Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

community.blokada.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 608 posts

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#131

Post by flosstop »

L3viathan wrote: post #108
GuB-42 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same, but it is more and more annoying to root your phone with all these banking apps blocking rooted phones. And now, with the new security standards (which are good), banks insist on having you install their proprietary app just to authorize payments (which is annoying). I am not talking about Google Pay here (which I can do without). There are workarounds of course, but I am becoming tired of the cat and mouse gam…

I'm in the same boat. I recently had to upgrade my phone, and oh boy is is annoying to get root working with Google Pay and my banking app. It still works, but it took me a few hours(!). I'm seriously considering switching to iOS for my next phone.

Sorry to disappoint but it you feel it is necessary to root an Android phone to get an acceptable experience wait until you experience iOS

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#132

Post by ajdude »

eru wrote: post #113
laurent123456 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without the ads, you still have multiple cookie popups and banners, floating videos and newsletter notifications to closes before getting to the content. And of course as you scroll down some of those come back (floating videos in particular). There was a time where you could just close the tab if it was that bad, but now pretty much all websites are like this so there's no choice.

Well, the cookie popups are only there because of regulation. You are right about all the rest.

> Well, the cookie popups are only there because of regulation.

You don't /need/ them if you only have essential cookies:

> At GitHub, we want to protect developer privacy, and we find cookie banners quite irritating, so we decided to look for a solution. After a brief search, we found one: just don’t use any non-essential cookies. Pretty simple, really.

https://github.blog/2020-12-17-no-cookie-for-you/

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#133

Post by ejb999 »

david_arcos wrote: post #31

Original title is about "Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers". Changing "VPN Adblockers" to "Android Adblockers" is misleading, at least. BTW, I'm using Brave because of having u-block origin, and I recommend it. Needed to change the default chrome widget for a brave widget, and lost the chrome sync. Other than that, works as a charm.

another vote for Brave browser - switched and never looked back.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#134

Post by fezfight »

laurent123456 wrote: post #23
Larrikin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experience is so awful when I browse on my iPad, instead of my Android phone with Firefox+UBlock. I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads. The modern web is so much worse than the pop up ads of the old web.

Even without the ads, you still have multiple cookie popups and banners, floating videos and newsletter notifications to closes before getting to the content. And of course as you scroll down some of those come back (floating videos in particular). There was a time where you could just close the tab if it was that bad, but now pretty much all websites are like this so there's no choice.

ublock takes care of quite a few of those things, too. There are more lists you can activate in the options.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#135

Post by falcolas »

red_trumpet wrote: post #27

Going on a tangent, how is the adblocking story on iOS? As there is not Firefox+uBlock available, is it possible to block ads via VPN or DNS?

Web ads, yes. App ads, or ads served in in-app browsers, no.

I use Firefox Focus as the ad block extension, and it works relatively well.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#136

Post by unicornporn »

danwee wrote: post #77
Larrikin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experience is so awful when I browse on my iPad, instead of my Android phone with Firefox+UBlock. I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads. The modern web is so much worse than the pop up ads of the old web.

> I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads In my case, I browse a limited number of web sites that offer no ads (or a minimum amount). The moment I visit a web site with tons of ads, I just close it immediately and just ignore my original intention of visiting that website (e.g., this happens sometimes in HN: people link websites of newspapers, but I don't last in them more than…

> I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads

People don't browse, they app.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#137

Post by pmontra »

For all the love I have for Blockada I'm not going to send my traffic through their cloud. I wonder if I can run something like PiHole on a VPS somewhere so that I can protect my devices both when I'm at home on WiFi and when I'm outside on 4G. I'll investigate but does anybody already experienced such a setup?

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#138

Post by koheripbal »

dark-star wrote: post #128
Larrikin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The experience is so awful when I browse on my iPad, instead of my Android phone with Firefox+UBlock. I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads. The modern web is so much worse than the pop up ads of the old web.

> I really don't understand how most people can stand to browse with all the ads I mainly browse the web on my PC or laptop at home, which has a browser-integrated adblocker + PiHole. When I need a browser while on the go, I usually just use it to google things and for some quick lookups the experience is "okay", longer and more in-depth web surfing will be deferred to my home PC using the "tabs from other devices" f…

I also use adguard DNS that filters ad urls.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#139

Post by cricalix »

pmontra wrote: post #137

For all the love I have for Blockada I'm not going to send my traffic through their cloud. I wonder if I can run something like PiHole on a VPS somewhere so that I can protect my devices both when I'm at home on WiFi and when I'm outside on 4G. I'll investigate but does anybody already experienced such a setup?

Tailscale have a knowledgebase article on doing it - https://tailscale.com/kb/1114/pi-hole/

There's probably other ways.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#140

Post by matkoniecz »

cft wrote: post #119
laurent123456 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even without the ads, you still have multiple cookie popups and banners, floating videos and newsletter notifications to closes before getting to the content. And of course as you scroll down some of those come back (floating videos in particular). There was a time where you could just close the tab if it was that bad, but now pretty much all websites are like this so there's no choice.

The GDPR cookie pop-ups that make navigation on mobile often nearly impossible was a major assault in the remaining open web. The EU bureaucrats that drafted it never created anything constructive in their lives, only regulated. As a result, less and less of the independent web is getting traffic, everything is consolidating in TikTok, Instagram and similar apps

> As a result, less and less of the independent web is getting traffic

Tracking cookies are not mandatory. You are not obligated to present cookie banner: you can simply drop nonessential cookies.

Post reply on HN