Amazon app Sponsor ads, ebay and Google search

[hb88]

This has been a constant consternation for me.

Android: Amazon app, ebay app, Google search results.

All have sponsored ads, it does not matter what hosts filter I apply , it still shows up.

Using the blokada log for example on the Amazon app I opened the app did a search and the top came up with a sponsored ad. Want to blokada log and blacklisted everything except for amazon.com. Closed the Amazon app cleared the log, opened up Amazon app, same search, the sponsored ad still shows up. The log indicates everything I blocked is still blacklisted but it does not matter the ad still shows.

I’m beginning to think it is not possible similar to ebay app and Google search results to block these ads.

Any suggestions to block these sponsored ads?

Thanks

[PrintableCharacter]

Hi,
Amazon is pretty aggressive regarding their adverts.
They’re hosting their ads on amazon.com which renders blokada unable to block them.
It’s pretty much the concept of Ads on social sites and in apps are not blocked

[hb88]

Thanks, that is what I was afraid of they are using the same DNS as host site. This is one game of cat and mouse that they’ve won.

With uBlock on a website and cosmetic filtering it’s easier to rid these ads but not so with apps on android.
I don’t suspect Blokada in the future will allow filtering per app, although that might even require root to some extent.

Cheers

[PrintableCharacter]

Well
Blokada would need https filtering for that but we’ve opted against it.
Here’s why it’s too risky

HTTPS Filtering

This article is brought to you by Tom Maddox. HTTPS Filtering: Sure, It Sounds Like a Good Idea Stop me if you’ve heard this one: you install an ad blocker (e.g. Blokada), but you still see those pesky sponsored links on Facebook, so you submit a feature request to the Blokada development team asking to the links to be blocked. It sounds like a simple enough request–just add a filtering rule to block those specific referrals. Unfortunately, the very mechanism designed to make Web surfing saf…

[hb88]

The issue is not the certs or security per say. It is the overhead involved to parse all the traffic to and from the device. The blog is missing a key point in digital certs. The public keys are already stored on each phone. There is no need for Blokada itself to maintain a set of keys. Although I’m not certain on a non rooted device if the chain of trust would allow access, not sure why it would not as the browser FF for example doesn’t maintain its own set. Utilizing public keys in what is already there in the phones key store, it would be no different than how a browser plugin like uBlock filters https traffic. Circling back to my main point, the amount of overhead could easily eat up the phone battery so there is a fine balancing act.

I don’t think https filtering is being considered properly reading the blog, different implementation renders the concern in the blog moot unless Blokada does not have access to the phones key store?

Cheers

[PrintableCharacter]

Blokada is meant for devices without root and is meant to have a minimum impact on the system itself

[hb88]

I don’t believe it requires root to access system key store. Just pointing out there is a way to implement which contradicts the “blog” argument for https filtering which is not entirely accurate.

In the end the tradeoff is between battery resources and footprint to remove these DNS ads.

Cheers