>First, we’ve discovered that about a quarter of all the internet connection in or out of the house were ad related. In a few hours, that’s about 10,000 out of 40,000 processed.
>We also discovered that every link on Twitter was blocked. This was solved by whitelisting the https://t.co domain.
>Once out browsing the Web, everything is loading pretty much instantly. It turns out most of that Page Loading malarkey we’ve been accustomed to is related to sites running auctions to sell Ad space to show you before the page loads. All gone now.
>We then found that the Samsung TV (which I really like) is very fond of yapping all about itself to Samsung HQ. All stopped now. No sign of any breakages in its function, so I’m happy enough with that.
>The primary source of distress came from the habitual Lemmings player in the house, who found they could no longer watch ads to build up their in-app gold. A workaround is being considered for this.
>The next ambition is to advance the Ad blocking so that it seamlessly removed YouTube Ads. This is the subject of ongoing research, and tinkering continues. All in all, a very successful experiment.
>Certainly this exceeds my equivalent childhood project of disassembling and assembling our rotary dial telephone. A project whose only utility was finding out how to make the phone ring when nobody was calling.
>Update: All4 on the telly appears not to have any ads any more. Goodbye Arnold Clarke!
>Lemmings problem now solved.
>Can confirm, after small tests, that RTÉ Player ads are now gone and the player on the phone is now just delivering swift, ad free streams at first click.
>Some queries along the lines of “Are you not stealing the internet?” Firstly, this is my network, so I may set it up as I please (or, you know, my son can do it and I can give him a stupid thumbs up in response). But there is a wider question, based on the ads=internet model.
>I’m afraid I passed the You Wouldn’t Download A Car point back when I first installed ad-blocking plug-ins on a browser. But consider my chatty TV. Individual consumer choice is not the method of addressing pervasive commercial surveillance.
>Should I feel morally obliged not to mute the TV when the ads come on? No, this is a standing tension- a clash of interests. But I think my interest in my family not being under intrusive or covert surveillance at home is superior to the ad company’s wish to profile them.
>Aside: 24 hours of Pi Hole stats suggests that Samsung TVs are very chatty. 14,170 chats a day.
>YouTube blocking seems difficult, as the ads usually come from the same domain as the videos. Haven’t tried it, but all of the content can also be delivered from a no-cookies version of the YouTube domain, which doesn’t have the ads. I have asked my son to poke at that idea.
#stealing#blocking adds is effectively content if you want to phrase it that way#you can acknowledge that and still be ok doing it#I personally am just fine with jt#If adds were less intrusive Id be more willing to turn addblock off
Blocking ads is absolutely not stealing. The ads<>content agreement is between content hosting platforms and advertisers. The only role of the viewer in this arrangement is as the product. We are the product being traded, lured by content, not a party involved in the transaction. At no point was our agreement sought or expected.
If viewers are not watching ads and thus the platform is not delivering product to the advertisers, that’s an issue between the platform and the advertisers. Viewers aren’t stealing anything, morally or immorally; we never agreed to any transaction.
It should also be noted that if you have any usage fees or limits on your connection, any ads will directly negatively impact you, either from you getting charged for the data transmitted to show you ads you didn't want, or from them eating up your data allowance, forcing you to restrict voluntary usage to avoid fees.
I setup pi-hole with an old raspberry pi 3B in about an hour and stopped having to explain to my mom not to click on the fucking Roku ads. And malicious software clicks have gone from a dozen a day to 0! It has been amazing! Seriously, if you live with a computer un-savvy person it is a godsend.
