate all you want. This is the level of Microsoft Scout at the moment.

I tell it what sites to go to, and the information I am interested it, and it grabs it using Playwright.

I am hoping I can get a self-host option working as well as this.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#460

Post by [deleted] »

beloch wrote: post #335
dofm wrote: post #310

This is the correct decision, IMO. I only use Facebook in a limited capacity (one phenomenal private group whose usefulness is unfortunately simply unmatched elsewhere, one infrequently updated page and a very locked-down, minimal personal profile). I think people need to understand what the purpose of Facebook is in terms of its function and constituent parts, in the Stafford Beer sense, and I think if enough people…

Where Facebook has gone, I fear other U.S. social media is headed. Reddit recently blocked access to old.reddit.com for users who are not logged in, which suggests they're doubling down on user tracking. On top of that are the increasing privacy, censorship, and disinformation concerns that come with using any U.S.-based social media. There is clearly a need for facebook/reddit alternatives for useful groups like the…

[deleted]
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