On the one hand the reason the internet is mostly free is because of adverts... on the other they're annoying, don't let you get to the content, slow down your machines and if you live in some third world country that has data caps (like Canadia and the United state of Amerika) they will erode those caps to zero in no time... and then there's the whole WIndows machine virus/worm/trojan/ransomware vector thing. All in all, adds have done as much harm as they've done good... probably more harm frankly.
And that's why I'm making this post, to help you deal with adverts online. This isn't a tutorial, it's just a list of programs that you might want to consider in order to stop ads, brows the net with a slightly more secure web browser and hopefully have a better day everyday. This list will go from 7 to -3. The lower the number, the further into paranoia we delve.
7. Any browser that doesn't have pop-up and pop-under blocking inbuilt.
Someone invented pop-up in the mid 90's... there's a special place in hell for them. Pop-ups become so annoying, and such a massive vector for virus and worm transmission in the late 90's and early 00's that most browsers started having anti pup-up filters inbuilt. Then, someone else who also, coincidentally, has a special place set up just for them in hell invented the pop-under. And Browsers have been at war with advertisers and malware proliferators that make use of the pop-up and pop-under ever since.
Most modern browser - and by modern I mean made in the last 10 years - will have a level of Pop-up and pop-under blocking. That being said, if you intend to install Windows ME or XP on a 20 year old machine for the LOLs you should probably know it's not wise to take it for a spin on the internet.
6. Stock Firefox
No, no I'm really not kidding. Stock FF is a good benchmark of what a modern browser is. Slow, bloated and with inbuilt Pop-up and Pop-under filters as well as basic malware protection. But hey, that's just the stock FF experience. It only gets better.
5. A stock Chrome install
Again, not joking. And if you're wondering why is stock Chrome better then stock FF when Chrome basically sends all your data to Googe, well, we are talking about adblocking not security. Chrome, for over a year now, has had an inbuilt adblocker. It's shit, and if you've used Chrome without a dedicated adblocking extension you probably thought it wasn't working at all, but it was.
Chrome's inbuilt adblocker only blocks adverts Google thinks are problematic. Basically, Chrome will block those adverts that make people want to install adblocker in the first place - and now you just realized why AdSense owning Google is doing this.
Also, if you've noticed that all those auto play video ads no longer have sound over the past year - yeah, this is way. They either cut the sound or risked having the videos blocked entirely on Chrome.
4. FF or Chrome with AdBlock or Adblock Plus
That's AdBlock as in: https://getadblock.com/ and Adblock Plus as in: https://adblockplus.org/ Please be warned, there are a lot of imitators on the FF and Chrome extensions markets and they tend to be... well, mallware vectors.
Ok, so now we're in the part of the talk everybody know. There isn't a person here who hasn't heard of at least one of these... the problem is that they aren't that good any more. The original Adblock Plus died in 2006 or there about, the new and improved Adblock Plus is corporate backed and is running a racket scheme known as Acceptable Ads -one they've been running successfully since 2011.
AdBlock started as a program inspired by Adblcok Plus, since 2015 they've also joined the Acceptable Ads program of AdBlcok and since 2016 the code has been based on Adblock plus' code.
And if Acceptable Ads wasn't bad enough, most browsers running Adblock Plus or AdBlock will run slower then browsers lacking the extensions - you know, browsers that have to actually load the ads.
3. Brave
I know what you're thinking, if Acceptable Ads is a racket isn't Brave one too? And you're partially right, except you have to opt into their cryptocurency BAT pyramid scheme.
Brave's adblcokign capabilities are mostly thanks to EFF's Privacy Badger and HTTPS everywhere extensions code that they inbuilt in the browser. They give full credit and the browser does work. IF all you want is a browser that will just stop ads this is a good one to install and go - or install for a parent or someone older so you don't have to do maintenance.
Please note though, Brave isn't just Privacy Badger and HTTPS inbuilt in ungoogled chromium, it's a bit more, and it does use a few of the adblocking lists. That being said, they won't stop first party ads. They will stop traking and tracking adverts, but will allow first party non tracking ads - so, yeah, you will see a few ads if you use Brave.
2. any browser that supports EFF's Privacy Badger
Speaking of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, they are responsible for two rather great privacy browser extensions:
https://www.eff.org/privacybadger &
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Wile Privacy badger is indeed partially based on the open source Adblock Plus code, it should be noted that it works in a completely different manner. Wile Adblock Plus and AdBlock work based on lists, Privacy Badger works based on heuristics. Privacy Badger tries to stop tracking from happening. For those that don't know, what some advertisers do is put a JS cookie on your computer when you visit their page. Depending one who places the cookie, the page owner or a third party advertiser different things might happen:
a. the cookie will tall the page every time you come back to that site - this is used by certain ticket sellers to hype the price, basically, every time you come back to that same site the price of the product you want to buy will be higher.
b. the cookie will record every site you visit since you last visited the site and will inform the site owner of all the sites you visited with that browser since you last visited their site. ( Visit site A, get cookie from site A, visit sites B-H, cookie records that, visit site A again, cookie informs site A you visited sites B-H since you last visited site A - creepy right?)
c. the same as b. except it's an advertiser doing the snooping. Basically, every time you visit a site that has ads from say Google AdSense they put a cookie on your machine, and every time you visit another site that has ads from AdSense the cookie tells papa Google all the sites and web pages you've visited.
Now, most such tracking cookies originate with ads, and most ads are third party so Privacy badger is based on tracking such cookies and their originating ads and then blocking them. Well, erasing the cookies and making sure any ads trying to create new ones are blocked. Needless to say, advertisers aren't all that happy. That being said, since Privacy Badger is based on preserving your privacy, it will not block ads on any site that claims to honor "do not track" requests from your browser.
NOTE: Privacy Badger is a great tool and if you intend to use it I recommend you pair it with HTTPS - most mallvertising is one over HTTP, and most bad ads are also HTTP so it will help - as well as Decentraleyes which you can get at: https://decentraleyes.org/
If you're blocking ads to save bandwidth both HTTP and Decentraleyes will help you.
1. uBlock Origin/ AdGuard
And now we've reached the "good" adblocker. Again, pay attention to what you install and from where:
uBlock Origin: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/
AdGuard AdBlocker: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-browser-extension/overview.html
https://github.com/AdguardTeam
These are the best. Unlike AdBlock, Adblock Plus and Brave they come with no compromise and your browser will be faster then stock depending on how many ads need blocking. Unlike Privacy Badger they are meant to block ads, not just keep you safe.
So, what's the catch... AdGuard is owned by a Russian corporation registered in Cyprus wile uBlock Origin is made by just one guy in the good ol' US of (five eyes fame) A. On the bright side, the browser extensions are both open source and you can check them yourselves... not that any of you that can ever will...
They are good and they will stop ads. Also, Raymond Hill, the guy currently developing uBlock Origins offers users the possibility to use AdGuard'' lists so, at least as far as I'm concerned AdGuard isn't completely untrustworthy. But that's mainly because Raymond Hill has earned his trust over the years.
Again, please note that there are several uBlock wannabes that are not to be trusted. Pay attention who the people making the uBlock extension you intend to DL are.
NOTE: if you want to go nuts I recommend uBlock Origin/AdGuard extension with Privacy Badger, HTTPS everywhere and Decentraleyes. It's not everything you could do but that should be more then enough to protect you from most advertising.
0. uMatrix
Are uBlock Origin and AdGuard not enough for you? HTTPS everywere and Decentraleyes not doing a good enough job? Privacy Badger learning to slowly? uMatrix from, Raymond Hill, our pall above, has you covered!
Ok, I'm exaggerating. uMatrix is extremely powerful... it's also bad for your free time and will be worse for you then just using the above mentioned extensions if you don't know what you're doing. To get it go here: https://github.com/gorhill/uMatrix
As for weather you should use it or not... uMatrix is the adblocking equivalent of VIM. If you think you know what you're doing go for it, but otherwise just stick with uBlock Origin.
-1. DNS level blocking
So... uMatrix not enough for, you really want to block advertising and malware from even approaching your browser. OK, OK we can do that... technically.
For general Adverts the only DNS level blocking comes from AdGuard - remember they're a Russian company.
For general malware blocking there are a few more options... so many in fact I'm only going to mention COMODO, CISCO, F-SECURE, YANDEX and NORTON.
Changing DNS is easy, and since most are more or less open internationally they are likely no to be forced to honor the DNS level court ordered site blocking that your ISP's DNS have to abide by.(you can connect to sites your ISP has to legally block - think PirateBay and the like) They are also usually maintained by large multinational or in the case of AdGuard by a Russian corporation. Surprisingly, running a DNS isn't all that cost prohibitive, more on this later...
-2. Recursive Local VPN
Yeah, so, remember when I told you about DNS level ad blocking... turns out you can do the same thing by creating a virtual private network on your machine and then sending the traffic out normally. The problem here is HTTPS. Either this way doesn't work when using HTTPS and things like Brave and the EFF's HTTPS everywhere extension - as is the case of the for the windows version of AdGuard ... or they work by compromising the HTTPS security... as is the case for the Android versions of AdGuard and Blokada.
I'm sure by now you've started to wonder how AdGuard and uBlock Origin make any money... they don't, uBlock is completely free and AdGuard is financed by selling the complete desktop version of their Windows/Mac program as well as the Android AdGuard app.
The problem here is that either HTTPS bypasses your desktop application - in which case you need to use an extension either way or your android app bypasses the HTTPS encryption of your browser, in which case you just made security on your android a joke. Did I mention AdGuard for Android and Blokada both need you to allow third party software installation on your Android phone since Google won't allow them in their play store - since they're financed by adds and universal adblocking isn't in their best interest.
Personally I use Blokada on Android. You can get it from F-Droid. That being said... I don't know if any of you want to use it. They're not universal, they won't block all adds, the YouTube app is notorious for having unshockable ads so, it will depend on you and how you use your phone.
-3. Running your own DNS / host file editing
Remember when I said running your own DNS wasn't all that cost prohibitive? Yeah, turns out you can run your own DNS with just a Raspberry pi. Install Raspbian OS, install either Pi-hole or AdGuard Home, configure, link your switch and/or router to it and enjoy. Give your DNS a permanent IP and install something like DNS changer by Blokada, NetGuard or DNS66 and change the DNS in that to your configured Pi-Hole or AdGuard Home DNS and you will have DNS level adblocking with a DNS you know you can technically trust.
For android there is also AdAway as a host file edit. But, to get that to work you don't just have to allow third party app installs on your phone but you have to outright root it. I might be in the minority here but I don't recommend rooting your phone.
NOTE:
This list is to help you find the right advertising content blocker for you. Please note though, there are a lot of adblockers in the Chrome Web Store, the Microsoft Store (for edge extensions) and the Firefox add-ons... whatever it's called. Hell, even independent sites like the guy running the fake uBlock.org site. Some are shit like Ghostery, some are outright malware: https://thehackernews.com/2018/04/adblocker-chrome-extention.html Please be careful when installing adblocking software. You should technically be careful when installing any extension really, but since malware prevention is one of the reasons adblockers are installed for this is a special case of be careful.
