Once again, ad blockers prove to be a great security measure.
this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
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Technology
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I wish if ad blockers were on option on things like Smart TVs and smartphone, not just on my browser.
If your smart tv is android based you can try side loading Smart Tube, which integrates ad block, sponsor block and a whole pile of QoL settings you can tweak to suit you.
You can even add android to any tv with a chromecast with google tv, it's a much nicer OS and runs faster than a lot of smart tv OSs
I don't recommend the chromecast. It's incredibly slow and underpowered.
Go for a shield TV, or even a fire stick. Google is selling crap to people, per their usual.
on android it's possible. i use firefox with ublock origin, and revanced.
And for ad-free YouTube specifically on Android-based smartphones, LibreTube is my personal fav but there are plenty of other options such as NewPipe, Clipious, and YouTube Revanced.
depends on if you want to sign in to your account. to my knowlege, only revanced can do that.
This may be an entirely separate conversation but I end up sticking with Firefox+uBlock because I can never get any decent performance out of other front ends.
You can set custom DNS to block ads and whatnot on androids and most smart TVs AFAIK. It should just be a setting somewhere. I use
base.dns.mullvad.net
For TV you might need IP address in which case it's 194.242.2.4.
Source and more info about this here: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
This doesn't work for most streaming services. The ads and the actual video come from the same server. I know this is the case on Hulu (probably YouTube, too).
Yeah it doesn’t block YouTube ads, because YouTube hosts the ads locally. No reason to have the ad provider host their own, when YT already has the infrastructure built to host them. Trying to use DNS to block YT ads would also block the videos themselves, which sort of defeats the entire purpose of using the site.
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
- YouTube: NewPipe, LibreTube, NewPipe x SponsorBlock
- Twitter: Squawker
- YouTube Music: Harmony Music
- Twitch: Xtra, Twire
@TheFederatedPipe
#RethinkDNS allows blocking/analysing of traffic via VPN app, actual VPN (Wireguard), AND custom DNS over HTTPS
if you’re using an iphone, you can sideload uyou+enhanced through Altstore. it comes with an adblocker, shorts blocker, sponsorblock, a downloader and more.
What about DNS level AdBlock + FOSS front ends? NewPipe x SponsorBlock and ViMusic.
Doesn't play nice with the Roku Ultra. And can't.install NewPipe.
The problem there it's your hardware, my humble opinion it's grab a cheap Mi TV Stick 4K(don't get fooled by the general opinion of Chinese stuff)from AliExpress and pirate all the way up. I personally didn't like Roku cos their Hardware and Software it's so closed you can't do anything with them unless you pay and you will have to eat up all the adds.
well, YouTube (specifically RedLetterMedia) is the only thing with ads. I specifically avoid the ad laden shit, and am gonna (yeah right. Eventually) get a headless Plex set up downstairs. I'm fucking drowning in blurays and DVDs. Lol
Google continues to push blatant scams with their ads and wonders why people run adblockers.
I've seen the Joe Rogan and Dr. Phil ads mentioned in the article, as well as George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Hanks and others. I've reported the ads multiple times.YouTube needs to squash this NOW instead of just pretending they aren't aware of it.
Nah buv let it exlode and cull the weak /s
One would think that with their resources, Google/YouTube could actually vet the ads they run on their platform before they run them. At the very least, check the ads coming from unknown companies
They could, but the goal is 100% automation to maximize profits. Much cheaper to just run an algorithm than using a human being.
You're assuming they care about the content of the ads. If they're getting paid, they run the ad, that's it.
They're able to do that on all the videos everyone else uploads. They turn a blind eye to ads because all they care about is the money.
You can be demonetized on youtube for saying fuck too many times or too early in a video. Yet the advertisers are allowed to show me ads that, literally, are saying you can use their product to make AI porn of your friends against their will.
I would think the celebrities these are supposed to be would sue the shit out of YouTube for allowing this whether they agree with the message or not. Seems like a pretty strong case. The interesting part is how would you ever authenticate these sort of messages. I would think after losing a few of these cases YouTube would stop allowing ANY celebrity type messaging.
I hope they get absolutely railed by lawsuits
My solution to prevent these scams from showing is an add blocker called "uBlock Origins". On my phone I use "Revanced" and "Grayjay". Poof no more scams. Like and subscribe for more tips and tricks.
all of the ...vanced clones kept failing on me. Grayjay had been seemless and perfect just my 2c
It's valid 2c. I haven't had an issue with Revanced besides when I need to update.
You can hear it in the voices. The weird part is, I could completely see Rogan and Phil agreeing to do these kind of ads if it didn't have repercussions. I wonder if that's the plan. They let them do the deep fakes to trick the people they want to trick and then for the rest, it's a deep fake and they had nothing to do with it.
Agreeing with the content sure. But letting them use their voices and images without getting paid? Hell no. If they were paid then it’s no different than if they made them.
How would we know either way, so what would be the risk? The videos aren't being flagged or taken down, soooooo....
I feel sorry for the people that are exposed to this shit by Google, especially those that are less tech savvy that aren't blocking ads.
Educate as many people/loved ones as you can folks about this to protect them and to fuck Google.
If I had to watch an ad, deep fake or not, I'd just stop watching YT vids altogether.
Yea this is sketchy AF. Not to mention concerning due to its potential implications. Going to be interesting how not only YouTube but other platforms deal with this.
Is this new for anyone? Every time I saw ads somewhere on the web half of them were scams.
Youtube has comerciales 😱
"i continue to watch ads and blatantly targeted bullshit, and have the gall to whine."
Look, there are at risk people who don't understand what they are consuming, but those who write tech articles are not among them. Those are just idiots.
PEBKACK.
What's the last "K"?
Yep. A big fat typo 😐.
Most of the ads I've seen appear to be targeted at conservative Americans, as they're all latching onto a mistrust in U.S. President Biden and the federal government
LUL. Well at least they know their mark.
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