@empireOfLove2 I don’t get it, how can they use the internet without an ad blocker? The first thing that I do is download Firefox + uBlock Origin on any device before of using it.

@Melonpoly You can use ADB for that, there’s even a GUI for that called Universal Android Debloater

@LinkOpensChest_wav I recommend to use De-Arrow is from the same creator of sponsorblock if you want to change the thumbnails and titles, it is crowdsourced.

No channel is monetized if you are using an AdBlock. Hahahaha

@LinkOpensChest_wav That is actually why. I’ve heard creators talk about how YouTube is rolling this new feature now, it gives you the options to add different thumbnails with different colors to target different audience, and see which one performs the best.

@Zaderade

To my understanding, they are still supporting plugins, it’s just they won’t provide the list of apps, you should be able to add your own repository of plugins to download, in fact, there are some going around.

@eya searxng is great, I use it as my primary search (meta) engine, but if you don’t want any connection with brave (which I understand, I don’t like them either), searxng itself allows you to pull results off of brave if you enable it. I would not be surprise if kagi does something like this.

@Zaderade The internet is flooded with AI generated ads, it is crazy, I was using my sister’s phone for a moment and inside an app an ad pops up, it was a obviously AI generated image of a singer with the lyrics of the song, nothing compared to a scam, but still. Another example is my mother, she was using youtube shorts and her feed was flooded with AI generated videos, the “person”, voice, background, everything.

Then they ask why people are using ad blocking and alternative clients to consume content.

P.S: I have installed alternative clients, adblocks and all to their phones, I have told them and teach them how to avoid all of this crap, they don’t see to care, they love ads and all this crap. (It’s more of an habit thing I would say, but yeah)

I’m totally in favor with your post, but not everyone is willing to self-host or is capable of doing it. So I recommendation would be and one that I’m currently using, is when uploading a file to these cloud services encrypt your files. I’m using #cryptomator, but I’m sure there are other alternatives, like #rclone. There is also #veracrypt, but to my understanding, is not great for cloud sync.

Cryptomator official website
Quick youtube video in how to use cryptomator (3:51)

Cryptomator is open source and free, but only on desktop. To use the mobile version, you will have to pay. Here is a list of alternatives to cryptomator, if you are familiar with one, please share your knowledge.

@McDropout

How to block #ads on #Android

Block ads on the web: Firefox + uBlock Origin.

A must have, if you want to browse the web without ads, trackers, malware and more. There are other browsers you could use, but with #firefox, you can install add-ons to help you mitigate all the tracking and ads. You can even install desktop only add-ons now, and supporting a engine which is not #chromium (controlled by Google) like every other major browser.

There are multiple forks available on the F-droid if you don’t want to use plain firefox. This works on desktop too, I recommend #LibreWolf.

Block ads on any app with: #TrackerControl.

My favorite way of blocking ads, you have control over which domain the app can connect. It works like a VPN, but it does not make any outgoing connection. The bad thing is, if you want to use an actual #VPN, you can’t have both at the same time and you need to disable your custom DNS.

I recommend to enable in settings > advanced options > block system apps, and individual domains too. When you open the app for the first time, it asks you if you want to block essential request for the apps to work, I recommend to enable this if you don’t want apps breaking.

You android vendor may be killing the app, for this reason is necessary to add the app in the list of apps not be optimized by the system. If this issue keeps happening follow the guide from dontkillmyapp.com (advanced)

Official website: TrackerControl.org

Set a custom #DNS in the settings.

A DNS works like a translator, computers are good with numbers, but we are not good at memorizing long numbers. Computers communicate with each other using the Internet Protocol (IP), which are pure numbers. For example, your instance #IP is 104.26.8.209 but is easier to us just type lemmy.world.

A DNS is like a table where it has a relationship between keys pointing lemmy.world to 104.26.8.209, so your computer knows where is the computer is trying to connect.

Let’s imagine an app is trying to connect to “https://ads-from.company.com”, if you are using a DNS which blocks known domain ads it will redirect that request to “0.0.0.0” which is like sending it to a black hole. There are multiple DNS available, which different purposes, for ads, malware, porn, gambling, etc.

#Mullvand VPN has a guide in how to use their DNS for multiple devices.

Alternative front-ends.

Have in mind that these are not full bulletproof protections, one may work better than the other, and can break from time to time. With popular services with ads, like social media, you could use alternative front-ends to their official client or website.

Here is a list of alternative front-ends and an add-on to automatically redirect to them, you have to use it with a browser and you can add as a shortcut to the home screen, better if it works like a #PWA https://libredirect.github.io

Alternative apps

1. YouTube: NewPipe, LibreTube, NewPipe x SponsorBlock
2. Twitter: Squawker
3. YouTube Music: Harmony Music
4. Twitch: Xtra, Twire

When I found out about this app, I was blown away about how cool the concept is. Sadly it was already dead, at that moment it made me wonder why other services weren’t build like that. I don’t think it will be easy to create a service like that and probably have too many downsides I’m not aware.