PSA: Reddit is Forcing Users to Accept Personalized Ads

[boswald]

Man I'm so glad I don't have a reddit account





Well that becomes a problem on iOS and iPadOS because since we don't have sideloading (yet) we don't have UBlock Origin.

Don’t need it. Make a pi-hole server or use something like NextDNS.

 

[jeroenvip]

Since when does is reddit showing ads ? Adblock anyone ?

 

[zach-coleman]

Stop using Reddit. It’s a miserable website anyways. I ditched it after Apollo shuttered and it actually made my life better.

This is where the fun begins

 

[tom.humphrey]

Until today I had just deleted the app. Deleted my account now.

 

[mattopotamus]

Since when does is reddit showing ads ? Adblock anyone ?

venure to say most people are using an app.

 

[BeerDrinkerDan]

That's it, I'm definitely not signing up for Reddit now.

-dan

 

[Lucas Curious]

although reddit Is a great place to ask for mechanic advice or get feedback on specific industry topics, I found it can be a time wasting habit and the users are very left leaning. I responded to someones question with a subtle joke in the response and reddit banned me for life form the group and also banned my other account. not sure how they know I had two different accounts. also if your replies are center or right leaning, you will get downvoted to infinity even if you gave great feedback. I dont care what reddit does because I wont be going there unless I have a specific industry question.

 

[krebphone]

Man I'm so glad I don't have a reddit account





Well that becomes a problem on iOS and iPadOS because since we don't have sideloading (yet) we don't have UBlock Origin.

AdGuard does just fine on iOS.

 

[boss.king]

Man I'm so glad I don't have a reddit account

Well that becomes a problem on iOS and iPadOS because since we don't have sideloading (yet) we don't have UBlock Origin.

When configured right, Adguard on iOS and iPadOS can block ads in most apps.

Edit: whoops, @krebphone beat me to it.

 

[Spaceboi Scaphandre]

AdGuard does just fine on iOS.

AdGuard is paid and a lot of ads found ways around it.

UBlock Origin is the gold standard of adblockers. Unfortunately since we don't got sideloading (yet) we can't use it on iOS, while Android users can.

 

[Steakface McToenailtongue]

Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers instead rely on on-platform activity--what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals--to get an idea of what you might be interested in.

Changed it to the truth:

Reddit requires very little personal information, and we like it that way. Our advertisers heavily instead rely on on-platform activity personal information--what communities you join, leave, upvotes, downvotes, and other signals--to get an idea of what you might be interested in.

 

[grennis]

They have to pay for those servers somehow. It isn't free.

Exactly, and, I would think they get relatively close to basically nothing from untargeted ads, they are useless.

 

[ItsASpider]

The fact that the setting is still required within the EU because of GDRP rules should say more then enough about how truthful "it shouldn't be needed, little will change" is.

 

[DDustiNN]

Who cares? AdBlocker ftw.

Just wish ad blockers worked for apps.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

reddit, the new Quora

 

[Boeingfan]

As big brother would say, “It’s time to go, Reddit!”

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Basically, they are forcing users to surrender their privacy rights and allow them to be tracked.
How interesting...

 

[PhantomCypher]

And then man invented ublock origin. There was much rejoicing.

 

[bankshot]

For those talking about ad blockers: this isn't about the ads you may or may not see. This is about Reddit collecting information on your site viewing/posting/commenting habits to build a profile of you, which is then sold to advertisers. Even with all ads blocked, they will be building that profile and selling it if you use the site at all. Combined with device fingerprinting and similar techniques, I suspect these profiles would be enough to uniquely identify most "anonymous" frequent users of the platform.

Their "we care about your privacy" talk is patently false.

 

[boss.king]

Just wish ad blockers worked for apps.

AdGuard does in most apps (although there are some exceptions like Youtube).

 

[Jobsian]

Lemmings galloping towards Digg’s cliff.

 

[Westside guy]

1) Download and install uBlock Origin on your desktop computer
2) Install Purify on your iOS / macOS devices
3) Whitelist any sites you want to support, like MacRumors
4) Done!

There's typically not much advantage gained by you using most apps versus these services' web interfaces.

 

[ksloth]

I am glad I ditched Reddit back when their CEO was in a race to see how deep a hole he could dig himself into.

 

[saudor]

Well that becomes a problem on iOS and iPadOS because since we don't have sideloading (yet) we don't have UBlock Origin.

old.reddit.com + adguard.

 

[shawnforever]

The reddit app is soo bad. Everything has too small tap targets, it's literally the only app I occasionally use that I mis-tap things. Animations are incredibly slow, you are better off scrolling past comments than trying to collapse a comment chain. And I just get such random junk on my home feed. Reddit died with Apollo, I used to use it every day..now it is maybe once a week, if that.

I preferred the Reddit app to Apollo and never saw what the hype was all about. This is coming from someone who preferred Tweetbot to Twitter, so I get how people could have preferences. But people are acting like the Reddit app is objectively worse and I just don't agree there. Collapsing comment chains is fine, tap targets are fine even for my large thumbs, I never even noticed animations, and how reddit displays home feed/ news feed stories certainly gets the job done.