The app blocks ads in Safari and apps using Safari View
Taking a cue from Apple’s new Ad blocking capabilities in its new iOS 9, F-Secure has come up with a free ad-blocking app for iOS users. The new app, called F-Secure AdBlocker, helps users save data and browse faster by blocking traffic from known advertising servers.
The app blocks ads in Safari and apps using Safari View. It is currently available from Apple’s App Store, and works on Apple devices with iOS 9 and ARM64, including iPhone 5S and later models, iPad Mini/Retina 3 and later models, iPad Air and later models, and 6th generation iPod Touch.
Ad blocking was thrust in the limelight after a recent report claimed that the practice will cost online publishers $22 billion in 2015. However, recent research conducted by F-Secure Labs suggests that online advertising practices are costing end-users in the form of wasted time and data.
A list of known advertising servers is maintained in F-Secure’s Security Cloud, and the app blocks content sent from the servers on the list to the devices running the app. By blocking the incoming ads, people’s mobile devices consume less data when loading web pages, which means websites load faster and use less bandwidth.
According to F-Secure Security Advisor Sean Sullivan, the idea behind F-Secure AdBlocker is not to eliminate advertising as a revenue source for publishers, but to give people a way to establish boundaries for online advertising. “People opt out of ads simply because they don’t want a bunch of flashy banners distracting them and slowing down their browsing. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t receptive to advertising in general – movie trailers are popular on YouTube, and I learn a lot about companies that sponsor podcasts and content that I search for online. So hopefully ad blocking will be seen as an opportunity for advertisers to make more of the content people want, rather than the stuff people ignore and want to block,” he said.
