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A VPN might be your ticket to an ad-free YouTube experience
You don’t need to travel to Albania to avoid ads on YouTube
YouTube is an unrivaled resource thanks to its massive and unique library of video content, but Google has seemingly been leveraging that exclusivity as a way to increase advertisements lately. Without a premium subscription, ad interruptions aren’t just an annoyance — they can be so frequent that they deter some people from viewing YouTube content altogether. Now, some YouTube viewers have found a workaround for the issue, and all it takes is a good VPN.
YouTube's crusade against ad blockers is in full swing
More users are reporting that YouTube is stopping videos due to ad blockers
With new updates, YouTube is slowly fighting back against ad blockers, doing its best to make sure users either pay for Premium or watch the ads. At this point, it's as if YouTube is on a warpath against ad blockers, and the company is not letting up. According to many on Reddit, YouTube has just increased the heat against ads.
Vivaldi 3.2 makes its bottom bar more consistent and improves privacy
And the Tab Strip is now called Tab Bar
Vivaldi went stable on Android this year, but the developers behind the Chromium-based browser aren't resting on their laurels. Following the introduction of a forced dark mode for all websites in June, the team is now turning its attention to making the bottom bar more consistent. It's also going more private by giving users enhanced control over tracker and ad blocking via access to additional blocklists.
Vivaldi for Android goes stable with desktop-style tab strip and tracker blocking
One of the most customizable Chromium browsers is finally out of beta on Android
Vivaldi is among the most customizable Chromium-based browsers out there (following Opera's example) and made the jump to Android last year in the form of a beta. After extensive testing, the makers of the browser have announced that they're launching the stable release of Vivaldi today, complete with a slew of new features first seen in the latest snapshot builds: a desktop-like tab strip at the top, built-in tracker and ad blocking, and more.
Firewalla review: A powerful solution to monitor and protect your home network (Update: 4 months later)
Parental controls, security monitor, ad blocker, and more
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Security and privacy are at the heart of our concerns with technology now. With every breach, hack, and vulnerability, we discover how frail this digital footprint we've created is. To protect ourselves, we make sure our devices are always updated with the latest security patches, we try to avoid suspicious sites and apps, we keep our eyes open for phishing attempts in our inbox, but that still isn't enough. If you have smart home gadgets or if you don't control every device in your household, you need network-level protection. Some Wi-Fi routers offer this, but the feature is usually tied in a monthly subscription.Firewalla aims to provide that network-level protection for a one-time fee ($109 or $179). You buy the tiny device, plug it in, and it monitors all traffic, whether it's coming from wireless or Ethernet devices, and warns you when something seems out of order. It also adds a bunch of smart features to your network: parental protections, per-device rules, ad blocking, VPN server, among others. I've been using it for a month and it has become a valuable tool in my house.
For its latest big Android update, Opera is including a key new feature that makes it easier to whitelist websites from the in-built ad blocker. Other enhancements include the addition of Picture-in-Picture video and a new fast-scrolling handle.
The free tier of Spotify includes non-skippable audio ads, so naturally, developers have found ways over the years to circumvent those ads. Spotify has become much more aggressive towards ad blockers over the past year, like filing DMCA claims against the popular 'Spotify Dogfood' app, and now it will start taking more drastic measures.
Last year Google rolled out what was effectively a built-in adblocker for Chrome — though it only applied to "intrusive" ads that didn't meet the standards set by the Coalition for Better Ads. Initially, this only affected sites in North America and Europe, but yesterday the Coalition for Better Ads (read: Google) announced that it's expanding this to all countries later this year.
When browsing the web these days, it's common to see a big banner or dialog asking for cookie consent every time you visit a site. Thanks to GDPR, this is now a legal requirement in the EU, so you'll encounter it multiple times a day. Opera Browser Beta is offering you chance to get rid of them.
The beta version of Chrome 65 was released just over a month ago, and now it has graduated to the stable channel. This release includes the much-anticipated ad blocker, as well as a change to Incognito mode and some security improvements. Without any further ado, let's jump right in.
In June of last year, Google revealed it was working on a built-in ad blocker for Chrome. But instead of outright blocking all ads, it would only block intrusive advertising, as defined by the Coalition for Better Ads. Pop-ups, animated or auto-playing ads, scroll-overs, and large banners are disallowed. Put simply, websites would have to play by the Coalition's rules, or risk losing ad revenue from Chrome users.
Chrome 64 was just released to the general public, which means Chrome Beta has bumped up to version 65. This new update includes the ad blocker that is expected to go live on February 15, as well as some security enhancements and minor new developer features. Without further ado, let's get into it.
If you frequently use your phone or tablet to browse the web, you've probably noticed how some websites randomly redirect you to a fake virus warning or other similar page. This is due to malicious ads breaking out of their frame, and forcing a redirect of the parent page to wherever they want. These harmful ads have infiltrated virtually every ad network, including Google AdSense/AdX.
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- This feature is already live in Chrome, even the current stable version (Chrome v62). See this post for more details about how to turn it on.
Over the past few months, we've received dozens of complaints about redirecting ads on this site, which we have been repeatedly reporting to our ad networks. The problem ultimately comes down to rogue ads being published through common ad networks (even 'safe' ones like AdSense and AdX), which then show up on sites like ours. When the ads load, they hijack the parent page to load a misleading message, like the one pictured above, often while turning on the device's vibration motor to make it seem more realistic.
Earlier in the year, we learned that Google would be introducing a native ad blocker in its Chrome web browser, both on desktop and mobile. The company confirmed as much last month, saying that the feature would be available in 2018. That date likely relates to the stable build, but we're now seeing the 'Ads' setting in Chrome Canary and Dev on Android.