Apple Cracking Down on VPN-Based Ad Blockers That Work in Third-Party Apps

[ginkobiloba]

I can understand the decision. The apps need to be paid one way or another. I'd rather pay than have ads, but i'd rather have ads than subscriptions ( which is not justified for 90% of apps ).

Both sides need to be reasonnable. People have to understand that creators cannot work for free, because food and electricity isn't. And developpers have to always offer a paid option in ad-fueled apps' and stay away from subscriptions.

And i can't believe that Apple still hasn't figured out a way to offer demos ! Come on, that surely must be easier than building a self-driving car !

 

[sdugoten]

This is NOT right.

I don't use Safari ad blocker because this only block ad in Safari. Those adblock that use the local VPN model will block ad in EVERY SINGLE application on your phone.

 

[goaliemn]

Some have said I'm stealing apps instead of paying for them. I've bought probably closer to 100 apps. Ones I use, I do buy. But some, like narwhal as an example, had such invasive ads that their trial wasn't really a trial. The functionality was impacted by the ads so much it was unusable. I ended up buying it after testing it with the ad blocker in place.

The apps, like some of the news apps, who put in fake click bait items to get revenue, those are the main reason I use it. Put ads in. Fine. Don't make them click bait or flashing/noisy/try to send mail from your email account (one in narwhal actually opened your mail app to try to send spam) ads. I'll remove my ad block

 

[twinlight]

Hardly surprising that they stop this considering the security risks and that ad partner pay them.
I myself never download apps or games with ads anymore. I have PvZ 2 that shows the same garden escape ads over and over again, on my initiative, and the few others I believe had ads have been bought to get rid of ads.

 

[Vanilla35]

This right here is exactly why it these apps are being pulled. I'm just surprised it took long before Apple started rejecting them.

If you're so certain that is the reason, why did it take them so long to condemn these types of apps? Maybe because of apple's recent stretches in advertisements.

 

[hashholly]

Hmmm... well it's blindingly obvious for the reason to this.. It seems Apple wants to be the new Google, it's made a lot of noise about advertisements lately and obviously wants the revenue..

I don't think they actually get just how much people utterly hate adverts, the next step will be banning ad blockers from Safari, I can see it now.

I'll have to check Crystal which is what I use..
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Actually no you cannot! The vast majority of apps these days are all based on the freemium, IAP business model, for the reasons outlined in this review from a developer posted on Mac Rumors sister site:

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/

Hmmm... well it's blindingly obvious for the reason to this.. It seems Apple wants to be the new Google, it's made a lot of noise about advertisements lately and obviously wants the revenue..

I don't think they actually get just how much people utterly hate adverts, the next step will be banning ad blockers from Safari, I can see it now.

I'll have to check Crystal which is what I use..
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Actually no you cannot! The vast majority of apps these days are all based on the freemium, IAP business model, for the reasons outlined in this review from a developer posted on Mac Rumors sister site:

http://toucharcade.com/2015/09/16/we-own-you-confessions-of-a-free-to-play-producer/

lol. I do not have one app on my phone that tries to upsell me on anything. Maybe you need to reevaluate what apps you choose to install. I reiterate if you don't like ads in your apps stop downloading apps with ads. Pay for ad free or live without the app.

 

[Zombolo]

Without system-wide adblocking, bye bye iOS!

What will happen to app like Keepsolid Unlimited VPN?

 

[Quu]

I agree with this decision by Apple, huge security nightmare sending all your data to them and with a root cert installed they could MITM anything you're doing.

 

[hashholly]

What makes you think a free app with ads is the right thing to do? If you are so concerned about your revenue then perhaps put a price tag on the app or incorporate in app purchase. The so called 'Free app" you are talking about isn't really free. Users still pay, just not with money.
I don't see any in app advertisement on PC or Mac softwares (whether free or paid) that I use. If your argument is valid then there wouldn't be anyone buying PCs/Macs anymore because it's no longer worthwhile for developers to make software for these platforms.

Holy crap. What makes you think you have the right to dictate what a developer deems the best way to acquire revenue for their app is? If a developer thinks ad's are better than an actual price, so be it.

It's funny you say that because I've started to see apps for Mac/Windows that have been free for years start to incorporate ad's. Developers have seen the amount of money that can be made on the mobile side, and they want in on the money as well.

You actually prove that my point is valid with your own comment - If developers are making software for the Mac and PC its because they are making money doing so. If you don't see any ad's and you haven't paid a fee up front, they are selling your data. I won't deny that some developers exist that create apps out of the love of creating those apps and that alone, but the majority of developers out there are trying to put food on their table. One way or another, whether you see it or not, they are making money off of your download of their app.

 

[thisisnotmyname]

So on one hand you have the security risk of having to trust a developer that they won't abuse their VPN or purposely hijacked root certs versus the other hand ads being a major method (granted on desktop so far, iOS has been fairly secure) of delivering malware.

People mentioning Apple News, I've been happy with the unobtrusive and (presumably) Apple curated ads so far (until you hit a provider that forces you into their HTML content anyway). I am a bit concerned about Apple opening up third party ad networks in iOS 11 though. I'm envisioning a horror of modal dialogs and gaudy colored animations everywhere.

 

[alexgowers]

I would love to have an informed opinion on this topic but I afraid I've not used a blocker on iOS nor a VPN. I would however like apple to limit advert length/skip time on all adverts on all apps. I find some rely on watching adverts to play/use and that behaviour doesn't benefit the advertisers and mostly annoys users. Youtube has it about right 3-6 second skip and some unstoppable ads. If apple could stipulate advertising rules and also enforce anything gambling to be age restricted and also not able to have cartoons or childlike images. Candy crush etc are gambling for kids and shouldn't be allowed and pay to play should be gotten rid of entirely.

I feel like apple could offer a block all adverts on all apps and safari option that you can pay for? I don't know this whole subject is not only tricky to sort out but subjective depending on the app and intention.

 

[InsoftUK]

If I play a free app with ads I just disable the ads, without internet connection they simply can't get threw

 

[bennyf]

Everyone seems to be arguing over ads, but to me this is about the collection of user metadata -- usage patterns, analytics, IP addresses, location data, etc. being sold to data aggregators without full disclosure to users.

I really don't care about ads, intrusive or not, in a free app. I do care that the app is selling me out without actually disclosing.

 

[Cloudane]

Interesting to see them take a stance of protecting "free" content by banning ad blockers considering how they do the opposite to websites via Safari (much to the annoyance of literally every website nowadays that has those "please turn off your ad blocker" overlays, which I then bypass by using Reading Mode)
Mind, websites don't make Apple money, apps do. Funny that.

A shame, but they never worked very well anyway. People will be storming off to Android, and it's a valid reason, but I imagine will probably be back in a year or two

I hope Apple balances this out by tightening up the rules on in-app advertising where it gets excessive (*cough*GAMELOFT*cough*)

 

[2010mini]

As an aggressive adblock user, I ain't worrying, adblocker at router level have got it covered. I'm glad I didn't purchased this app around the time I learned about that my router could block ads for me instead.

Care to share how it’s done?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Care to share how it’s done?

it involves getting a router that is DRT compatible and then installing the free software.

 

[Audigy]

Care to share how it’s done?

Just use Adblock's DNS servers: https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/overview.html

You can configure your router to use them(or your standalone device such as a PC/Mac or iOS in WiFi): https://adguard.com/en/adguard-dns/instruction.html#instruction

If you want to use it in your iOS device while on cellular data, you need an app like DNSOverride(https://www.dnsoverride.com/) to force Adguard's DNS servers.

 

[Rogifan]

Personally, I like the iPhone SE form factor so probably won't ever buy another Apple phone unless it is the same size. Secondly, I am testing the IOS beta which doesn't seem to allow ad blocking and I can tell you that I would give up my phone and tablet in a second if they didn't have ad blockers in the final product. Life's too short to be inundated with crap.

I’m using the beta on my iPad and Safari ad-blocking is working fine.
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Hmmm... well it's blindingly obvious for the reason to this.. It seems Apple wants to be the new Google, it's made a lot of noise about advertisements lately and obviously wants the revenue..

I don't think they actually get just how much people utterly hate adverts, the next step will be banning ad blockers from Safari, I can see it now.

What noise has Apple been making about advertisements? Are you talking specifically about the Apple News app? The changes they are apparently making there are because big-name publishers were threatening to pull out and no longer make their their content available in Apple News. I do use ad blocking in Safari but some sites don’t allow you to view anything unless you whitelist the site. Bottom line is nobody has a right to free content on the internet.
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This is NOT right.

I don't use Safari ad blocker because this only block ad in Safari. Those adblock that use the local VPN model will block ad in EVERY SINGLE application on your phone.

And how are developers supposed to make money? I think it’s ridiculous people are complaining about this when for $.99 or $1.99 you can remove ads in most apps. And people complain about Apple being cheap and pennypinching.

 

[Plutonius]

And how are developers supposed to make money? I think it’s ridiculous people are complaining about this when for $.99 or $1.99 you can remove ads in most apps. And people complain about Apple being cheap and pennypinching.

I agree, but I don't like the trend of some apps to only offer them with ads. Those are apps I don't need.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Also, "Specifically, the app violated section 4.2.1, which says "Apps should use APIs and frameworks for their intended purposes and should indicate that integration in their app description" is such a BS excuse from Apple.

Apple just gave an Apple Design award to Black Box in June, which is a game that makes use of essentially every single API of the phone as a manner of progressing through the puzzles, and I'm pretty sure turning Airplane mode on and adjusting your volume to solve a puzzle isn't using those APIs "for their intended purposes."

Apple literally praised them for using the APIs in novel ways in their Design Award announcement... https://developer.apple.com/design/awards/#blackbox

"Additionally, by using CoreAudio, CoreLocation, Core Telephony, AVCaptureSession, iCloud, and GameCenter in novel ways, this app takes advantage of an enormous range of iOS technologies."

So it really isn't about AdBlockers using the APIs in unexpected ways. It's that they don't want you to block advertisements

You had a point going until that last sentence, of which there is no evidence to support it and you wildly make an assumption. An obviously wrong assumption at that.

 

[apolloa]

lol. I do not have one app on my phone that tries to upsell me on anything. Maybe you need to reevaluate what apps you choose to install. I reiterate if you don't like ads in your apps stop downloading apps with ads. Pay for ad free or live without the app.

Lol maybe you should realise you don't have a choice with many apps as I stated...

Or what about those apps that you buy and then later on they are made into IAP apps with adverts, or those freemium IAP apps that are also stuffed full of adverts...

 

[xpxp2002]

It's the devs who are shooting themselves in the foot by selling out their users for a few cents to analytics warehouses. If an app just want to *show* an ad, I'm fine with that, even if it's a big one. But none of them stop there. Every ad is passing info back about you, your device, location, IP address, browsing habits etc. to the analytics flavor of the month. With all of that data eventually making into a handful of aggregators who know more about us than our own family.

So, yes, devs that are ok with that do need to admit that they really don't give a damn about their users.

Even worse, those aggregators have data breaches, so all that information leaks out to even more nefarious actors than just the spam lists those data warehouses help supply.

https://www.troyhunt.com/weve-lost-control-of-our-personal-data-including-33m-netprospex-records/

 

[blairh]

I hope I'll still have a way to block in-app ads.

 

[hansenc]

I dont mind ads in apps that i haven't paid for, what I do mind is ads in apps that have their own browsers like facebook that dont seem to block ads.

 

[goaliemn]

I dont mind ads in apps that i haven't paid for, what I do mind is ads in apps that have their own browsers like facebook that dont seem to block ads.

I recommend friendly rather than the Facebook app.