[HN Gopher] The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when sear...
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       The FBI now recommends using an ad blocker when searching the web
        
       Author : taubek
       Score  : 154 points
       Date   : 2023-02-23 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.standard.co.uk)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.standard.co.uk)
        
       | saklash wrote:
       | Over the years, marketing networks have been infiltrated by
       | hackers who manipulate ads to spread malware. Since the ads were
       | served through a host of web pages, the attackers could do damage
       | to a victim's computers in minutes. With an ad blocker, though,
       | you can prevent this situation from happening to you.
        
       | TacticalCoder wrote:
       | Here are a few things I do to combat nasty websites:
       | 
       | - blacklists entire domains using wildcards (using an "unbound"
       | DNS resolver and forcing all traffic to my DNS resolver,
       | preventing _my browser_ to use DoH -- I can still then use DoH if
       | I want, from unbound)
       | 
       | - reject or drop a huge number of known bad actors, regularly
       | updated: they go into gigantic "ip sets" firewall rules
       | 
       | - (I came up with this one): use a little firewall rule that
       | prevents _any_ IDN from resolving. That 's a one line UDP rule
       | and it stops cold dead any IDN homograph attack. Basically
       | searching any UDP packet for the "xn--" string.
       | 
       | I do _not_ care about what this breaks. The Web still works
       | totally fine for me, including Google 's G Suite (yeah, I know).
       | 
       | EDIT: just to be clear seen the comments for I realize I wasn't
       | very precise... I'm not saying all IDN domains are bad! What I'm
       | saying is that in my day to day Web surfing, 99.99% of the
       | websites I'm using do not use IDN and so, in my case, blocking
       | IDN, up until today, is totally fine as it not only doesn't
       | prevent _me_ from surfing the Web (I haven 't seen a single site
       | I need breaking) but it also protects me from IDN homograph
       | attacks. Your mileage may vary and you live in a country where
       | it's normal to go on website with internationalized domain names,
       | then obviously you cannot simply drop all UDP packets attempting
       | to resolve IDNs.
        
         | cgb223 wrote:
         | What's an IDN and what does blocking them help with?
        
           | NetOpWibby wrote:
           | Mainly homoglyphs. Characters that LOOK like Latin characters
           | but aren't. Scammers register domains to make it look like at
           | a glance you're visiting a reputable site.
           | 
           | It's why many browsers started defaulting to showing
           | "xn--<whatever>" (punycode representation of IDN characters).
           | 
           | It sucks for domains that are emoji but whatevs. Scammers
           | ruining things for everyone, as usual.
        
           | buildbot wrote:
           | International domain name - blocking them prevents look alike
           | URLs from working. But also, IMO, this is bad advice for
           | anyone who uses not English as a language...
        
         | giobox wrote:
         | While these are all good practices, killing DoH conclusively on
         | your home network is more difficult than you've made it seem,
         | as ultimately all you can really do is use domain blacklists at
         | your firewall. It's no longer as straight forward as just
         | control port 53 traffic, not like you can realistically shut
         | down 443... Blocking DoH is largely whack-a-mole and I think is
         | only going to get worse as this and similar techniques spread.
         | There are so many sneaky ways to resolve a hostname an app or
         | device can choose to use now.
         | 
         | You can force traditional port 53 DNS protocol traffic to your
         | own resolver with firewall rules, the same doesn't work for
         | DoH. a DoH request to a domain your firewall blacklist doesn't
         | have looks just like ordinary https/443 traffic and will pass
         | unhindered.
        
           | LinuxBender wrote:
           | _Blocking DoH is largely whack-a-mole_
           | 
           | Maybe this is so but I have yet to see it. AFAIK all the
           | DoT/DoH are on known dedicated IP addresses. I know they
           | don't have to be. They could be on generic
           | Akamai/CF/BunnyCDN/etc... end points but I have yet to come
           | across one utilized in the wild. Have you found any? What are
           | their IP addresses? I would like to add them to my DNS
           | timing/monitoring scripts.
           | 
           | I null route about 24 DoT/DoH IP addresses and my one
           | smartphone seemed to figure out automagically that my router
           | was serving up DoT on 853.
        
           | TacticalCoder wrote:
           | > While these are all good practices, killing DoH
           | conclusively on your home network is more difficult than
           | you've made it seem
           | 
           | Oh I know but so far you can still ask both Firefox and
           | Chromium to not use DoH and hence force them to use port 53
           | and from what I've seen they really honor that. For the
           | moment.
           | 
           | I don't doubt that in a not so distant future we may see
           | companies hardcoding DoH into apps without any possibility of
           | removing that setting!
           | 
           | What I do is no panacea but it gets rid of a lot of things.
           | 
           | > There are so many sneaky ways to resolve a hostname an app
           | or device can choose to use now.
           | 
           | But I whitelist apps that can connect to the net. Browsers,
           | apt (for Debian/Devuan package update), the one that update
           | the NTP/time, SSH out and that's basically it.
           | 
           | I know it's a game of whack-a-mole, but I'm still playing it
           | : )
        
         | SahAssar wrote:
         | The last one is very anglo-centric (or at least centric to
         | fully latinized languages). Do you not find the rules[0] in for
         | example chrome working?
         | 
         | [0]:
         | https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/main/docs/i...
        
           | TacticalCoder wrote:
           | I'm not even a native english speaker and my native language
           | does have accentuated characters so there's that...
           | 
           | I don't like to have to set rules in browsers: I'll do it
           | when mandatory but I prefer things that the browser won't
           | change during it's next update and, also, I use several
           | browsers.
        
         | eurticket wrote:
         | Steven Black runs a hosts file on GitHub with regular updates.
         | https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts
         | 
         | There are a bunch of file variants to weed out specific bad
         | actors.
         | 
         | It's well currated though I will disclaimer it has broken a few
         | websites in the past for me. Maybe that's a good thing.
        
       | halfjoking wrote:
       | FBI must have infiltrated ad blocker servers containing malicious
       | url lists.
       | 
       | Never using an adblocker again.
        
         | raydiatian wrote:
         | Username checks out.
        
         | shadowgovt wrote:
         | Using an adblocker based on Manifest v3 would avoid this, as
         | those blockers can't phone home to update their malware
         | datasets. ;)
        
           | cudgy wrote:
           | Is this not also the case when using iOS content blockers?
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | westcort wrote:
       | Any recommendations for a good ad blocker and other precautions
       | to take?
        
         | lemoncookiechip wrote:
         | A combination of uBlock Origin + NoScript + Bypass Paywalls
         | Clean + FastForward + ClearURLs as well as a pop-up blocker of
         | your choice, will make your web browsing experience a bit
         | cleaner. Not all of these might available for Chromium, I
         | personally use Firefox for my daily use, with some Chromium
         | browsers as backup.
         | 
         | NoScript will break pretty much 50% of the web. It'll take you
         | about a day to whitelist all the sites you use daily and then
         | it's smooth sailing.
         | 
         | I would also highly recommend this privacy focused list.
         | https://www.privacytools.io/
        
         | markx2 wrote:
         | https://nextdns.io and then UBlock Origin, uMatrix, Noscript at
         | least.
        
           | blakesterz wrote:
           | I think I found NextDNS here on HN and I've been really happy
           | with it.
        
           | SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
           | NextDNS + Ublock Origin (or Brave Browser, since it uses the
           | UBO lists by default) is a really good combo on its own, and
           | easy enough for my self-proclaimed "tech illiterate" friends
           | to set up and use.
           | 
           | Also, it's pretty cool that NextDNS has this:
           | https://github.com/nextdns/nextdns/wiki
        
         | Scoundreller wrote:
         | On iOS (but also for mac and tvOS), I took my pick of dns based
         | systems here:
         | 
         | https://encrypted-dns.party/
         | 
         | https://gitlab.com/nitrohorse/ios14-encrypted-dns-mobileconf...
         | 
         | No idea if I should really trust them, or if there's a better
         | way to install profiles directly from CIRA or Mullvad like I
         | use.
         | 
         | Nice thing is that it's device wide and all free (hopefully not
         | for malicious intents).
        
         | sys42590 wrote:
         | I recommend uBlock Origin and the anti-malware DNS from
         | Cloudflare
        
         | haunter wrote:
         | I use uBlock Origin on PC and Adguard Pro on iOS (with the
         | uBlock Origin filters 1:1)
        
         | bogwog wrote:
         | I use adnauseam (https://adnauseam.io/), which is built on top
         | of ublock origin, and it works pretty well.
         | 
         | The generic nuclear option to hide terrible web design, bypass
         | (some) paywalls, and improve performance 1000x is to disable
         | javascript. ublock and adnauseam both have a button to disable
         | all javascript on a page, which is handy when reading articles
         | on sites filled with garbage.
        
           | autoexec wrote:
           | adnauseam is seriously a terrible idea. It's actually
           | dangerous. The idea that you can somehow trick advertisers by
           | polluting your dossier and making it useless to them after
           | filling it with random data is fundamentally flawed.
           | 
           | Every scrap of data collected about you will be used against
           | you. It doesn't matter if it's accurate or not, nobody cares
           | if they data they have about you is accurate, data brokers
           | will happily sell your personal info to anyone even knowing
           | full well that it's got inaccurate and conflicting info in
           | it. Many won't even know because the process is entirely
           | automated.
           | 
           | By automatically clicking on ads and "expressing interest" in
           | random things you're just filling your dossier with ammo
           | which gets handed to others to fire at you. Every random
           | thing you add to your permanent record is one more thing that
           | can only hurt you.
           | 
           | You cannot know what will prejudice someone against you.
           | Maybe one day adnauseam decides to click on something that
           | gets you flagged as having a certain political view, or
           | having a certain sexual orientation, or being an alcoholic,
           | or having a mental illness, or being at a certain income
           | level, or belonging to a certain religion, etc. One day that
           | exact data can cause you to get turned down for a job, or for
           | housing. It can mean that a website charges you more than
           | what your neighbor pays for the same product. It can mean
           | your insurance rates go up next year.
           | 
           | You will never be told when it happens or why. Your health
           | insurance company isn't going to tell you that they raised
           | your rates because you (adnauseam) clicked on too many fast
           | food ads last quarter. You're just suddenly getting a higher
           | bill. Your auto insurance company won't tell you that they
           | raised your rates after you were clicking ads for DUI
           | lawyers, but suddenly they and every other insurance provider
           | you try are quoting you higher monthly prices.
           | 
           | If your browser extension decides to go click on ads about
           | abortions you could even end up being hauled into a texas
           | courtroom and having to defend against charges. Sure, you'd
           | get them thrown out eventually. Probably. But it would still
           | cost you a ton of time and money and stress. The information
           | in your dossier can get you targeted, harassed, or attacked
           | by extremists. It can get be used against you in court rooms.
           | It can get you investigated by three letter agencies. It can
           | be used to impact your 'secret consumer score' or consumer
           | trustworthiness rating.
           | 
           | The information being collected about you is sold to
           | companies, employers, activists, extremists, and law
           | enforcement. That data never goes away. It follows you for
           | the rest of your life and will be used against you in ways
           | you'll never be aware of and cannot today imagine. Filling
           | your dossier with huge amounts of content (random or not) is
           | dangerous and only increases your risk for zero benefit.
        
             | bogwog wrote:
             | All I care about is hiding/obfuscating my personal
             | information. I just don't like the idea of giving that away
             | for free, even if it's actually harmless.
             | 
             | I don't care if I get wrongly labeled/categorized due to
             | this. It's not like my profile was an accurate
             | representation of who I am before I turned on ad nauseam.
             | If someone gets dragged into a court room for clicking ads,
             | that would be funny, and I doubt they would have a hard
             | time finding support from orgs like the EFF, gofundme, etc.
             | 
             | One long term benefit of this is that if a lot of people
             | use it, advertisers will start seeing diminishing returns
             | on their investment in internet ads. This will lead to
             | reduced spending and less ads overall.
        
               | autoexec wrote:
               | > All I care about is hiding/obfuscating my personal
               | information.
               | 
               | adnauseam does not do this. It only adds to your personal
               | information. It doesn't hide anything.
               | 
               | > I don't care if I get wrongly labeled/categorized due
               | to this.
               | 
               | Then you must not care when you suffer from the impacts
               | of having been wrongly labeled/categorized. Nobody can
               | make you care about yourself, your money, your safety, or
               | your time if you won't.
               | 
               | > It's not like my profile was an accurate representation
               | of who I am before I turned on ad nauseam.
               | 
               | Again, nobody cares about how accurate it is or not. It's
               | about quantity, not quality. Accurate or not, that data
               | will increasingly impact your life in very real ways. The
               | more data they have, the worse it will be for you.
               | 
               | > One long term benefit of this is that if a lot of
               | people use it, advertisers will start seeing diminishing
               | returns on their investment in internet ads.
               | 
               | this isn't actually true, because again, advertisers
               | don't care. That's why the world is filled with ads that
               | aren't laser focused on you as an individual. We have
               | more and more ads on network TV, on billboards, on radio
               | etc. None of them were stopped because they sometimes
               | showed an ad to someone who doesn't care about it.
               | Seriously, they don't care. You clicked, that's good
               | enough for them. Sales aren't even always the goal. Being
               | seen (or the appearance of being seen) is often all they
               | need.
               | 
               | You're seriously only hurting yourself.
        
           | krackers wrote:
           | >both have a button to disable all javascript on a page
           | 
           | Be slightly careful, there's a known issue (limitation of
           | Chrome really) where requests and javascript are not blocked
           | in the first few seconds of launching a browser or an
           | incognito window (you can test this yourself). And this is
           | true even with "Suspend network activity until all filter
           | lists are loaded" enabled, because I think it's some
           | limitation on Chrome as to when exactly extensions get
           | loaded.
           | 
           | So if you do rely on javascript being disabled for safety,
           | after a fresh launch or new incognito window, you should
           | visit a safe webpage first before going to the risky one.
        
             | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
             | Just switch to a browser that respects user privacy. With
             | NoScript you can fine tune which domains you'll accept
             | scripts from when the zero-JS experience isn't usable.
        
             | fl0ps wrote:
             | I'm going to just read "limitation on Chrome" as "purposely
             | defective by design" as there's sufficient incentive to
             | delay disabling to let a few telemetric squeaks escape.
        
         | _rs wrote:
         | On Mac and iOS I use and recommend AdGuard which has native
         | content blocker extensions and lets you use Easylist block
         | lists (as well as their own).
         | 
         | On Chrome/Firefox I use uBlock Origin which works well. I'm not
         | sure if the community recommends something else at this point.
         | 
         | I also use various other extensions like StopTheMadness to
         | disable right click hijacking and other bad behavior and Banish
         | on iOS to prevent certain banners from appearing.
        
         | jjkmk wrote:
         | UBlock Orgin works for most browsers, and has been the industry
         | standard for some time. You can even deploy it as part of group
         | policy in an organization:
         | https://deployhappiness.com/deploying-ublock-origin-for-chro...
        
         | nathanaldensr wrote:
         | uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Pi-hole, and a mobile browser
         | like Firefox that allows for extensions for those times when
         | one is not browsing on the same network that the Pi-hole runs
         | on. One may also use a VPN on all devices that connect to a
         | network with DNS-level ad-blocking.
        
         | pmontra wrote:
         | If you're on Android also use Blockada to block ads in app.
         | It's a local VPN server that filters out requests to ad
         | servers. I think there are other apps like that but I never
         | used anything else.
        
         | dooglius wrote:
         | It ultimately depends on what your threat model is, what are
         | you trying to defend against? I use Qubes dispvms (whonix if
         | possible) for personal browsing, but that's pretty far toward
         | the extreme end of the scale.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | ezfe wrote:
         | I use Wipr on Safari for Mac & iPhone
        
         | behnamoh wrote:
         | I know most people trash on Brave, but honestly, if you disable
         | its crypto features (which is just a click away), it's actually
         | a decent browser that blocks almost all ads I see, even on iOS!
         | 
         | For example, YouTube has no ads in iOS Brave. Since iOS doesn't
         | allow real browsers and extensions, Brave has been a sanity-
         | saver for me.
         | 
         | Pair that with uBlock on desktop and you're golden. 98% of the
         | sites don't break at all either.
        
           | frizlab wrote:
           | Safari on iOS does allow extensions. It also is a "real"
           | browser, whatever that means. iOS does not, however, allow
           | _alternate rendering engines_, which is different.
        
             | kadoban wrote:
             | It allows one real browser. The rest might as well just be
             | reskins for how little it matters.
        
             | behnamoh wrote:
             | I find Safari extensions inferior than Chrome/Firefox
             | extensions. Who thought it's a good idea to show extensions
             | as apps on the springboard/launchpad??
             | 
             | I now have 68 extensions on my Brave (desktop). Imagine
             | seeing 68 additional icons on my macOS launchpad!
        
             | Zurrrrr wrote:
             | Acting like you don't know what a real browser means in
             | this context just so you can be mock offended.
             | 
             | Oh you Apple users.
        
           | SparkyMcUnicorn wrote:
           | It's also way easier to just tell my mom (for example) to use
           | Brave, rather than explaining extensions, why "uBlock Origin"
           | vs "uBlock", etc.
           | 
           | Single app, all devices, works great out of the box.
        
         | Zetice wrote:
         | On MacOS I like Little Snitch for OS level stuff, with some
         | rule groups like ads_stevenblack and malwares_prigent.
        
         | anonymousiam wrote:
         | Pi-hole (https://pi-hole.net/) is a great ad blocker that
         | requires no changes to your clients.
        
           | mouse_ wrote:
           | I feel like, for those asking for cursory information about
           | setting up an ad blocker, ublock origin should be
           | recommended, and not pi-hole. Ublock Origin is a one click
           | solution that works great for everyone, while pi-hole
           | requires setup and does quite a lot. For instance, when I was
           | using pi-hole, Windows Update and Epic Games Launcher simply
           | stopped working for me. I'm not sure what was going on, it
           | could have been something wrong on my end, but nonetheless,
           | I'd hate having to help a user with issues like this after
           | recommending pi-hole when all they wanted in the first place
           | was a simple ad blocker. In my opinion, pi-hole is great, but
           | it should only be brought up in cases where the user has
           | already communicated they want something more than UBO.
        
             | anonymousiam wrote:
             | I respect your feelings, but Ublock Origin is not available
             | on my Android phone or on my iPad. It's also not available
             | for all browsers. It may not work for you, but for me Pi-
             | hole is a wonderful solution for my whole family, and they
             | don't ever need me to touch their devices in order for it
             | to work for them.
        
               | Zizizizz wrote:
               | It's on Firefox
        
               | adgjlsfhk1 wrote:
               | it works on android (as long as you use firefox)
        
           | cld8483 wrote:
           | That's fine if you have no other option, but it is inferior
           | to uBlock Origin since it can't do any cosmetic filtering.
           | Better to use pi-hole on your network for clients that have
           | no other choice, but to then also use uBlock Origin on any
           | client you can.
        
         | jmclnx wrote:
         | I use noscript
         | 
         | https://noscript.net/
         | 
         | But I sort of think this may be more of an issue with Cell
         | Phones.
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | No script is excellent, but it is certainly not for the faint
           | of heart. It basically breaks the (modern) internet and then
           | you have to go in yourself an unfuck each website.
           | 
           | The upside though is big, stops all the insane bloat that
           | runs on most pages. Many websites run fine with all their
           | scripts blocked too.
        
       | radium3d wrote:
       | hehe makes sense to send all the pages you visit to the FBI/NSA,
       | etc. If they have multiple sources (DNS and AdBlockers, VPNS,
       | etc. They can verify the data on one or the other.
        
       | drusepth wrote:
       | Does anyone have any adblockers they recommend that still show
       | "safe" ads (e.g. non-malware) by default, without having to
       | whitelist every site? I'd be open to the security benefits of an
       | adblocker if I could still passively support all the sites I
       | visit.
       | 
       | Edit: changed "good" to "safe" for clarity
        
         | cld8483 wrote:
         | The only "good" ads are those you have to specifically go out
         | of your way to view because you want to view them; such as
         | product catalogues.
         | 
         | All other ads are physiological assault and should be made
         | illegal. Particularly those ads which exist "IRL" and can't
         | otherwise be blocked, such as billboards.
        
         | cinntaile wrote:
         | The problem is you can't tell the difference.
        
       | autoexec wrote:
       | Pretty late to the game there, FBI. There are examples going back
       | decades of drive by downloads and exploits from ads on popular
       | websites. It's not enough to avoid shady websites. Any website
       | filled with ads is already a shady website.
        
       | madars wrote:
       | Or, in other words, FBI now recommends using Android :-) It's
       | baffling how much better uBlock Origin + Firefox experience on
       | Android is compared to any iOS ad blocker I have tried. They
       | kind-of work but let half of the ads through.
        
         | hailwren wrote:
         | Yeah, android trades browser ads for system wide tracking. I'm
         | not really sure that's a good deal.
        
         | poglet wrote:
         | Not comparable but NextDNS has been working well for me on iOS.
        
           | comprev wrote:
           | NextDNS works for 95% of the web I visit. AdGuard iOS plugin
           | works on Facebook's mobile web app for when I rarely use it.
        
         | dcdc123 wrote:
         | Brave browser on iOS has good blocking, but the browser
         | experience itself is a bit of a mixed bag.
        
           | kmlx wrote:
           | i've used this one for years:
           | 
           | https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/wipr/id1030595027
           | 
           | no issues, works great.
        
         | mlindner wrote:
         | Do all the people who use computers to browse the internet (the
         | majority of people on the internet) suddenly no longer exist?
        
           | contravariant wrote:
           | I'm wondering if those still are the majority, worldwide.
           | Smart-phones have done a lot to democratize computing power
           | (now if only they weren't used to put >90% of their users in
           | corporate controlled walled gardens...)
        
             | jstx1 wrote:
             | I bet they're still the majority - the people who only use
             | their phone do it through apps, not through their mobile
             | browser.
        
           | LinuxBender wrote:
           | I'm still here. I've used a browser on my phone exactly once
           | to register my phone. With exception to that one time I only
           | use Firefox on Linux on an old PC.
        
           | ajsnigrutin wrote:
           | Those who used them 10 years ago still use them... but
           | billions who didn't use them then, use smartphones now.
        
       | VFIT7CTO77TOC wrote:
       | It is infuriating that Google seems to be doing nothing about
       | scam ads. For years I have been seeing "Click to install iPhone
       | update!!!" ads on YouTube mobile. Easy to have huge profit
       | margins when your company hires no humans to do things like
       | customer support and ad vetting.
        
         | wlesieutre wrote:
         | There's been a series of malware distribution ads pretending to
         | be blender.org popping up at the top of Google results on and
         | off for months.
         | 
         | 1 month ago:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/109yjxm/dont_click...
         | 
         | 2 months ago:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/zewem3/beware_of_p...
         | 
         | 4 months ago:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/xxkx5s/warning_som...
         | 
         | 7 months ago:
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/blender/comments/vuqu1r/hey_so_what...
         | 
         | Pretty sad state of affairs that Google can't or won't stop
         | this, especially since they gradually redesigned the ads spots
         | to look practically identical to the search results. Be very
         | careful clicking anything on Google's search results.
        
         | junon wrote:
         | I still get ads for Slovenian brides on YouTube. Not only is it
         | incredibly gross and objective to me, Google clearly knows
         | nothing about my demographic.
        
           | prox wrote:
           | I still see extreme right wing propaganda on a pristine
           | profile on YouTube's flipping homepage. I would love to use
           | expletives on the YT management right now, but I refrain.
        
         | UberFly wrote:
         | Yea, I think we can all conclude they just don't care if it
         | effects their bottom line. So short-sighted. About a month ago
         | people in the AMD subreddit were complaining about compromised
         | drivers and software appearing as the #1 search results due to
         | these kind of ads.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | tomohawk wrote:
       | They don't like the competition.
        
       | TheSpiceIsLife wrote:
       | Which we should probably take to mean at least some of the
       | popular ad blockers are comprised to some degree in law
       | enforcements favour.
       | 
       | Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me
       | ;)
        
       | cheapliquor wrote:
       | FBI said I can have a little uBlock Origin
       | 
       | As a treat
        
       | annoyingnoob wrote:
       | I think browser Notifications help drive these attacks. How many
       | web sites do you visit that offer a pop-up that says the site
       | would like to send you Notifications? You click Allow and
       | suddenly start seeing Ads popup in your Notification area, not a
       | site notification but an Ad.
       | 
       | I had a user show me one of these Notification ads just this
       | week, telling here that McAfee found a virus and click the Ad to
       | remove the virus. We do not even use McAfee, it was a straight up
       | attack ad. Thanks Chrome!
        
       | elecush wrote:
       | FBI's chief export: software suggestions
        
       | lakomen wrote:
       | Well too bad Google won't let you on the phone, Firefox at least
       | allows you to install ublock.
        
         | Zizizizz wrote:
         | Brave, Firefox, Bromite all do, or you can use nextdns or
         | adguard as a private DNS in your network settings. I think the
         | last option is a little wireguard set up to route traffic to a
         | server or small pc that has unbound and pinhole on it
        
           | staringback wrote:
           | DNS adblocking isn't even remotely comparable to ublock
           | origin
        
             | wooptoo wrote:
             | Can you please elaborate on this? thanks
        
       | rmason wrote:
       | Is it time for an open source adblocker that only blocks bad
       | actors?
       | 
       | I am perfectly fine with ads, I've previously run sites where it
       | was a small source of income myself. I know it would be in a cat
       | and mouse game with the bad guys but if it blocked most of them
       | it would certainly help a lot of people.
        
         | WirelessGigabit wrote:
         | Let's build that company that serves ads and blocks bad actors.
         | We can then offer the blocklist to other blockers.
         | 
         | Problems: * vetting ads costs a lot of time (= money). So
         | you're getting less money per impression * requires a massive
         | amount of infrastructure if you want to ensure that the ad
         | doesn't change in between you vetting it and you serving it to
         | your clients (= money).
         | 
         | Meaning the consumers of our company will get less money per ad
         | they show to their visitors.
         | 
         | So they'll go to one that offers more. Simple as that.
         | 
         | In order to fix the bad actors we need to start making the
         | websites serving the ads (like Reddit) and/or the networks
         | (DoubleClick) responsible for what they offer up.
         | 
         | As long as that doesn't happen it'll remain a cesspool.
        
       | Animats wrote:
       | Make ad brokers share responsibility for losses due to scam ads.
       | If the ad broker is unable to clearly identify the advertiser for
       | lawsuit purposes, the ad broker should face consequences. They're
       | assisting the criminal by helping them hide.
        
         | NetOpWibby wrote:
         | I like this
        
       | kerkeslager wrote:
       | At this point it's irresponsible for browsers not to come with ad
       | blocking preinstalled.
        
       | tech234a wrote:
       | Official announcement, December 2022:
       | https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA221221
        
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       (page generated 2023-02-23 23:00 UTC)