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Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

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Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#371

Post by lazyier »

onion2k wrote: post #347
alexb_ wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95% of users have no idea what any of this is.

Developer wages would crash through the floor and all the way down to the centre of the Earth if ad blockers really took off without users also accepting micropayments or subscriptions for web services at the same time. Maybe we should be a little bit glad that the main thing keeping massive amounts of money in tech is accepted by users. The key thing that most people in tech don't appear to grok very easily is that…

Advertising is a type of propaganda. One of a myriad of different forms of propaganda.

One leads to the other easily. For example taking advertising money for television commercials or magazine adds leads to "Native Ads". Native ads are sort of like product placement except that it's pretending to be a news story or whatever.

Like when people on CNBC or CNN start talking about Taco Bell menu items or new type of drug that might fight cholesterol. That's paid-for propaganda that is pretending to be television news.

Pretty soon you have a entire industry based on not telling the truth about drugs or food or other products they buy because that will piss off their advertisers.

This is the basis of the modern web. It's not a good thing even though it makes a lot of people a lot of money.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#372

Post by azemetre »

onion2k wrote: post #347
alexb_ wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

95% of users have no idea what any of this is.

Developer wages would crash through the floor and all the way down to the centre of the Earth if ad blockers really took off without users also accepting micropayments or subscriptions for web services at the same time. Maybe we should be a little bit glad that the main thing keeping massive amounts of money in tech is accepted by users. The key thing that most people in tech don't appear to grok very easily is that…

This is some massive hyperbole and really makes me consider if online advertising should be abolished or massively kneecapped.

Maybe we should ask users for money because the alternative has become some kafkaesque hellscape where people think it's totally normal to have a dozen ad trackers when attempting to buy shoes. These trackers have an enormous costs and maybe their externalities should be taxed and regulated.

Maybe by the end of the century we will slowly realize that online advertising is the "lead" paint that was rightfully eradicated.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#374

Post by judge2020 »

NavinF wrote: post #312
BbzzbB wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even then, most apps are just thinly veiled webapps for which the site (with Firefox and uBlock) provides the same or superior experience, ad-free.

Er no, most iOS apps are not thinly veiled webapps. Have you ever used iOS?

Most apps are moving to React Native especially if they're targeting Android and iOS, but that's still a far cry from being a wrapper around a webapp.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#375

Post by hedora »

cft wrote: post #262
sofixa wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can serve ads without tracking users across sites/apps to gain revenue. Not to mention other income generating activities such as partnerships, subscriptions, donations, etc.

Those ads will give you 10% of the RPM of the ads that track.

Publishers get 96% as much revenue per impression for non-targeted display ads:

https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/31/targeted-ads-offer-little-...

The ad networks get a lot more for tracking based ads, and the advertisers supposedly get more conversions (though targeting fraud is a real, well-documented thing).

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#376

Post by paulmd »

PaulKeeble wrote: post #148
t0bia_s wrote: post #50

Pi-hole in home network, AdAway on all smartphones, uBlock Origin an all Firefox browsers. I'm shocked when browsing web on different devices. I always recommend to at least install uBlock Origin to users of those devices. Most of them never heard about ad-blocking and they are very, very happy with new web browsing experience. 99% of theme do not want go back. 1% don't care.

I noticed sometime last year Samsung put out an update for my Tablet that overrode my DNS delivered by DHCP and used Google's DNS directly. It was immediately obvious due to the amount of ads I haven't seen for years at this point due to running a pihole. Most of the solutions either involve software VPNs in the device to restore function or rooting it. Its terrible that any device would ignore and have no way to use…

Google gets all the flak but frankly Samsung has been the point of the spear for years on adtech shit - they were one of the companies caught mining application logs from other applications to bypass permissions that you denied them, causing Google to have to go back and implement iOS-style application sandboxing.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/more-than-1000-android-apps...

Similarly, their TVs are known as probably the single most obnoxious devices on the market right now, and are always in the news for finding some new and obnoxious way to push more ads or more intrusive ways to spy on you in general.

Everyone always asks this about Apple but really it's never seemed more relevant than with Samsung: why are you purchasing hardware from a company that very very obviously does not respect you as a customer? Aren't there any other android vendors you could patronize instead?

(to be fair, if you aren't interested in budget hardware, and you won't buy a chinese phone, I suppose that list isn't all that long. you have... google and sony, I guess?)

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#377

Post by dvfjsdhgfv »

Terretta wrote: post #207
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.

> 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. Most people don’t. Most people who use anything for iOS tend to use things like: - 1Blocker - super full featured, including custom script and css rules. business model is paid software, not ‘acceptable ads’ paying them for placement or…

> Most people who use anything for iOS tend to use things like:

You probably meant "Most people I know".

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#378

Post by matheusmoreira »

> Google claims to be cracking down on apps that are using the VPN service to track user data or rerouting user traffic to earn money through ads.

Okay. Those are essentially malware anyway. As long as uBlock Origin is not affected I see no problem with Google "cracking down" on anything.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#379

Post by denton-scratch »

cft wrote: post #262
sofixa wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can serve ads without tracking users across sites/apps to gain revenue. Not to mention other income generating activities such as partnerships, subscriptions, donations, etc.

Those ads will give you 10% of the RPM of the ads that track.

Fencing stolen car stereos provides a better return than retailing legit electronics. Does that make laws against receiving stolen property an infringement of your freedom to do business?

I don't have much sympathy for your predicament. Perhaps the market has a better use for your hosting facility than pumping out ads and tracking scripts.

Re: Google cracks down on VPN based adblockers

#380

Post by orangecat »

denton-scratch wrote: post #215
cft wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

They are not GDPR "cookie pop-ups". GDPR does not call for this plague. You don't need to get the users approval for cookies needed for the correct operation of the site. I believe they are a protest by largely US-owned companies against regulation, designed to annoy internet users and turn them against regulation.

I believe they are a protest by largely US-owned companies against regulation

Even if this is true, it's something that should have been expected by EU legislators. Their beliefs seem to be that companies are acting in bad faith by secretly tracking users and misusing the information that they gather (basically true), and also that if they impose vague rules that companies need to get consent for tracking then they'll act in good faith and give users clear and convenient ways of opting out (ha ha ha).

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