Major 1Blocker update is coming soon to macOS! It's been in the development for months and we have been working hard to make it on par with our iOS version.
Bonus: all users who purchased 1Blocker on iOS will get the new major update for free.
For more details: https://twitter.com/1BlockerApp
Tim Cook, writing for Time:
In 2019, it’s time to stand up for the right to privacy—yours, mine, all of ours. Consumers shouldn’t have to tolerate another year of companies irresponsibly amassing huge user profiles, data breaches that seem out of control and the vanishing ability to control our own digital lives.
One of the biggest challenges in protecting privacy is that many of the violations are invisible. For example, you might have bought a product from an online retailer—something most of us have done. But what the retailer doesn’t tell you is that it then turned around and sold or transferred information about your purchase to a “data broker”—a company that exists purely to collect your information, package it and sell it to yet another buyer.
Let’s be clear: you never signed up for that. We think every user should have the chance to say, “Wait a minute. That’s my information that you’re selling, and I didn’t consent.”
Wolfie Christl (@WolfieChristl):
A single ad on a website may set 25 cookies, make 100 'fourth-party' calls and use 40% of a user's CPU, according to the guidelines of this adtech firm.
James Tiberius (@ShirtlessKirk) reacts to this:
They steal my CPU, my bandwidth, my focus, my time and my personal data and then when I exercise my right to declare they aren't allowed to do that, they claim I'm stealing their revenue.
Gillian Brockell, writing an open letter to ad tech companies:
Please, Tech Companies, I implore you: If your algorithms are smart enough to realize that I was pregnant, or that I’ve given birth, then surely they can be smart enough to realize that my baby died, and advertise to me accordingly — or maybe, just maybe, not at all.
This is a very sad story that illustrates when tracking by advertising might be inappropriate and raises ethical questions.
The Brooks Review ran another round of content blocker testing for Mobile Safari in order to take a look at which ones are the ‘best’ right now. Of course, 1Blocker did very well in this test.
[1Blocker X] is the content blocker I personally use, but I honestly had no clue at all if it was still close to the best. In my raw speed tests it was tied for first (three apps were within the margin of error for testing, but way faster than the rest at above 40% faster than nothing). There’s one major flaw with 1Blocker X: it can be confusing to configure.
Not only is 1Blocker X among the fastest, it also has far more customization than any other app. There is no shortage of options, and an immense amount of power to be done in the share sheet. For instance you can easily configure 1Blocker X to block all Facebook URLs, something I recommend. You can also use a visual editor to block specific items on a site you may not want to see again
Read the full comparison of Safari content blockers on his site.
Have you ever noticed your computer or phone being extremely slow while browsing the web?
Apparently some sites can run scripts to hijack your device’s CPUs to mine cryptocurrency. [Gizmodo]
Thousands of websites are starting to add cryptocurrency mining scripts which significantly reduce battery life by executing code in background on your device.
Now even YouTube serves ads with CPU-draining cryptocurrency miners. [Ars Technica]
The good news is that the latest version of 1Blocker ensures that you are not affected.
1Blocker made to Federico Viticci's list of Must-Have iOS Apps, 2017 Edition 🎉
It's such an honor to be listed along these awesome apps!
Thank you 💜 everyone for your support!
A new study found that popular free ad blockers make additional requests to tracking domains.
Think how they make 💰💰💰
Our preliminary findings indicate that though ad-blockers block external ads and third party trackers to varying degrees, they introduce various tracking services of their own. This is a novel finding and has potential impact on users privacy. We leave a detailed analysis on this for future work.
| Ad Blocker | Extra Domains Loaded |
|---|---|
| AdBlock | mixpanel.com, stripe.com |
| Adblock Plus | quantserve.com,crwdcntrl.net |
| Ghostery | selectmedia.asia, streamrail.com, adlooxtracking.com |
| Privacy Badger | cdnjs.com |
| uBlock | Twitter widgets |
This is why you should use a native Safari content blocker like 1Blocker — we can’t track you by design.
Juli Clover, writing for MacRumors:
Apple cracking down on VPN-based ad blockers that are designed to block ads in third-party apps.
After submitting an appeal to the App Review Board, a member of the Review Team contacted me directly via phone and informed that Apple has officially changed their policy regarding VPN/root certificate based ad blockers on the App Store and is no longer accepting updates of apps, which directly block content in third party apps.
According to Apple, these apps won't get any new updates. The only officially allowed ad blocking method is now Safari Content Blockers.
Perfect time to switch to a content blocker which uses secure Safari content blocker APIs, not a shady VPN middleman.
Jordan McMahon:
1Blocker is great if you're prone to wasting too much time on distracting websites. You can set it to prohibit you from viewing the websites that keep you from being productive.
👊😎👊