I'll have to look into the terms and conditions of ad guard home, but it still comes from a company we've seen might be shady.
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Best Mac Adblocker for PRIVACY and data protection? [MERGED]
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I'll have to look into the terms and conditions of ad guard home, but it still comes from a company we've seen might be shady.
We gave you the answer already. Setting PiHole is not that complicated if you are computer savvy. It takes about 24 minutes. Otherwise you can use any of the reputable VPN companies like ProtonVPN or Mullvad.
You can also use free ControlD or paid NextDNS. If you are worried they see the websites you visit, then your current ISP is already seeing it all.
To be clear, I have to believe that's "2-4 minutes".
PiHole is trivial to set up. I wanted to try AdGuard Home because it was referenced by a security blogger I was reading. Now I have both.
Paranoid much, tools exist and they are open source for all to inspect. Thankfully I dont have your problems LOL...
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It's not really a paranoia question for me but rather when you have tiles in your front yard layed out perfectly and nicely, in the same way you want your computer to be clean from viruses and other things, just like you want your body to be healthy and free from viruses as well.
If I was paranoid I wouldn't be running AdGuard since I started this thread months ago, it's just that I think it's not a perfect solution and I believe there could be better. Many people in this thread have stated why.
I'm just surprised nobody has used this huge market gap yet.
Could you link me to a good tutorial on how to set it up? I'm a noob in all of this by the way. I wouldn't say I'm tech savvy …
Do those two apps not overlap in what they do? I'm interested in trying one of these myself.To be clear, I have to believe that's "2-4 minutes".
PiHole is trivial to set up. I wanted to try AdGuard Home because it was referenced by a security blogger I was reading. Now I have both.
Get an old computer, put it on the network, install PiHole software, boom, off to the races.
For more detailed help, I’d have to know exactly what you are starting from …. If you only have Windows or Linux, if you have Docker Desktop already installed, etc.
For more detailed help, I’d have to know exactly what you are starting from …. If you only have Windows or Linux, if you have Docker Desktop already installed, etc.
To be clear, I have to believe that's "2-4 minutes".
PiHole is trivial to set up. I wanted to try AdGuard Home because it was referenced by a security blogger I was reading. Now I have both.
Not in my case of installing it on a raspberry Pi.
There are other ways to set it up but this is the way i did it. You have to get a raspberry Pi, make sure you got all the hardware you need.
1-Download Raspberry Pi OS from here following the instructions under "Install Raspberry Pi OS using Raspberry Pi Imager"
2-Open terminal in your mac and type "touch ssh"
3-This file will be created in your user directory. Copy and paste in the boot directory of the SD card you just made
4-follow instructions of this link here
5-If done correctly you should be able to connect to your raspberry pi by opening the terminal app in your macos and typing :-
ssh pi@(the IP address you set if your raspberry pi)
it will ask for a password which should be "raspberry" (you won't see astricks reflecting your key clicks but its going through)
if successful , follow the PiHole setup guide which is basically copy and paste of this command:-
curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | bash
follow instructions.
It sounds like a lot of work but in reality its just 25min processes. Maybe doing it using the Docker method is easier but I never set up that one
They should overlap as they are two softwares doing the same thing. I would choose PiHole simply because it has much bigger user base and community support in case you have questions but I do not know if AdGuard Home has any advantages.
As said if AdGuard was a bad actor it would be lit up like a Christmas tree across my systems. There is no perfect solution or you can just live with the ad's and suffer their poison. I dont have such problems as I have a tool that works for me...
There is no gap, as there are multiple tools that effectively remove ads and while I dont trust them 100% I do trust them a good deal more than those generating the ad's who's only function is to serve themselves...
Much depends on the platform, as long as the ad's are vapourised I dont remotely care as they are both tedious & boring and life on the web is far better without them...
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part of the 25min is the setup, if you already have everything then yes typing that pihole install command is like 4min for everything
Lowering the risk is also something to consider. Using Adguard even with risk is better than going naked out there on the web. Its like installing fireproof doors, doesn't mean you won't risk your house having a fire but its a better option than not.
Adguard plugin block ads&trackers in browser
Adguard app blocks ads&trackers on whole device
DNS Blocker (PiHole, Adguard DNS, NextDNS, ControlD) when configuring the DNS numbers on the router, blocks ads&trackers network wide on every device connected to the internet via your router.
The problem with DNS blockers is they can't block in video ads like youtube, those can be blocked with a browser plugin. So use both as they complement each other.
To be honest, the idea that there may be trackers on non-browser apps was not obvious to me!
Two articles I just remembered that you might be interested in:
"On your iPhone, you can now tap a button that says, “Ask app not to track.” But behind the scenes, some apps keep snooping anyway.
Say you open the app “Subway Surfers,” listed as one of the App Store’s “must-play” games. It asks if you’re okay with the app “tracking” you, a question iPhones started displaying in April as part of a privacy crackdown by Apple. Saying no is supposed to stop apps such as “Subway Surfers” and Facebook from learning about what you do in other apps and websites.
But something curious happens after you ask not to be tracked, according to an investigation by researchers at privacy software maker Lockdown and The Washington Post. “Subway Surfers” starts sending an outside ad company called Chartboost 29 very specific data points about your iPhone, including your Internet address, your free storage, your current volume level (to 3 decimal points) and even your battery level (to 15 decimal points). It’s the kind of unique data that could be used by advertisers to identify your iPhone, possibly letting them know what other apps you use or how to target you."
Analysis | When you ‘Ask app not to track,’ some iPhone apps keep snooping anyway
To test Apple’s newest privacy protections, we watched the data flow out of 10 popular apps. Some appeared to be “fingerprinting” phones, a more invasive form of tracking.
www.washingtonpost.com
"It’s 3 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is doing?
Mine has been alarmingly busy. Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps are beaming out lots of information about me to companies I’ve never heard of. Your iPhone probably is doing the same — and Apple could be doing more to stop it.
On a recent Monday night, a dozen marketing companies, research firms and other personal data guzzlers got reports from my iPhone. At 11:43 p.m., a company called Amplitude learned my phone number, email and exact location. At 3:58 a.m., another called Appboy got a digital fingerprint of my phone. At 6:25 a.m., a tracker called Demdex received a way to identify my phone and sent back a list of other trackers to pair up with.
And all night long, there was some startling behavior by a household name: Yelp. It was receiving a message that included my IP address -— once every five minutes."
Perspective | It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to?
We ran a privacy experiment to see how many hidden trackers are running from the apps on our iPhone. The tally is astounding.
www.washingtonpost.com
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Interesting stuff, @KaliYoni . It seems that trackers outside of the browser is something not many people think about.
I'm guessing the app Little Snitch, which I have seen mentioned here quite a lot over the years, is another system-wide blocker.
I'm guessing the app Little Snitch, which I have seen mentioned here quite a lot over the years, is another system-wide blocker.
That won't help with a phone, though; it's a Mac app. The issue is everyone needs to use either PiHole or AdGuard Home at the network layer, in order to protect themselves (at least at home). You'd be floored at all the junk these DNS blockers end up blocking.
Calling someone paranoid who is just cautious is a bit rude, don't you think? Just because YOU are satisfied with it and feel safe doesn't mean that others have to feel it that way.
You can't be cautious enough, in my honest opinion. If it's just a gaming PC, okay, who cares about some spyware, right? In my case I have very important data on my Macbook. My banking account, my personal stuff.
One shady action is enough for me because I trust them with all my data. It is not like it is an app within a sandbox that has limited access. They are installing a root certificate on the machine.
As I mentioned before, there have been "holy" antimalware companies like Avira that have been praised into the heavens and back, who had also open source parts and betrayed their customers by bundling with crypto miners or AVAST, who secretly collected user data.
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Let’s differentiate AdGuard vs. AdGuard Home (the PiHole alternative, no root certs).
Use what you want to use, equally one has to draw a line in the sand one way or the other unless you plan to be offline indefinitely. Any company could sell out or be forced to compel. AdGuard's extension works as advertised and to all intents and purposes the company is transparent.
I dont solely rely on AdGuard as have VPN with private DNS with filtering, and other tools or maybe I shouldn't trust them either with the same logic applied? Same as both Microsoft & Apple are hoovering up your data by the second, for what purpose to profile you and monetize their customers. Apple even sells user data to Google LOL for billions per annum.
Never had malware or virus, so for me my solutions work. Nor do I assume a company is a bad actor due to it's original point of origin. You may think I'm cavalier, however I'm very far from that. I travelled extensively for work purpose across the globe with no issue while others suffered the consequences of compromised credit cards/bank accounts, for the sake of spending a few dollars on applications/services to protect their data which they were reluctant to spend out on
I never relied on hotel networks, with or without encryption. I employed a portable router on the digital network with a strong VPN & HW firewalls. Very last thing I would use is a free and open WIFI access point.
It's been a balance of security & useability for years now, nor is it going to change or get any better...
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Yah.
I use PiHole (on a, er, Pi4b) in my core network, and it is pure Enlightenment.
YouTube has, however, recently been putting the Big Hammer down, and prefixing every (on my end) video with two non-skip ads (grr)
It is far more efforting on my part to manage ad-block software sp. for YT than it is to mitigate by reduction my dependence upon YT (as an idea sharing medium).
A YT video often says a million words; but, well, sometimes one has to just change the conversation
It's a specific-to-the-device-that-runs-Mac-OS firewall tool.
Bit of a PITA at times by virtue of its somewhat-excessive communicability, yet an extremely useful tool that allows one to monitor in&out net traffic on the device to which it is installed.
I give it a 9.3/10
Two articles I just remembered that you might be interested in:
"On your iPhone, you can now tap a button that says, “Ask app not to track.” But behind the scenes, some apps keep snooping anyway.
Say you open the app “Subway Surfers,” listed as one of the App Store’s “must-play” games. It asks if you’re okay with the app “tracking” you, a question iPhones started displaying in April as part of a privacy crackdown by Apple. Saying no is supposed to stop apps such as “Subway Surfers” and Facebook from learning about what you do in other apps and websites.
But something curious happens after you ask not to be tracked, according to an investigation by researchers at privacy software maker Lockdown and The Washington Post. “Subway Surfers” starts sending an outside ad company called Chartboost 29 very specific data points about your iPhone, including your Internet address, your free storage, your current volume level (to 3 decimal points) and even your battery level (to 15 decimal points). It’s the kind of unique data that could be used by advertisers to identify your iPhone, possibly letting them know what other apps you use or how to target you."
Analysis | When you ‘Ask app not to track,’ some iPhone apps keep snooping anyway
To test Apple’s newest privacy protections, we watched the data flow out of 10 popular apps. Some appeared to be “fingerprinting” phones, a more invasive form of tracking.
"It’s 3 a.m. Do you know what your iPhone is doing?
Mine has been alarmingly busy. Even though the screen is off and I’m snoring, apps are beaming out lots of information about me to companies I’ve never heard of. Your iPhone probably is doing the same — and Apple could be doing more to stop it.
On a recent Monday night, a dozen marketing companies, research firms and other personal data guzzlers got reports from my iPhone. At 11:43 p.m., a company called Amplitude learned my phone number, email and exact location. At 3:58 a.m., another called Appboy got a digital fingerprint of my phone. At 6:25 a.m., a tracker called Demdex received a way to identify my phone and sent back a list of other trackers to pair up with.
And all night long, there was some startling behavior by a household name: Yelp. It was receiving a message that included my IP address -— once every five minutes."
Perspective | It’s the middle of the night. Do you know who your iPhone is talking to?
We ran a privacy experiment to see how many hidden trackers are running from the apps on our iPhone. The tally is astounding.
-The bigger question is, why is Apple being portrayed as the nice one here? they themselves could be reading and sharing your data
-This sort of tracking should be illegal by law
-Average citizen has no way of knowing the workings of this. Even I who consider myself computer savvy did not realize websites or software can monitor your mouse movements.
-Citizens should be held aware of such practices just like cancer+smoking
-IMO any OS vendor manufacturer should have 0 data collection by law.
I do not recommend little snitch for the average user. You have to manage every connection that happens from each app, and each app can have multiple. Its too hectic.
Apple does and sells user data to Google for billions. First I ever do with a Mac is switch the default search engine.
Little Snitch is good tool, equally it does require some knowledge of how the web works and it will be confusing for many. One of my media servers is a Mac and the simplest solution is to keep it offline as that way it can cry to Apple all it wants. it cant possibly reach as it's cut at the router. I put it online once a year to allow for app updates, other than that it remains silent.
Ideally you would expect opt in, not opt out yet is doable. Companies abuse this, I cut them off prior to loading any personal data. W10/W11 you have options and there are tools. macOS You have few options I for one dont buy into Tim Cook's rhetoric as is just sales & marketing nonsense...
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