4 ms·

This sort of behaviour suggests to me that it would be desirable to have tracker-blocking software for phones/tablets. A user-configurable firewall. We have br

This sort of behaviour suggests to me that it would be desirable to have tracker-blocking software for phones/tablets. A user-configurable firewall. We have browser ad-blockers; I want something that works system-wide.

skizm 11y ago
I think on Android this is like an ad-blocker for mobile: https://disconnect.me https://disconnect.me I think it routes traffic through their servers, so you have to trust them with your traffic.
- dublinben 11y ago
  If you prefer not to trust a single company with all your traffic, you can simply use the AdBlock or uBlock addons with Firefox for Android.
- soylentcola 11y ago
  I think generally you're better off using AdAway which is more like a "traditional" hosts-file-based adblocker. I'd be more concerned with using some third party proxy for all data than some sleazy marketers trying to figure out how to sell me virtual gold or whatever.
aw3c2 11y ago
AFWall on Android lets you toggle network permissions per app. It's free software and mature. AdAway is a hostsfile-based system-wide domain blocker.
- aethertron 11y ago
  Cheers, it's good to know that options already exist. I recently learned of uBlock Origin, a browser plugin. Its author calls it an HTML firewall. This is the sort of functionality I think is ideal: it blocks tracking by default, by preventing connections to a list of ad servers, but is fully customisable.
  - soylentcola 11y ago
    Yep. uBlock works on mobile Firefox as well if you're mainly interested in web-based tracking (as opposed to stuff in other applications). For that, you need more system-wide blocking and permissions as mentioned by aw3c2.
gyardley 11y ago
This might have worked back in 2008 or so, when this variety of app was still using third-party analytics software. In fact there was such a thing for jailbroken iOS versions - my startup even helped build one in an attempt to stave off some negative PR we were getting. http://cydia.saurik.com/package/com.saurik.privacy/ http://cydia.saurik.com/package/com.saurik.privacy/ These days many casual gaming companies have rolled their own analytics which can't be effectively blocked without rendering the game inoperable. That said, this guy is hamming it up a bit and conflating the practices of his own company with the entire industry.

skizm 11y ago

I think on Android this is like an ad-blocker for mobile: https://disconnect.me https://disconnect.me I think it routes traffic through their servers, so you have to trust them with your traffic.

dublinben 11y ago
If you prefer not to trust a single company with all your traffic, you can simply use the AdBlock or uBlock addons with Firefox for Android.
soylentcola 11y ago
I think generally you're better off using AdAway which is more like a "traditional" hosts-file-based adblocker. I'd be more concerned with using some third party proxy for all data than some sleazy marketers trying to figure out how to sell me virtual gold or whatever.

aw3c2 11y ago

AFWall on Android lets you toggle network permissions per app. It's free software and mature. AdAway is a hostsfile-based system-wide domain blocker.

aethertron 11y ago
Cheers, it's good to know that options already exist. I recently learned of uBlock Origin, a browser plugin. Its author calls it an HTML firewall. This is the sort of functionality I think is ideal: it blocks tracking by default, by preventing connections to a list of ad servers, but is fully customisable.
- soylentcola 11y ago
  Yep. uBlock works on mobile Firefox as well if you're mainly interested in web-based tracking (as opposed to stuff in other applications). For that, you need more system-wide blocking and permissions as mentioned by aw3c2.

gyardley 11y ago

This might have worked back in 2008 or so, when this variety of app was still using third-party analytics software. In fact there was such a thing for jailbroken iOS versions - my startup even helped build one in an attempt to stave off some negative PR we were getting. http://cydia.saurik.com/package/com.saurik.privacy/ http://cydia.saurik.com/package/com.saurik.privacy/ These days many casual gaming companies have rolled their own analytics which can't be effectively blocked without rendering the game inoperable. That said, this guy is hamming it up a bit and conflating the practices of his own company with the entire industry.