An adblocker in this day and time is must for internet usage.
Or offload them at the DNS so they dont even get to the device in the first instance.
I do so love my Pihole. I forget how many ads are all over websites until I load up some site on a machine outside of my network.
I use(and recommend) both for the best user experience.UBlock origin's element zapper feature has changed my life.
and there is currently no defense against it.
Don't load ads. There, problem solved.
I swear 90% of the world not aware of adblocker.
And then 9% out of that remaining 10% just can't be bothered to install them for some insane reason.
Exactly! Can't understand how do so many people tolerate ads.
I think I heard that usage on desktop is something like 1 in 4, which is pretty good. Mobile is another world altogether, since it requires different browsers that support adblocking and then accessing websites through the browser instead of the app for the website, which many users would definitely prefer to use.
There is no defense?
Imagine a world without Adblocker, haha!
The FBI recommends using an ad blocker for precisely this reason.
And then companies like YouTube force you to unblock them.
What? YouTube can't force me to do shit.
They have blocked users in the past from seeing any videos until their adblocker it removed
You still have the option of closing the tab and moving on with life, or digging in to see if there's another way around it.
Closing the tab and moving on with life is what I do when a Twitter login prompt or paywall appears. I've often thought it would be better for me to unblock ads, at least on timewasting sites like Youtube, just so that I get pissed off by the ads and close the tab, making it easier to stop wasting time.
I had been watching youtube on my phone using ublock origin on Firefox, but since youtube started this shit I have shifted permanently to newpipe.
Defense against it
But if corporate media reported on ways to block ads, it'd eat into their own bottom line, so I can understand their choice to skirt the whole "ads are blockable with some level of effort" conversation.
I've been blocking online ads for nearly the entirety of my multi-decade usage of the internet, to the point where seeing them now is actually quite jarring. The fact that they're now a prime vector for malware and spyware/capitalist surveillance just one-ups the decision to block them just for the annoyance factor.
Yea, that's not new. Malware in ads has been around for like a decade. None of the major ad providers have given zero fucks about it so an ad blocker is mandatory and with Google trying to make ad blocking harder to impossible it's only a matter of time until some major issues with this malware happens.
But now they being used for targeting devices by Spyware! Another reason to hate ads.
AdGuard DNS for android :)
Yes! And ublock origin on Firefox. And I use newpipe with sponsor block for youtube. Not seen an ad in ages. Ads are a cybersecurity threat no doubt.
For YouTube, I use ReVanced Extended, it has Sponsor Block, Return Dislikes Back and an Ad Block. (Btw it's a fork of a fork)
Honestly, setting up revanced seems a little too much work to me. So I use newpipe which I find much easier to set up.
Did you trying using the default patches?
Fact is, I am lazy. Reading the long list of things to do to patch the app and to keep it updated put me off so I didn't try.
People read the list???
Yes, I read the instructions for patching the app.
Oh, I thought the patches list
~~This is using some vulnerability in iOS. I'm an Android and Linux guy, but let's hope Apple quickly finds the bug and fixes it.~~ And fuck that agency for not alerting Apple and instead profiting from it. And fuck the Israeli government for enabling them.
Edit: I misread, supposedly this is miraculously able to target every device.
From the article:
What sets Insanet’s Sherlock apart from Pegasus is its exploitation of ad networks rather than vulnerabilities in phones. A Sherlock user creates an ad campaign that narrowly focuses on the target’s demographic and location, and places a spyware-laden ad with an ad exchange. Once the ad is served to a web page that the target views, the spyware is secretly installed on the target’s phone or computer.
If they're using ads on a web page to install spyware, then they're most definitely exploiting vulnerabilities—unless they're showing the user a 'do you want to install XYZ?', in which case this isn't newsworthy at all. Ads aren't some magical thing that can just go around installing shit silently, so I don't know wtf the article is going on about, but it doesn't make sense.
Edit: The Register seems to have a more sensible take on it: https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/16/insanet_spyware/
Apple released an update day before yesterday, and another today.
Unity also purchased a company last year that was notorious for turning a blind eye to malvertisers
And still websites are pissed that I block ads. Websites, the adblocker is not there to annoy you, it is there to protect me from your foolishness and lazyness when it comes to weed out bad actors.
And when websites demand I turn off the adblocker, I just close it.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
