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Is there an effective way to remove Facebook and Instagram ads on a iPhone? I have tried DNS solutions like blockada however they don’t work

beervirus 6y ago
Delete the apps and use Safari with an ad blocker.
- auraham 6y ago
  I use Firefox Focus on iOS 11 for Facebook. It worked OK until a few days ago. Now, I cannot see my messages unless I request for a desktop version of the website. Even when that option is turned on, I noticed that the site kicks me out after a couple of minutes, 10 min or so.
grishka 6y ago
Instagram serves ads as part of the feed API response. If you use the app, there's no way to remove them without patching the app. I did do that for Android, but on iOS it's impossible without jailbreak.
mdasen 6y ago
AdGuard can run a local VPN that intercepts HTTPS traffic and blocks ads even within HTTPS traffic. It's a little sketchy since they man-in-the-middle your encrypted traffic in order to do this, but they exclude extended validation certs (the ones where the name shows up next to the lock) and over 1,300 other exceptions (https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/https-filtering https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/https-filtering). That should be able to block a lot more, including ads via apps. This can do a lot more than a normal VPN or DNS blocker because it's actually intercepting and decrypting HTTPS traffic (rather than just passing it through). However, Facebook has been very good at making ads that are hard to block, even if you have access to everything. They've been pretty aggressive about getting around things like uBlock Origin even on desktop browsers. DNS-based blocking also likely wouldn't have much impact on a company that could serve ad content and regular content off the same domain names - or that could just rotate domain names too much. Also, AdGuard's local-VPN/HTTPS-intercepting feature is a pay-for feature (I believe $5/year or a $10 one-time charge).
- rubatuga 6y ago
  What about HPKP? This would prevent such a MITM attack.
dredmorbius 6y ago
IP-based firewalling, if available, perhaps.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
brundolf 6y ago
Within Safari there are Content Blockers. This is a cool iOS concept because unlike a traditional browser extension, all it can do is tell Safari what to block, it doesn't get to see your activity itself. I use this app which, among other things, lets you hook up remote sources as block lists: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579 This means you can for example hook it up directly to this repository (which I've done) and automatically get updated lists

beervirus 6y ago

Delete the apps and use Safari with an ad blocker.

auraham 6y ago
I use Firefox Focus on iOS 11 for Facebook. It worked OK until a few days ago. Now, I cannot see my messages unless I request for a desktop version of the website. Even when that option is turned on, I noticed that the site kicks me out after a couple of minutes, 10 min or so.

grishka 6y ago

Instagram serves ads as part of the feed API response. If you use the app, there's no way to remove them without patching the app. I did do that for Android, but on iOS it's impossible without jailbreak.

mdasen 6y ago

AdGuard can run a local VPN that intercepts HTTPS traffic and blocks ads even within HTTPS traffic. It's a little sketchy since they man-in-the-middle your encrypted traffic in order to do this, but they exclude extended validation certs (the ones where the name shows up next to the lock) and over 1,300 other exceptions (https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/https-filtering https://kb.adguard.com/en/general/https-filtering). That should be able to block a lot more, including ads via apps. This can do a lot more than a normal VPN or DNS blocker because it's actually intercepting and decrypting HTTPS traffic (rather than just passing it through). However, Facebook has been very good at making ads that are hard to block, even if you have access to everything. They've been pretty aggressive about getting around things like uBlock Origin even on desktop browsers. DNS-based blocking also likely wouldn't have much impact on a company that could serve ad content and regular content off the same domain names - or that could just rotate domain names too much. Also, AdGuard's local-VPN/HTTPS-intercepting feature is a pay-for feature (I believe $5/year or a $10 one-time charge).

rubatuga 6y ago
What about HPKP? This would prevent such a MITM attack.

dredmorbius 6y ago

IP-based firewalling, if available, perhaps.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

brundolf 6y ago

Within Safari there are Content Blockers. This is a cool iOS concept because unlike a traditional browser extension, all it can do is tell Safari what to block, it doesn't get to see your activity itself. I use this app which, among other things, lets you hook up remote sources as block lists: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/adblock/id691121579 This means you can for example hook it up directly to this repository (which I've done) and automatically get updated lists