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Comment by tssva | Hacker News Reader

There are several ad blocking solutions for Android which involve creating a VPN connection which terminates to an app local to the device. This allows the app to filter all traffic for ads including ads inside apps. These solutions depend on installing a user CA certificate in order to filter TLS connections. I wonder how much preventing these type of ad blockers played into this decision.

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I joked to a friend that if Google invented a time machine, the first thing they would do is travel back to remove the extension support in Chrome before it was launched - the ad blockers.

Chrome didn't support the proper method for ad blockers at launch (it could hide content but not stop the requests, if I remember it well), and they purposely added those in months after launch, clearly for the benefit of adblocking extensions writers who where complaining.

So, I don't think so.

Google is a big company; I'm pretty sure not everyone there is against adblocking. Or perhaps they managed to sneak request blocking past those who were against adblocking by advocating a different use-case --- "reader mode" comes to mind.

Yes until the managements find out the they are losing Billions due to the ad blocking. IMO, not bring extension support on Chrome Android is the same reason.

Can you point me to one? Sounds neat.

Google doesn't allow these apps in the play store due to the ability to block ads in apps. Several can be found in the Amazon app store. Adclear and Adguard are 2 examples. By utilizing the local VPN to redirect traffic for filtering these apps are able to work without requiring root access as other ad blocking solutions on Android do.

You can't have ad blocking apps on the Play (god that ridiculous name) store?

You can have browser or browser extensions which block ads on the Play store. Apps which block ads within other apps are not allowed.

My favorite is (open source) netguard. It is really easy to use, nice ui, nice default options. I will be super bummed if this will no longer work.

I guess I was was wondering how Google would resolve the conflict between their basic function -- making money by serving ads -- with a user experience which is almost always improved by blocking ads.

Mobile chrome will never have extensions, excuses side, because Google had the opportunity with a new platform and new browser to make sure ad blocking wasn't as easy as installing an extension.

I personally run mobile Firefox with ublock origin. Wonder if that will be always be possible?

If I need to root my phone to get a system level VPN / firewall / adblocker, I might as well just get an iPhone and jailbreak.

Netguard uses a host file to provide incorrect DNS results to prevent ads and doesn't filter the data, so it doesn't need to install a user CA certificate. This approach while generally effective can't block certain types of ads or tracking data that the other solutions or something like ublock origin in your browser can.

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