Author 33 Posts

Igor

Adblocker privacy

Adblocker-privacy

After scratching the surface with my best Android adblocker review and the tl;dr version of the results I wanted to share a deeper take on the privacy aspect of using adblockers.

The Adblocker Results #2 and deeper insights (longer, recommended version)
Let's get back for a second to the apps that didn't make the cut as the adblocker options I've tested:

  • Free Adblocker Browser - was crashing after start not giving the option to test it at all
  • AppBrain Ad Detector - detects apps on your device which might send your data. Marked Facebook app as highly malicious πŸ™ƒ
  • AdAway - requires root, so it's not an option for everyone
  • TrustGo Ad Detector - asks all possible permissions upfront (how reading my messages or call info would help me stop seeing ads on the web?) which you never should allow unless you're completely sure what you're doing. The irony with the 'TrustGo' name is actually really funny. Trust them all with your data and go away πŸ˜ƒ Uninstalled.

The last app actually brings up an important topic with adblockers - privacy. The thing is, when you allow any adblocker to work on any of your platforms, what you essentially are allowing it is getting access to all your browsing information, so the adblocker can see it and cut out ads and/or trackers. That's why if you don't want your adblocker instead of blocking ads actually use your browsing data for serving you even more personalized ads, make sure you install a trusted one.

As you probably know by now, there are few ways of blocking ads: by using adblocker extensions for Yandex Browser and Samsung Internet browser (and maybe others that didn't cross my eyes), or using a standalone browser like the AdBlock Browser with adblocking already built in. Both ways do their job in a reasonable manner, but what if you're using Google Chrome as your default browser and you don't want to give up bookmarks, passwords and history sync with your Google Account? For that case there is a third option which enables you not only block ads in Google Chrome but block them overall, through your whole system. And it's done by installing a sideloaded apk which creates a local VPN server on the device itself and sends and receives all the Internet traffic through it, filtering it on the fly. How insane is that? Setting a local VPN server on your cellphone - Android never stops impressing me with its crazy hacks.

When you (or in our case the app on your behalf) setup a local VPN, except being able to filter ads and trackers on a much wider scale, throughout the whole system and in all of your apps you'll get two additional advantages if you compare such solution to connecting to the Internet via a traditional remote VPN:

  1. Unlinke remote ones, local VPNs don't consume almost no additional battery power for the same filtering operations
  2. Local VPNs don't add that painful additional delay of your phone transferring all the data through a remote server. As the result you get ad filtering without sacrificing your Internet connection speed.
    But there are few disadvantages as well:
  3. Local VPNs usually don't encrypt your traffic like remote VPNs do, so you don't get that additional layer of security
  4. Your device IP address will still be the same, so you won't be able to go around IP-based resource blocking, Great Firewalls, access restricted websites unlike while using remote VPNs.

That said, when you're using VPNs on Android you have to choose between fast and efficient adblocking or slow but secure Internet browsing. If you know any way that combines the two - please hit me up πŸ™‚

Since usually no one usually would setup a local VPN for blocking ads on their own, that means we'll have to rely on someone's solutions. And by rely I mean trust some company not to use our browsing data in malicious ways. We already have issues trusting big companies like Google, Facebook or Apple which have something meaningful to loose if it turns out they are in fact using our data for their own advantages and without our consent. But what about smaller companies? On one hand for them loosing trust often means just getting out of business, since small companies usually are barely profitable and can't afford loosing any substantial part of their userbase by being involved in privacy scandals. On another hand such companies have more incentive to get those few additional bucks by selling your data in order to survive. And frankly after the latest news of Facebook beating their all time high stock prices even after privacy controversies, it sends a wrong signal to companies which collect any kinds of data that it's okay to leak or sell it - people won't care anyway and investors would still love you.

That being said it means that nobody except you won't really care about your privacy. And even though as mentioned in the first part of the research AdGuard's local VPN does the best job filtering ads not only in Google Chrome that doesn't support adblockers, but in other apps and throughg the whole system in general, people are legitimately concerned about the safety of using any AdGuard's products since their team is actually based in Russia and registered on the non-neutral law-enforcement Cyprus. Even though the openness of the developer and opensourcing their products help a bit, they still don't overcome the overall fear of using any kinds of tools (especially those ones that potentially can snoop your traffic) coming from Russia and that those tools and their developers are considering privacy like they should. Because of that on Android as the adblocker browser extention I would recommend using Adblock Plus which was build as a non-profit organization from the ground up and uses donations to keep developing their product. Having AdGuard's local VPN set to high filtering mode and enablihg https filtering is your best bet against ads but you may risk with your privacy instead. But if you still looking forward to a local VPN you can trust, I highly recommend you another free open-source project Blokada built by a few guys in their spare time that don't have a big company behind them with big expenses that need to be covered by potentially selling end user's data or whitelisting ad companies which usually is another form of income for adblocking companies. Granted AdGuard has a paid Pro iOS app and a subscription business model, but I doubt their earnings from those on a market with generally free adblocking solutions (including their own) is enough for you to trust them with your data.

Best Android ad blocker (July 2018)

Best-android-ad-blocker-july-2018

Recently I had interesting and boring at the same time thing to do: find out which ad blocking options on Android are worth considering.

Starting with a disclaimer: even though all my testings were meant to be objective, some of the results might be inaccurate or non-repeatable. This is mostly due to the nature of the adblocker tests themselves: depending on your Android version, adblocker version and the filter databases state you can and you will get different results than me. In fact your results may vary each time on the same website, like mine did sometimes. Your results may even depend on other apps installed on your device and your device's performance in general. Also I didn't research traffic savings and how secure each adblocking option is - both are separate big topics to discuss on their own and weren't my concerns at the time.

Having that out of the way, here's my setup, testing methodology and short summary of the research.

The Setup
All my tests I ran on a Xiaomi Mi A1 powered by Android One and running Android 8.0 with May security updates. I don't have many apps installed except few messengers and few utility apps (Dropbox, 1Password). I'm not running any VPNs on the device and was using my home private wifi for the consistency of tests.

The Methodology
I used this list of websites to test adblockers. Pi-hole.net in general is a very nice resource that knows and tells how to avoid ads and trackers on the Internet - I highly recommend checking them and their free opensource project.

Not all the websites from the list were even loading, so you will find a shorter list of them in my raw data spreadsheet.

The idea was to go through this selection of websites and each time use a different adblocker or browser. That's what I did and that's what I consider the boring part - opening 12 websites 11 times is not very amuzing πŸ™‚ But what was interesting were the results and what I learned in the process.

The Results (short version)

  • If you're okay with Yandex Browser - free AdGuard Content Browser is probably your only viable option, since there is nothing much else that works with Yandex Browser and also keeps the ads out.
  • If you're rocking Samsung Internet Browser - both free AdGuard Content Blocker and Adblock Plus are good choices, even though I would recommend sticking with Adblock Plus, because of my personal privacy standpoint against AdGuard, on which you can read in the end of this post.
  • Google Chrome users don't have much choice except sideloading (outside of the Play Store) AdGuard for Android or Blokada since Google Chrome doesn't support adblockers. Actually it's a very nice option for everyone, but use it with caution, and read more info on local VPNs. I personally use Blokada out of the two.
  • No good adblocker news to third-party browser lovers out there. Opera Browser has some filtering built in which in my tests are clearly not standing ground against ads like the other solutions. And although Adblocker Browser is doing its job well on par with their own browser extension, their browser experience part is less compelling than Google Chrome or Samsung Internet Browser bring.
  • Nice adblockers remove the ad but leave the frame. Good adblockers remove blank spaces as well. AdGuard and Adblock do the latter.

If you're interested in the privacy concerns of using an adblocker, I highly recommend reading part #2 of my research that focuses on the deeper level of how adblocker function and what you should be aware of while using one.

Added:
For best iOS adblockers look here.

Platform lock-in

Platform-lockin

When it comes to locking in users to your product or service companies tend to use all available differentiators. A while ago I mentioned Google's recent transition from their blob emojis which many call a mistake and ask at least to let the users decide which emojis to use. Which obviously would never happen πŸ˜€

As for deciding for the users, emoji-wise another thing happened this week as well, now with Facebook. They had their emojis for a while now, but with the option to dig deep into settings in order for you to switch to your beloved emojis which were coming with your device. But now Facebook flipped the switch and at least on the main website/app you will see smiley faces redesigned by them. Messenger still behaves like before, but I don't think that's for long.

It may sound minor - who cares which emojis are on facebook.com but keep in mind Facebook is used regularly by 2.2 billion users, it's Messenger has 1.3 billion, Instagram (owned by FB) recently also hit its first billion, which in total have almost as many users as Apple and Google combined. With that userbase Facebook puts it's leg onto the emoji scene to be recognized as the primary emoji provider in the world. And when they flip switches in Instagram, Messenger and not less important WhatsApp, people will get mad, but they won't have to go elsewhere - Facebook is that big. And forcing everyone use their emojis and eventually getting used to them will unconsciously lock people into Facebook's platform and will make people dissatisfied with other social networks that don't use familiar smilies they see everyday browsing Facebook's news feed or chatting in Messenger. Like with iMessage where people are actually ashamed being 'the one with the green bubble', Facebook creates a mental barrier for people to dislike other means of conversations (messengers, social networks) where you won't have access to the 'norm' thoughtfully declared by Facebook. And being 'main' and 'primary' allows them to reach new all-time high stock prices despite the privacy controversies. So it's just a bit more than emojis πŸ˜‰

No more blobs

Old-blobs

Almost a year passed since Google announced they are switching away from their personal perspective on emojis. I'm not a very frequent Android user but I've used blobs in Hangouts a lot. First I hated them, but then I realized they are pretty unique in the world of expressing emotions with a perfectly round smilies. This week Google finished the transition and replaces the blobs with their new set of emojis:

New-blobs

The reason behind the change was to make their collection more consistent after few substantial additions over the years and also to introduce reusable components (like eyes, mouths) and colors for future emojis. Google goes into all the interesting details about the change. And even though I get the idea behind the transition, it's another loss of character in favor of standardization, and preferring polish over sloppiness where it doesn't have to be:

Blob-history

First positive reason approaching 30

Soon-30

Time goes fast. When I was 16 and just finished school I could never envision I'll ever get to this point. Thirty sounded so far and unreachable. When I got my 'quarter of the century' Birthday I felt it - 30 is just 5 years away. Since then each day this number approached noticeably faster than before. And not even on a daily basis - every half year passes in a blink of an eye.

Coming from a ex-soviet country where people were getting families and kids at a reasonably early age, we had a belief of achieving everything before 25-30 or die trying. I'm sitting here alive, but definitely far from having achieved everything, when this important age is not even on the horizon, it's right in my face.

Putting aside my personal pressure from this day coming, today I learned the first thing that gives me a glimpse on a bit brighter future. I was looking a car hire site, and they had a really nice rental option - for just 20% more money than the cheapest option you get a substantially nicer car to drive. And not just any car, but a Jag, which for unknown reasons I'm really found of since being those 16 years old. The other related positive moment of an older age is actually to be able to afford renting the car, when as a teenager the only thing you could afford was riding buses, and even that was a gift from your parents πŸ™‚

Getting back to rentals - the only condition separates me from driving a Jaguar is... that I'm not 30 years old yet πŸ™‚ This is actually a known limitation for car rentals since insurance companies won't insure expensive cars being driven by people younger that age. The same thing happened with me last year while I was visiting few awesome friends in California. I had to jump through hoops to be able to reach a Tesla owner on Turo in order to persuade him to lend me his car outside of the platform since Turo also requires to be 30+ to rent cars from the higher price tiers. I even couldn't PM the owner because I confirmed my real 'below 30' age before. But I still could get ahold of him in one of his other rentals with lower age requirements πŸ€“

Thinking 'Summer is 1/3 through' was also disappointing till some point. Now I'm thinking, 'yay, 1 months less to iOS 12 public release!' 😬

What are your benefits of reaching this age?

Enable emojis in Aegea

This blog was running on the beautiful Aegea. But in the latest version (Version 2.7, build 3254) at the time it lacked one feature we can't imagine our life today - emojis πŸ™‚

When you try creating or updating a post with some nice πŸ‘» they will be both shown and saved to the database as '?' (question marks).

Until there is an official fix, here's a hacky solution. I spent a whole day going through obfuscated code, so you won't have to. πŸ™‚
In core.php apply these changes:

  1. Change
    >$w8e815='utf8';
  • to
    $w8e815='utf8mb4';
  1. And remove this line:
    $e1cb25=rff7c($e1cb25);

If the changes above won't help, try adding this in /etc/mysql/my.cnf and restarting mysql:

[client]
default-character-set = utf8mb4

[mysql]
default-character-set = utf8mb4

[mysqld]
character_set_server=utf8mb4
collation_server=utf8mb4_unicode_ci

In case you're wondering on which stack this does work - I'm on php 7.0, nginx 1.10.3, mysql 5.7.22, ubuntu 16.04.

Happy blogging! 😎

Why Apple Pay sticker deserves to be 4x size of Visa’s

Apple-Pay-Sticker

Huge Apple Pay sticker recently added below other payment methods

Less than two weeks ago (June 19, 2018) Apple Pay launched in Poland.
And yesterday I noticed a huge Apple Pay sticker on one of the self-checkout point in a local store selling household items.

Apple-Pay-Sticker2

First I noticed the sticker wasn't incorporated into the machine's aesthetics and was added later, probably because the machine was assembled before Apple Pay got introduced. Second thing I noticed there was no Android/Google Pay/Wallet. Last stop - take a look at the size of that Apple Pay's logo - it's huge! and bigger than 2 Visa and 2 MasterCard logo's combined.

The size difference isn't accidental, and it shows the significance of this payment platform before others, even the long-standing traditional ones.

Everything goes mobile, so are the payments. But again, why's there no Google Pay sticker then? Especially when in 2017 out of the 8.8 million phones sold in Poland only 8.5% were iOS devices and a whopping 91.5% were Android.

If you consider Poland's population with almost 38 million people, the mobile usage penetration of 81% you can extrapolate the the numbers above and get:

  • 30.78 M Poles on average have a mobile phone
  • 28.16 M (91.5%) of them are running Android
  • 1.62 M (8.5%) have iOS phones

Please keep in mind though - the figures above aren't really precise, and aren't taking into account cases when one person may have more than one phone, another may have no phone at all, so you can't consider each device as a potential means of payment. Many of the sold devices don't support NFC (used for the payments) either. All numbers exclude smart watches (iOS an Android) and Macs - all enabled with the competing payment systems. Also there are no Windows Mobile numbers, not that anyone buys those anyway ?

What striked me more than the fairly usual market shares are the results of Apple Pay's rollout. In the first 10 days the unofficial number of new Apple Pay users reached 200 000 people! Which is 12.3% of the whole iOS userbase! When out of 28 million Android users within more than 1.5 years a total of 300 000 people (with a mere 1.1%) enabled Google Pay.

As one of the commenters to the news topic said:

Adoption rates proves that Apple has an army, not just a bunch of customers

Which is true and definitely drives the rates. If you ask me, my bank wasn't in the first 8 banks ready at day one, so I went to another one, opened an account there and joined the service.

Bold business

While reading Twitter of developers who went to this year's WWDC I noticed all of them mentioning some scooters laying on the streets all over the city. Then I saw this video in my YouTube's recommendations.

I think it's a brilliant business idea and a very bold one - you don't ask anyone for permission, you don't necessary create a business plan and meetings. You just litter the streets with scooters. Of course you need to have initial money for something like that, and you should be prepared for few of those being stolen or broken, so not everyone can replicate such 'entrance' to the market. But this is a nice example of how bold ideas are made and how much deserved buzz they are getting for doing that.

On the WWDC episode of ATP the hosts share what they think of it, and in my opinion their thoughts nicely demonstrate the process of the buzz building up. Here are quotes of the hosts' thought process from the show:

  1. What are those, they are everywhere
  2. People riding them are jerks
  3. There are three scooters just on the road!
  4. Maybe I should try one
  5. Let's give it a shot, why not
  6. Sign up in the app
  7. Get scooter
  8. Whoa, whoa, holy shit
  9. These things are really fast
  10. These is really fun!
  11. These has to be a good thing
  12. This should be illegal
  13. Everyone should try it before they become illegal
  14. There's no way in a year this would be legal
    And eventually they want to share their experience.

That's a nice example what makes people talk about your product or service. But more important is that you have to put it in front of their face for them to notice it. And that's a whole another topic to discuss.