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Adblock Browser for Android

adblockplus.org

38 pointsangel_00741 comments

I've been testing a number of Android ad blockers. Mainly because I feel like every single app under the sun is plastered with obnoxious advertisements.

Tried out AdBlockPlus (not the browser) for a month - horrible experience. They actually firehose/stream all of the data your phone uses through their app to block the ads, so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as separate usage. Really, most apps available (now) on the Play store related to removing ads just really don't do it right, and sketch me out mainly because Google has taken a much more proactive approach recently to removing "real ad blockers."

So far the best solution IMO is to root your phone (necessary for this), install F-Droid, and install AdAway (which was once in the Play store). It uses the hosts file to block advertisements (the default list is great) and has worked wonderfully, without changing my experience at all (other than removing all the ads).

AdAway is the only way I've found to do this with any sort of reliability, though it seems a bit funny (to me anyway) that hosts file editing is still the way to go.

I have to ask though, what do you mean by "app data"? Do cell carriers really have a way to figure out that apps are sending out the data, or is it just charging more for websites and such?

Good question - I also answered for true_religion below, but it appears as though cell carriers are somehow charge for the "sum" of the data usage numbers you see in "Data Usage" on your phone - even though that number could be (was) wrong, because the adblock data is not actual traffic/data. Not sure who's ultimately at fault for this.

Or you could pay for apps so they don't have ads in them.

It's not that I don't pay to support the apps that I actually use, it's that when I download the "Lite" version of your app to decide if I'll pay for it, the fact that I have a hard time clicking anywhere without getting a giant 30 second modal popup ad. That definitely makes me less likely to pay you for your software. Maybe it's just a personal thing that I don't want to give developers who would do that my money.

That's crazy. Apps materialize out of thin air and nobody needs to eat.

I don't think it's smart to sustain yourself on money from mobile apps considering all of the data published about that recently.

There are many apps that have ads and no paid ad-free version.

except for payed apps WITH ads...

> so for that month my data usage doubled because most major US carriers consider "app data" as separate usage.

Are you saying that they sent all your data to their backend servers and stripped ads there?

Or is it just that they were doing it client side, but your phone company erroneously double counted data even though it wasn't sent twice over the wireless?

That the data was being erroneously calculated/charged. I had to do some research, but Verizon (my carrier) and a bunch of other carriers actually appear to bill for "app usage data," which is still pretty unclear to me. It just magically shows up on your bill, even though it's not real used data.

If you want to read of the numerous reports of the same issue, Google "adblock plus data usage android" and click on any of the forum discussions about it.

I tried AdBlockPlus last year on my android tablet. It had a bug that didn't close video streams. If you started watching something and closed the app or started another stream, the old stream(s) get coming as well. That burned through a lot of data.

Now I just root my devices and use a hosts file (MoaAB - Mother of all Ad Blocking).

"It uses the hosts file to block ads..."

You could also run your own "localhost" DNS to block ads. This is a bit more flexible than the HOSTS file. Even if you are a novice, I believe once you have this setup working, you will never go back to third party DNS such as your ISP or openresolvers like Google, OpenDNS, etc. Just my personal opinion.

By using DNS you can also block ads across all your devices, at least on your home LAN. You use one device to block ads on all your devices by making the one device a gateway for the others. No need to root the devices; just change the gateway in network settings.

It all works beautifully. Maybe someone should do a startup? It seems like there is real demand for blocking ads and the current solutions leave much to be desired.

On the free side, I can package a working solution on a bootable USB stick, SD card, CD, etc. Or I can make it a userspace kernel, Xen kernel or some other virtualized format for the "container" enthusiasts.

Without expending any effort to reduce size of the bootable kernel the whole thing (with embedded filesystem) weighs in at about 20MB.

Enough configuration has already been done so all you have to do is come up with a spare computer (e.g., old laptop, PC), boot and enjoy the ad free experience.

You can also block google-analytics, mobile apps than phone home, etc. You can stop your Apple devices from being the beacons they are: they phone home to multiple domains constantly 24/7. Running your own DNS also makes redirections easier, e.g., when you are monitoring SSL traffic being sent from apps, etc. The list goes on.

Note I am not denigrating the HOSTS file. I regularly make use of the HOSTS file in tandem with DNS, but not to block ads.

What do you mean by "US carriers consider app data a separate usage"? Separate usage from what? How do they know? Do they have spyware on your phone? O.o

Since AdBlockPlus uses a local 127.0.0.1 HTTP proxy if you don't have root access to modify hosts.

I'm not positive, but there are a solid number of reports of people being pretty much being billed for the sum of the numbers that are in "Data Usage" on the Android device. This is exactly what happened to me. The number on my Verizon bill was what my "Data Usage" number said, not what the real used data was. Not sure if this is a carrier, AdBlock, or Android issue. It's definitely dishonest of Verizon, but it doesn't make me trust AdBlockPlus at all, either.

No way the carrier had spyware ON my device. Was running a Moto X dev edition with a Custom ROM & kernel at the time.

Google the phrase "adblock plus data usage android" and read some of the forum discussions / reports about the whole thing.

Or you can use uBlock Origin on Firefox for Android and never look back.

uBlock Origin:

- Chrome: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublock-origin/cjpa...

- FIrefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/ublock-origin/

- GitHub: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

It works well on both mobile and desktop Firefox. Less resource-intensive than Adblock Plus. Too bad mobile Chrome doesn't support extensions yet.

It probably never will. See [1] and the Chrome team's FAQ at [2].

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/35v8gi/we_are_the_...

[2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zg-66E4LsHuvvwz8CnA0dy7X...

Too bad the main developer left, but uBlock Origin is the best ad blocker available. The speed difference is very noticable, especially on mobile devices.

Gorhill returned to it as a fork of the previous "given-away-ownership".

The whole situation is trife with drama from people expecting (rather: demanding) Gorhill to add certain features or support certain browsers.

gorhill is the original developer of uBlock. uBlock Origin was forked from the old uBlock after gorhill decided to take back control from chrisaljoudi.

It's just a recompile of Firefox for Android with Adblock Plus installed by default and I presume some changes in branding.

(Edit: Actually they explicitly say this in the "technical details" post that is linked)

There's already Adblock Plus for Firefox on android.

I use AdAway from F-droid repository. It supports custom hosts files and exception. The only gimmick is it requires root.

Not to be a naysayer, but why would anyone use this browser given that Adblock Plus is paid [1] by Google/Microsoft/Amazon etc to NOT block their ads?

[1] http://www.businessinsider.com/google-microsoft-amazon-taboo...

A lot of people will say that they don't mind ads that are quiet, targeted and relevant.

It's popups for viagra that they don't want. Hell, even those that are correctly targeted by the ads end up being scammed.

The extension should really more be called "malware blocker" or something like this, since they are not really against ads.

Adblock Plus whitelists Taboola and Outbrain, which not only push viagra ads but deceptive ones at that. Time to tell it like it is. The acceptable ads policy is nothing more than a narrative designed to allow them to extort ad networks for cash.

Yeah, I'm in principle fine with ads in general, but look at this:

http://i.imgur.com/W2xgJe5.png

Can you even spot the actual content?

It sounds good in theory, but large websites cannot be added to the whitelist without paying. This implies to me that revenue is higher on ABP's priority list than encouraging "good" ads. If ABP really wanted to make the biggest impact they would actively encourage the largest websites to get whitelisted.

https://adblockplus.org/en/acceptable-ads-agreements#payment

> large websites cannot be added to the whitelist without paying

The link you provided does not actually say that. It simply implies that a payment might be required.

It's a curated ad system that offloads the cost onto the advertiser. For the end-user that makes a lot of sense.

Because we understand that having a revenue model leads to software that is maintained and developed more actively, and that taking money to do so does not mean the authors suddenly forget about their goals?

>Because we understand that having a revenue model leads to software that is maintained and developed more actively

This needs a huge citation. uBlock Origin is revenue free (as far as I know) and is well-maintained and arguably far better than ABP.

Anyway, most of the work is done by the maintainers of the block lists (including the community), not the software that translates those lists.

uBlock is barely 10 months old.

AdBlock Plus has been maintained for 9 years.

You might have an argument in 9 years. Right now it's just wishful thinking that developer time is free.

ABP has been whitelisting for less than three years, meaning it supported itself for most of its existence. Anyway, uBlock leapfrogged ABP, which tells me that ABP isn't really being developed too well if a newcomer can do so much better. ABP continues to exist primarily on its name - it's a lot like Bittorrent Inc.

And again, most of the work isn't done by the developers of the ad blocking software.

Adblock Plus is getting creepier, I wouldn't trust it with my data.

Next step is to make an ad blocking OS.

Just going off memory, but something like this seems to work for me on rooted Android (or wherever your hosts file is):

curl http://someonewhocares.org/hosts/hosts > /system/etc/hosts

Of course all the normal disclaimer stuff, make sure you look at what you're putting in there, etc. But Mr. Pollock's list has worked wonders for me

You can now use uBlock on the Android version of Firefox as well as the desktop versions. Works well for me.

I have Firefox for Android. So, thanks but no thanks.

Is there a direct apk download?

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