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Block Ads in Apps on Android

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Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#131

Post by michaelmrose »

dfxm12 wrote: post #118
michaelmrose wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the web, browser based blocking still makes more sense. If I have 2 tabs one which works with adblock and one which does not I can simply click an icon to enable ads on the one. Changing networks seems like a pain in the neck.

I think pihole makes it reasonably easy to disable for some amount of time or until you switch it back on. I know "reasonable" has different meanings to different people though. For example, I don't think changing networks is a pain in the neck. It's just 3 clicks on my android phone or 2 on Windows 10. This is compared to 3 clicks to turn off a browser based ad blocker.

I don't think this is a reasonable analysis.

It takes 3 clicks to disable adblocking for a particular site once ever. Click icon at top of window, click disable, click reload. This takes aprox 2 seconds once ever for each site. If you regularly use 7 sites that are annoying in this fashion you have invested 14 seconds.

By contrast lets discuss switching networks one of which uses dns to filter out ads. If you use one of these 7 sites 3 times per week you will incur a 6 second cost not just to click but to actually authenticate and start receiving data from the new net. That is 468 times in 3 years. This means that while I spent 14 seconds you spent 47 minutes.

This is on top of the 60 minutes you spent figuring out the complex solution that only works on your local network buying hardware, configuring hardware.

On net you will ultimately invest over 400x the time for a worse solution.

Using a solution that relies on a custom vpn is stupid in that it prevents you from using an actual vpn to increase your privacy.

Using custom dns even if there is an easy escape hatch to disable/enable it relatively quickly is STILL a global solution which implicitly requires turning it on and off manually and incurring a small time cost per operation.

In conclusion addressing ads via dns/routers wherein you intend to view some content that requires selectively disabling said feature is a complex and grossly ineffective solution. To avoid ads in apps don't install apps with ads. Browser addons remain the obvious choice. If your mobile platform doesn't allow someone to release such software for your platform use a different mobile platform. Namely ditch IOS for this and other reasons.

Solve fewer non problems.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#132

Post by sizzle »

I've been using blokada on Android and it's been a joy honestly, life without obtrusive ads taking up precious mobile screen real estate is hard to live without. When I use my partners phone it's like a carnival with all the flashy ads trying to get my attention. Good riddance.

https://blokada.org

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#133

Post by blacksmith_tb »

4mitkumar wrote: post #59
cheald wrote: post #46

On Android 9, you can do this even more easily: Settings -> Network & Internet -> Advanced -> Private DNS -> set provider hostname to "dns.adguard.com" Adguard functionally operates similar to a Pihole install - it just maintains a DNS-based blacklist. You give them your DNS queries, of course, but in return you get an almost entirely ad-free experience with just one setting.

I wasted almost an hour trying unsuccessfully to book a cab using Uber yesterday only to realise it was 1.1.1.1 in my Private DNS which was the problem. I had internet access just fine (browsers) but Signal, Google Maps, Uber and Ola just wouldn't work with 1.1.1.1. Haven't gotten around to think about the reason

Do you have similar issues with 1.0.0.1? It seems safer for me.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#134

Post by vvanders »

michaelmrose wrote: post #131
dfxm12 wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think pihole makes it reasonably easy to disable for some amount of time or until you switch it back on. I know "reasonable" has different meanings to different people though. For example, I don't think changing networks is a pain in the neck. It's just 3 clicks on my android phone or 2 on Windows 10. This is compared to 3 clicks to turn off a browser based ad blocker.

I don't think this is a reasonable analysis. It takes 3 clicks to disable adblocking for a particular site once ever. Click icon at top of window, click disable, click reload. This takes aprox 2 seconds once ever for each site. If you regularly use 7 sites that are annoying in this fashion you have invested 14 seconds. By contrast lets discuss switching networks one of which uses dns to filter out ads. If you use one…

> If you regularly use 7 sites that are annoying in this fashion...

I've had one false positive across a year of using pi-hole, so this is a non-issue.

If you want to use an adblocker by all means go ahead, just don't go dumping all over everyone else because your usage doesn't line up with other people's.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#135

Post by on_and_off »

Forbo wrote: post #103
on_and_off wrote: post #99

>It's important that free apps continue to be made, and app developers need money to go on doing what they do. So if you can't stand ads in your apps, try to support them in another way, by making a donation or paying a few bucks for the full version of their app. It feels more than a little disingenuous to post that at the end of a post explaining how to cut the revenue source of devs. If you don't want ads, how abo…

Because paying for something doesn't necessarily mean that they won't continue to use your information in the surveillance economy. You might not see ads anymore, but that doesn't mean that they're respecting your privacy.

That's 2 different topics though.

Cutting ads does not also cut analytics frameworks.

I wonder at which point apps will just start to bury analytics in their API calls and serve ads with their main payloads

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#136

Post by jjakque »

citiguy wrote: post #53
jonwinstanley wrote: post #15

So you're sending ALL your internet traffic through a VPN, that you know nothing about? Sounds like the craziest idea I've ever heard. Who owns the VPN? What are they doing with your data?

I have a pi-hole running on a Digital Ocean Droplet and have a secure vpn to that. Both run out of docker containers, so theoretically they could run anywhere. It works great and only costs me $5/month. No ads anymore either, and I figure DO probably doesn't care too much about my web traffic - though maybe I'm wrong on that. The only thing that is slightly annoying is that the iPhone seems to drop the VPN from time…

> The only thing that is slightly annoying is that the iPhone seems to drop the VPN from time to time. If only there was a way to work that out....

I recall NordVPN on iOS used to do that and I took it as a norm. Perhaps a year ago after few iOS and apps, I noticed that not only the time takes for connecting dropped, the drop rate also decreased a lot.

Not directly answer the question, but this made me think that there is a way...

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#137

Post by guilhas »

pimeys wrote: post #82
Fnoord wrote: post #12

I'm using Pi-Hole on an Ubiquiti router together with WireGuard and DNSSEC. My Synology NAS is backup (with regards to the DNS-based Pi-Hole blocking) taking the adblocking load off the router (there's no redundancy for WireGuard endpoint though). I don't (need) to use a RPi anymore. It works extremely well for me, and all my clients also get to connect to Nextcloud running on the Synology. My setup does far more tha…

I'm using Pi-Hole in a lxc-container on a Omnia Turris router, blokada for my Android phone with uBlock Origin, Firefox with uBlock Origin on every computer I own and the router encrypts all traffic with WireGuard to several different endpoints for the whole network. Having a bit too slow uplink to connect to the internal network from outside. It starts to be really easy to setup all of this so that it just works.

That router looks interesting

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#138

Post by nvr219 »

Fnoord wrote: post #12

I'm using Pi-Hole on an Ubiquiti router together with WireGuard and DNSSEC. My Synology NAS is backup (with regards to the DNS-based Pi-Hole blocking) taking the adblocking load off the router (there's no redundancy for WireGuard endpoint though). I don't (need) to use a RPi anymore. It works extremely well for me, and all my clients also get to connect to Nextcloud running on the Synology. My setup does far more tha…

Your solution is 100 times too complicated for the people who need the most protection online.

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#139

Post by czottmann »

jheuel wrote: post #128
cheald wrote: post #46

On Android 9, you can do this even more easily: Settings -> Network & Internet -> Advanced -> Private DNS -> set provider hostname to "dns.adguard.com" Adguard functionally operates similar to a Pihole install - it just maintains a DNS-based blacklist. You give them your DNS queries, of course, but in return you get an almost entirely ad-free experience with just one setting.

Except that my Pixel 2 restarts every few hours if I set that up.

Same here with two OnePlus phones running Pie.

But an official fix is incoming. https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/122141885#comment14

Re: Block Ads in Apps on Android

#140

Post by Fnoord »

guilhas wrote: post #137
pimeys wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm using Pi-Hole in a lxc-container on a Omnia Turris router, blokada for my Android phone with uBlock Origin, Firefox with uBlock Origin on every computer I own and the router encrypts all traffic with WireGuard to several different endpoints for the whole network. Having a bit too slow uplink to connect to the internal network from outside. It starts to be really easy to setup all of this so that it just works.

That router looks interesting

Aye, and the successor, currently in development, is modular [1]. I still recommend an APU2 from PC Engines as router though. Best bang for the buck, for now.

[1] https://mox.turris.cz/en/overview/

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