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I used to get angry at ads on my laptop, but uBlock Origin took my worries away. That left my Android phone, but recently I've discovered Blokada[0]. The app -

by maxaf 9y ago

I used to get angry at ads on my laptop, but uBlock Origin took my worries away. That left my Android phone, but recently I've discovered Blokada[0]. The app - which is for obvious reasons not available on the Play Store - appears to run a "VPN" through localhost that filters out an absolutely staggering amount of ads and other nastiness. Suddenly my battery life has improved, and my phone no longer runs too hot to touch. It's a win/win. [0]: http://blokada.org/ http://blokada.org/

mtgx 9y ago
> which is for obvious reasons not available on the Play Store Only if the "obvious reason" you meant there is "Google abusing its Android monopoly power". I wish the EU would include that part into its anti-trust investigation against Google, too. It should be illegal for Google to ban ad-blockers on its store, for the same reason multiple courts in Europe have found that ad-blockers are legal: the user should have the power to block ads if he or she wants it. This is especially true in this case, because Google can't even use the "security" argument as it did in the early days of ad-blocker banning. This app is functionally the same as a regular VPN, so unless it's saying that all VPNs are a security risk and it wants to ban all of them, then Google has no technical justification for banning VPN-like ad-blockers. As as side note, why doesn't Blockada use HTTPS? My trust in that app dropped in half for this reason alone, when it's so easy and free to enable HTTPS these days.
- maxaf 9y ago
  Yes, the lack of HTTPS is baffling. HTTPS is so pervasive these days that one has got to wonder. On the subject of banning apps: my complete lack of empathy for less technically capable users is probably showing right now, but as long as I'm able to sideload apps onto my phone running AOSP, I'm good with whatever.
- aiCeivi9 9y ago
  If forced they will just add API that allows apps to check if any VPN is used. BTW was there any discussion on how Google could be split? Android doesn't bring enough money to develop it, it would make sense to just drop it. Manufacturers would need to maintain their own OSes, that might be interesting.
aiCeivi9 9y ago
DNS66 works the same way and is slightly more popular: https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66 https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66
- maxaf 9y ago
  Looks nice, I will check it out. I wonder if running both will block twice the ads? ;)
y03a 9y ago
Does that block YouTube app ads? I use Firefox and uBlock Origin on Android, I use YouTube through that and I don't install any apps with ads. But my family seems to be unable to give up using the YouTube app and every time I see my kids wasting another 5 seconds of their day waiting for that skip button, I cry a little inside.
- maxaf 9y ago
  A cursory check indicates that Blokada doesn't appear to be blocking YT ads. For that something like https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/ or https://www.privoxy.org/ https://www.privoxy.org/ can work quite well.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - y03a 9y ago
    I bought a raspberry pi specifically to run pi-hole, with the assumption it would be able to YT ads but, as far as I can tell, it doesn't. It's been good at blocking in-game ads though. Another bummer is that it only works on my home network.
eadmund 9y ago
> I used to get angry at ads on my laptop, but uBlock Origin took my worries away. That left my Android phone Firefox on Android supports uBlock Origin very well. It's awesome.

by maxaf 9y ago

mtgx 9y ago

> which is for obvious reasons not available on the Play Store Only if the "obvious reason" you meant there is "Google abusing its Android monopoly power". I wish the EU would include that part into its anti-trust investigation against Google, too. It should be illegal for Google to ban ad-blockers on its store, for the same reason multiple courts in Europe have found that ad-blockers are legal: the user should have the power to block ads if he or she wants it. This is especially true in this case, because Google can't even use the "security" argument as it did in the early days of ad-blocker banning. This app is functionally the same as a regular VPN, so unless it's saying that all VPNs are a security risk and it wants to ban all of them, then Google has no technical justification for banning VPN-like ad-blockers. As as side note, why doesn't Blockada use HTTPS? My trust in that app dropped in half for this reason alone, when it's so easy and free to enable HTTPS these days.

maxaf 9y ago
Yes, the lack of HTTPS is baffling. HTTPS is so pervasive these days that one has got to wonder. On the subject of banning apps: my complete lack of empathy for less technically capable users is probably showing right now, but as long as I'm able to sideload apps onto my phone running AOSP, I'm good with whatever.
aiCeivi9 9y ago
If forced they will just add API that allows apps to check if any VPN is used. BTW was there any discussion on how Google could be split? Android doesn't bring enough money to develop it, it would make sense to just drop it. Manufacturers would need to maintain their own OSes, that might be interesting.

aiCeivi9 9y ago

DNS66 works the same way and is slightly more popular: https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66 https://github.com/julian-klode/dns66

maxaf 9y ago
Looks nice, I will check it out. I wonder if running both will block twice the ads? ;)

y03a 9y ago

Does that block YouTube app ads? I use Firefox and uBlock Origin on Android, I use YouTube through that and I don't install any apps with ads. But my family seems to be unable to give up using the YouTube app and every time I see my kids wasting another 5 seconds of their day waiting for that skip button, I cry a little inside.

maxaf 9y ago
A cursory check indicates that Blokada doesn't appear to be blocking YT ads. For that something like https://pi-hole.net/ https://pi-hole.net/ or https://www.privoxy.org/ https://www.privoxy.org/ can work quite well.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- y03a 9y ago
  I bought a raspberry pi specifically to run pi-hole, with the assumption it would be able to YT ads but, as far as I can tell, it doesn't. It's been good at blocking in-game ads though. Another bummer is that it only works on my home network.

eadmund 9y ago

> I used to get angry at ads on my laptop, but uBlock Origin took my worries away. That left my Android phone Firefox on Android supports uBlock Origin very well. It's awesome.