4 ms·

If you ever heard your friends complaining about the amount of ads they get on their phones and computers, gladly spend a while to help them install something l

by gaudat 3y ago

If you ever heard your friends complaining about the amount of ads they get on their phones and computers, gladly spend a while to help them install something like Ublock Origin. Let the less techy public know there is a way out.

paulryanrogers 3y ago
Or they could boycott sites and services with the most intrusive ads. Ad blocking just encourages escalation, whereas a boycott of the hosting site sends a stronger and more ethical signal.
- alexhsamuel 3y ago
  I disagree with the implication that there is anything at all unethical (so that anything else could be "more ethical") about blocking ads.
Buttons840 3y ago
This will also help add to the outrage if ad blockers are ever taken from us by some means.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  There isn’t really a way to take away ad blockers. Of course, a site can be made to not work with ad blockers, but then that’s their decision I guess. I’m happy to not use a service in that case.
mgbmtl 3y ago
Yep (and be pragmatic/emphatic, a lot of this stuff can seem obscure to non-techies). My partner/wife is a long-time iPhone fan. I never tried to convert her, but she is on the point of switching to Android because she can't use Firefox on iOS. It's completely absurd too - to discard a perfectly fine device otherwise, just because it cannot block ads, or at least, cannot run uBlock Origin (for blocking cookie-banners, social annoyances, etc).
- judge2020 3y ago
  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/id989804926 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/i... ? Or is it not "can't use Firefox on iOS" but "doesn't have x feature from Firefox on Desktop"?
  - mgbmtl 3y ago
    Last time I checked, it was just a Safari webview, and missed a lot of features compared to Firefox on Android. Has that changed recently? Other nice thing of Firefox on Android: being able to listen to Youtube videos even when the screen is turned off. (I'm sure there are solutions, but many seemed sketchy or didn't work well)
    - judge2020 3y ago
      What are the features missing then? The main one I can see is edit PDFs directly[0], but I'd bet money that Mozilla wouldn't implement that on iOS anyways. FF can largely do exactly the same thing they do on Desktop to attract people: create a privacy-focused browser (if that's even what they're doing) and things like syncing your bookmarks, passwords, using Firefox VPN, and blocking ads. 0: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
      - Larrikin 3y ago
        No proper ad blocking. Firefox Privacy has some limited blocking but Cloudflare has rendered it useless and gets me into infinite captcha loops. Tailscale plus Adguard has finally brought sanity to all my mobile devices thankfully.
    - realityloop 3y ago
      You can play yt videos with screen off using vinegar if you pop the video out to pip view it will be able to keep playing when you turn the screen off. https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303229 https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303...
intelVISA 3y ago
Recently setup a W11 VFIO VM, even on its own MITM'd vNIC with DPI and custom heurestics to cut most out the naughty MSFT traffic: it was still a dizzying assault of ads and noiseware; being transported from serene LTSC W10 to the cyberpunk advertisment plaza of W11 was like my brain segfaulting. I won't lie: I could barely think with all the attention-grabbing, adtech bloat. Scary! Is there a way we can help people who don't know they're being exploited like this?
MSFT_Edging 3y ago
I'm almost afraid that if the userbase of effective ad blocking gets big enough, large firms like google will put even more resources into the anti-ad blocking like what is happening with Chrome's new plugin api. I feel like letting people enjoy the ads if they don't know any better is a little smoke screen for people who do know better.
- lostmsu 3y ago
  Isn't it already "big"? Over 25% in US according to https://www.statista.com/topics/3201/ad-blocking/#topicOverview https://www.statista.com/topics/3201/ad-blocking/#topicOverv...
  - MSFT_Edging 3y ago
    Oh dang, yeah that's a decent chunk.

by gaudat 3y ago

paulryanrogers 3y ago

Or they could boycott sites and services with the most intrusive ads. Ad blocking just encourages escalation, whereas a boycott of the hosting site sends a stronger and more ethical signal.

alexhsamuel 3y ago
I disagree with the implication that there is anything at all unethical (so that anything else could be "more ethical") about blocking ads.

Buttons840 3y ago

This will also help add to the outrage if ad blockers are ever taken from us by some means.

bee_rider 3y ago
There isn’t really a way to take away ad blockers. Of course, a site can be made to not work with ad blockers, but then that’s their decision I guess. I’m happy to not use a service in that case.

mgbmtl 3y ago

Yep (and be pragmatic/emphatic, a lot of this stuff can seem obscure to non-techies). My partner/wife is a long-time iPhone fan. I never tried to convert her, but she is on the point of switching to Android because she can't use Firefox on iOS. It's completely absurd too - to discard a perfectly fine device otherwise, just because it cannot block ads, or at least, cannot run uBlock Origin (for blocking cookie-banners, social annoyances, etc).

judge2020 3y ago
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/id989804926 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-private-safe-browser/i... ? Or is it not "can't use Firefox on iOS" but "doesn't have x feature from Firefox on Desktop"?
- mgbmtl 3y ago
  Last time I checked, it was just a Safari webview, and missed a lot of features compared to Firefox on Android. Has that changed recently? Other nice thing of Firefox on Android: being able to listen to Youtube videos even when the screen is turned off. (I'm sure there are solutions, but many seemed sketchy or didn't work well)
  - judge2020 3y ago
    What are the features missing then? The main one I can see is edit PDFs directly[0], but I'd bet money that Mozilla wouldn't implement that on iOS anyways. FF can largely do exactly the same thing they do on Desktop to attract people: create a privacy-focused browser (if that's even what they're doing) and things like syncing your bookmarks, passwords, using Firefox VPN, and blocking ads. 0: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/ https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
    - Larrikin 3y ago
      No proper ad blocking. Firefox Privacy has some limited blocking but Cloudflare has rendered it useless and gets me into infinite captcha loops. Tailscale plus Adguard has finally brought sanity to all my mobile devices thankfully.
  - realityloop 3y ago
    You can play yt videos with screen off using vinegar if you pop the video out to pip view it will be able to keep playing when you turn the screen off. https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303229 https://apps.apple.com/au/app/vinegar-tube-cleaner/id1591303...

intelVISA 3y ago

Recently setup a W11 VFIO VM, even on its own MITM'd vNIC with DPI and custom heurestics to cut most out the naughty MSFT traffic: it was still a dizzying assault of ads and noiseware; being transported from serene LTSC W10 to the cyberpunk advertisment plaza of W11 was like my brain segfaulting. I won't lie: I could barely think with all the attention-grabbing, adtech bloat. Scary! Is there a way we can help people who don't know they're being exploited like this?

MSFT_Edging 3y ago

I'm almost afraid that if the userbase of effective ad blocking gets big enough, large firms like google will put even more resources into the anti-ad blocking like what is happening with Chrome's new plugin api. I feel like letting people enjoy the ads if they don't know any better is a little smoke screen for people who do know better.

lostmsu 3y ago
Isn't it already "big"? Over 25% in US according to https://www.statista.com/topics/3201/ad-blocking/#topicOverview https://www.statista.com/topics/3201/ad-blocking/#topicOverv...
- MSFT_Edging 3y ago
  Oh dang, yeah that's a decent chunk.