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Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

optimal.com

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Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#41

Post by optimalrob »

benologist wrote: post #4

This looks really cool, especially for the bajillion mobile-only people connecting straight through their telco without any ublock/ghostery/hosts/etc blocking. I am using a local DNS server that does this called Pihole [1] supplemented with additional blocklists [2] for malware and privacy. One thing I don't see is any statistics ... you might be surprised at how much software in your home is endlessly communicating…

Pihole is awesome! We love what they are doing and if you can't get there on trusting us but want a pure, local network blocking solution I highly recommend this project! On my medium.com/@robleathern page I talk about my experience setting one up.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#42

Post by optimalrob »

dingaling wrote: post #25
benologist wrote: post #4

This looks really cool, especially for the bajillion mobile-only people connecting straight through their telco without any ublock/ghostery/hosts/etc blocking. I am using a local DNS server that does this called Pihole [1] supplemented with additional blocklists [2] for malware and privacy. One thing I don't see is any statistics ... you might be surprised at how much software in your home is endlessly communicating…

It would be useful if their website described what exactly it installs. A recursive DNS server with a web UI and big list of null-routed domains? That's my guess. How does that help mobile users outside their home network without also setting up a VPN back in?

We'll be adding more info when we prep things for a wider consumer release. We are working to learn as much as we can and are looking forward to everyone's feedback!

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#43

Post by optimalrob »

joemccall86 wrote: post #32

How easy is it to temporarily switch it off if a site is broken? Like if they have some crucial JS/CSS served from a blocked domain? I also wonder this with the hosts file approach. Is that kind of flexibility you give up for speed?

This is a slight issue, we are looking at ways to make this easier. The reality on the hosts file approach we think is that we can be far more dynamic and help protect users from bad domains as well, but time will tell.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#44

Post by 0xmohit »

Flammy wrote: post #16

Well this makes me feel a little better... from http://optimal.com/privacy-policy/ WHAT WE COLLECT We get information about you in a range of ways. snip DNS service. If you utilize our DNS-based service, we may receive information about your IP address and URLs requested by that address. DNS requests utilize the UDP protocol which means we do not typically get information on the full URL you are attempting to visit (…

Additionally, it says:

  - We may share personal information with your consent. For example, you may let us share personal information with others for their own marketing uses. Those uses will be subject to their privacy policies.
  - We may share personal information when we do a business deal, or negotiate a business deal, involving the sale or transfer of all or a part of our business or assets. These deals can include any merger, financing, acquisition, or bankruptcy transaction or proceeding.
  - We may share personal information for legal, protection, and safety purposes.
  - We may share information to comply with laws.
  - We may share information to respond to lawful requests and legal processes.
  - We may share information to protect the rights and property of Optimal.com Corp., our agents, customers, and others. This includes enforcing our agreements, policies, and terms of use.
  - We may share information in an emergency. This includes protecting the safety of our employees and agents, our customers, or any person.
  - We may share information with those who need it to do work for us.
  - We may also share aggregated non-personal data with others for their own uses.
Essentially, there are so many reasons for us to share your personal information that we can't help it.

Amusingly, the website:

- Uses Google Analytics

- Runs over HTTP (not HTTPS)

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#45

Post by optimalrob »

wpietri wrote: post #26
Retra wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't find the "I can trust them because I'm paying them" idea very useful. Nor the "If you're not the customer you're the product." The bottom line is, if your information is valuable, then it will be in the advantage of those who possess it to exploit it whether you pay them or not. The only real non-moralistic consideration is whether you will stop paying if they start selling. Either way, "I have a moral obliga…

The difference is in sustainability. Sure, some people always want more; morality is no barrier for them. But most people run into trouble only when they face a significant conflict of interest. Thinking about companies I've seen the inside of, when the company is doing ok, it's rare for people to just up and do something sleazy. But if they company could collapse, suddenly the moral calculus shifts. Even if they don…

Read my medium posts (medium.com/@robleathern) to get a sense of what we are doing and why. It's easy to make money in the online ads industry but we are not going to compromise our values to keep this company alive. Too many startups pivot their way to sustainability at the cost of what they set out to do in the first place. We won't.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#46

Post by latitude »

I wrote a tiny DNS filtering daemon that does exactly the same -

https://github.com/apankrat/dnswhisperer

I've been using it routinely for past couple of months and it works really well. It blocks web ads, but it's blocks in-app ads and tracking as well. Tailing a log when launching an iPad game make for an interesting read. If anything slips through, just check the log, add the offender to the blacklist and restart the daemon.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#48

Post by optimalrob »

matt_wulfeck wrote: post #8
bognition wrote: post #2

Very interesting. I'd be curious to know what Optimal plans to do with all the DNS traffic they'll be collecting

I'm definitely weary of handing over my DNS data to a company I don't know. Besides, Safari ad blocking plugins already take care of this while surfing. This may have unintended (both good or bad) affects on normal app experience since it's configured on the network.

We are not selling this information and never will. We built a safari blocker called fewerads that's in the App Store. But we found lots of users wanted to block ads in chrome mobile or inside Twitter or Facebook (to be clear, web ads, not those platforms' ads), which is what lead us to this idea.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#49

Post by drdaeman »

buro9 wrote: post #5

One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts Or you can combine that with https://github.com/jlund/streisand to have a VPN service that happens to adblock (great for mobile). That said... I like that Optimal have made this too, because neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts (TV!). T…

> neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts

Isn't the best approach is to just buy only devices that either known to not have adware onboard (e.g. "dumb" TVs), or that can be re-flashed with software you can relatively trust?

That only applies to the core OS and its capabilities. The apps can contain all the nonsense they want, because OS can deny the access or feeds the sanitized data if the app's badly written or insists on the business model where user pays with their privacy.

Re: Optimal DNS Ad Blocker

#50

Post by dalanmiller »

benologist wrote: post #10
buro9 wrote: post #5

One can achieve this locally, on a laptop/desktop, using https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts Or you can combine that with https://github.com/jlund/streisand to have a VPN service that happens to adblock (great for mobile). That said... I like that Optimal have made this too, because neither of the above can work for all devices in a household and more things in the house are tracking you and serving adverts (TV!). T…

If you want StevenBlack's hosts list to be network-wide I integrated it with an open source, self-hosted DNS server called https://pi-hole.net/ last week which adds a slick admin interface and browser extensions too, then I put it all in a Vagrantfile and set my router to use the VM as a DNS server. Screenshot: https://i.imgur.com/ELL9CDu.png Vagrantfile: https://github.com/benlowry/pihole-extended-hosts

I use pi-hole at home and it's a great little tool for my home network and I think makes a noticeable difference on web browsing speeds.

My only wish is that it would serve a page notifying me "this is possibly an ad, but would you like to continue?" versus just flat out blocking. I know there's a whitelisting functionality but it'd be cool if I could handle this directly in my actions in the browser.

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