[blueburk]

Set up a private VPN back to your infrastructure (e.g. home network) and run unbound on it. Unbound can split DNS resolution, which means you can then blacklist any domains you don't want resolved.

Bingo -- no ads. There is a problem with this, however, in that AT&T portblocks on mobile and thus it won't work on a mobile connection if you're on AT&T. That can PROBABLY be worked around with some effort, but it's non-trivial to do.

Doing it this way doesn't require root; I've done it with my BB10 devices since they were introduced, and it works just fine on the Priv as well.

how can this work outside wifi on your data plan with ie bell mobility network

[baarn]

My brother is a software engineer and has his own business. He does VERY well. I asked him about all this data grabbing ad infested app stuff. He told me he wrote an app for his phone and it took him about 2 hours. I know some apps are a lot more complex but ...

Why waste your time downloading the spy ware infested crap when you can write all the apps you need in a few days? Stop moaning, knuckle down and start coding.

I don't like ads or data collection in apps I have paid for either, but in free ones? Nothing is free.

[blueburk]

Why waste your time downloading the spy ware infested crap when you can write all the apps you need in a few days? Stop moaning, knuckle down and start coding.

Dont even know where to start but im ready .....

[tickerguy]

how can this work outside wifi on your data plan with ie bell mobility network

Strongswan (IPSec/IKEv2) will run over any connection, WiFi or mobile. However, it can be "fun" if your provider is playing with portblocks, and many do. BB10 supports IPSec/IKEv2 out of the box, for Android the Strongswan app on the Play Store provides the same functionality against the same server back ends. IPSec/IKEv2 is extremely secure and MOBIKE allows for address-hopping so if you're on a mobile and your address changes (e.g. as you move from one cell to another) it will rekey automatically.

What the VPN does is transport ALL traffic over the VPN, encrypted. Then your system gets it, decrypts it, and handles it. Since it is now responsible for DNS lookup it can blackball DNS lookups it doesn't want to resolve, or even blackball destination IPs if you wish.

It's extremely flexible and powerful, and there is literally NO WAY for an app developer to get around it since it operates at the transport layer -- where they cannot tamper with it.

[blueburk]

Strongswan(IPSec/IKEv2) will run over any connection, WiFi or mobile. However, it can be "fun" if your provider is playing with portblocks, and many do. BB10 supports IPSec/IKEv2 out of the box, for Android the Strongswan app on the Play Store provides the same functionality against the same server back ends. IPSec/IKEv2 is extremely secure and MOBIKE allows for address-hopping so if you're on a mobile and your address changes (e.g. as you move from one cell to another) it will rekey automatically.

What the VPN does is transport ALL traffic over the VPN, encrypted. Then your system gets it, decrypts it, and handles it. Since it is now responsible for DNS lookup it can blackball DNS lookups it doesn't want to resolve, or even blackball destination IPs if you wish.

It's extremely flexible and powerful, and there is literally NO WAY for an app developer to get around it since it operates at the transport layer -- where they cannot tamper with it.

how do u run a vpn on a phone i heard about home networks but ....new learing curve

[southlander]

Set up a private VPN back to your infrastructure (e.g. home network) and run unbound on it. Unbound can split DNS resolution, which means you can then blacklist any domains you don't want resolved.

Bingo -- no ads. There is a problem with this, however, in that AT&T portblocks on mobile and thus it won't work on a mobile connection if you're on AT&T. That can PROBABLY be worked around with some effort, but it's non-trivial to do.

Doing it this way doesn't require root; I've done it with my BB10 devices since they were introduced, and it works just fine on the Priv as well.

I couldn't use a VPN over Verizon using wifi Hotspot and my laptop. Also port blocking at the time I'd assume.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[thurask]

REALY this may be a nebie question comming form secure os 10 here goes
blackberry priv is secure maby not

gas buddy os 10 no ads
gas buddy Priv adds galore
The weather network os 10 no ads
the weather network Priv ads galore
yahoo weather os 10 no ads
yahoo weather Priv ads galore

is there a way to stop apps from pulling addware into apps just because there free what a shock so annoying i uninstalled the apps and any future apps that steal data just to show off anoying adds.

feel free to edit this, dissapontment doesent cover this

Simple explanation:

OS 10 no users
Android users galore

[benbraun322]

I'm not sure if there is anything you can do on the Priv because it cannot be rooted but normally Adblock can be downloaded if you are rooted.

Having Ads in your apps doesn't make the device insecure though.

 BlackBerry Z30 Chenpion 

[tickerguy]

I'm not sure if there is anything you can do on the Priv because it cannot be rooted but normally Adblock can be downloaded if you are rooted.

Having Ads in your apps doesn't make the device insecure though.

 BlackBerry Z30 Chenpion 

Weeeeellllll..... maybe. You're presuming much about how the ads are targeted and what they're doing with the data they get.

[Richard Buckley]

I'm not sure if there is anything you can do on the Priv because it cannot be rooted but normally Adblock can be downloaded if you are rooted.

Having Ads in your apps doesn't make the device insecure though.

 BlackBerry Z30 Chenpion 

The biggest concern about adds is usually data mining and tracking. Most people do consider this a privacy issue and not a security issue.

However, add networks are a growing source of malware. Most people will agree that malware is a security issue.

[Myedvyed]

He told me he wrote an app for his phone and it took him about 2 hours. I know some apps are a lot more complex but still how much data do these app developers need to harvest and how many ad's do they need to shove in your face to cover the cost of development? They are just greedy and have no respect for the end users.

Alright, despite my conscience telling me otherwise, I'll bite.

There's not much app you can write in two hours from scratch. Most likely it was something like a wrapper for a webpage or something, using an existing WebView-type component, which is already what some people consider an 'app'. But you wouldn't be able to make that without creating a website first (design, code, content, etc.) which was undoubtedly a much longer process. Actually this sounds similar to what a first-party weather app would do: just fetch some info from a website. But that website needs to be maintained etc. etc. even without the app, so most of the revenue from the app would likely go into the website / infrastructure / hosting costs rather than the app itself.

Sometimes you can definitely add incredibly useful features in a few hours time, and sometimes you spend 5 weeks on 'adding a checkbox', as the user sees it, because so much is going on behind the scenes. Developers like to brag about those cool things they added in just a few hours (I know I do), but you never hear them about the 'simple' options that users request which take weeks to build. And you never hear them complain about the code they wrote themselves (and bragged about) oh so quickly 2 years ago having to be completely rewritten before they could add some new feature to it. Or spending days on debugging a typo that generates the weirdest 'random' behavior just because someone wrote that code without proper error handling / logging / testing etc. and of course the problem only occurs in the customer's environment, not in yours. It's just not glamorous but fixing other dev's mistakes is at least 40% of my work. Fixing my own mistakes 5%. Troubleshooting customers' mistakes another 40%. Pooping and/or meetings 5%. Actual 'productive' work 10%. I need to get paid for all of that time.

I'm frustrated it's going to take 12 days for a construction team to renovate my bathroom and toilet. Just 'taking off some tiles and putting some new ones on', isn't that something they can do in 2 hours? Apparently not, and I don't doubt that they'll actually be busy all of that time and the result will be great. It took a construction team 4 weeks to renovate the street in front of my house. I've seen them work. But I don't see the difference with the old street AT ALL. I'm assuming they have a good reason for blocking our street for a month though. Just because you don't know all the ins and outs of what goes into someone's job, doesn't mean they don't spend the time on it and thus should get paid for that time.

I don't care much for data collection either in my own apps. There are genuine advantages to it for some apps (e.g. by studying how apps are used, even with anonymized data, you can already optimize workflows or decide which areas of the app to focus on), though it should always be opt-in.
But I definitely don't consider ads greedy. Annoying, sure, so I never put them in my own apps. But programmers have to make a living too.

A 'regular' free app of mine (without ads, but also without marketing) I spent months on and had only a few hundred downloads. Even if I put ads in there, and at a revenue of 1 USD per 1000 ad impressions, assuming 100 active users each opening the app 10 times a day, I'd make 1 USD per day (assuming no extra fees, taxes, etc.). Try living on that salary. Getting back my time investment would take over 40 years (!!!) at that rate, based on the actual hourly wages I receive at my day job. And as the number of downloads grows, typically the number of developers grows as well and they all need to get paid. Since it is hard to find good developers, and developers have to keep up with the times, they usually get a decent pay (or will find another place to work).

The alternative are paid apps/games (but somehow people are allergic to those, especially people with Android phones) or in-app purchases (which seems to be the approach that generates most revenue, but when used in games to buy 'coins' etc. is more evil than ads in my opinion, as the concept preys on addiction, competitiveness, and naivety)

Let's say you have a REALLY popular free game at your hands (no IAPs), with 1 million active installations (so probably around 5+ million downloads), and people play it twice a day on average (two ad impressions). You'd make around 2K USD a day, 730K a year. Not bad at all, right? Too bad there are only a few games that make that much. And even if you do, you'd need to maintain the app, probably need someone to create art and music since most programmers are not good at that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmer_art), preferably have someone working on another app already (since mobile apps are usually quite subject to fads), support your customers despite the app being free, all of which can easily be full-time jobs. Then probably have some administrative overhead (best case just some external bookkeeper, worst case a whole CxO/HR/legal/accounting/marketing christmas tree). Then there's office rent and other expenses. With a team of 6 people you'd be doing okay, but for how long? With a larger team (as is the case for many studios), you'd be in trouble already (assuming no external investors and loans). Also, before you can make money on an app, you have to develop it, which for a game can take at least weeks, but more likely months of burning money. Then you need to ensure it's compatible with as many Android devices as possible due to fragmentation (which is less of a problem on iOS, but more than it once was). And figure out how to get many people to download, use, and (this is essential for ad-based revenue) keep using the app.

If you buy an app at 0.99 USD, the developer gets typically between 0.66 and 0.75 USD of that, let's assume the former. That's the same as 660 ad impressions. Due to the short shelf life of most apps, paid apps would be much better for both users and developers. Developers will rarely get 660 ad impressions for a single user for an app or game, so a paid app would have a higher revenue per user. Meanwhile, users become annoyed every time they see an ad, and 0.99 cents is nothing for hours of entertainment compared to the price of pizza, cinema tickets, beer, etc. But still, paid apps just rarely seem to work for Android. Hence the ads and IAPs, and usually combinations of both.

Also, in some markets, paid apps (and IAP) are not even allowed/possible (an example used to be Taiwan, where Google disallowed paid apps because the local government disagreed with Google's refund policy and Google refused to adhere to the Taiwanese rules). Using ads in an app is a loophole that allows developers to still receive some revenue, while the people in those markets can get the actual app they want rather than a virus-infested knock-off from a seedy third-party app store.

I hate fullscreen ads with ultra-small X marks in a random corner, I hate video ads, I hate ads that seemingly pop-up under your finger just as you're about to press some button, I hate ads that misdirect, I hate ads that make your phone vibrate and replace the original page you were browsing. But this is the result of a world in which people don't want to pay for their content, and have gotten used to 'regular' ads so those are pretty much useless. Also, the more annoying the type of ad, the more money it typically makes (more than that 1 USD per 1000 views mentioned before)

Comparing apps/games to pizza or beer is not really valid because those products can be consumed only once per created item. Apps/games can be consumed an infinite number of times once they're created. So it's better to compare it to a movie. A movie is only made once, by typically hundreds if not thousands of people over a few years time, but it's distributed to many cinemas and you're watching it - not alone, but with many people in the same room. People have no problems paying for a 15 USD ticket and sometimes 10 USD of food for a movie they'll enjoy for just 2 hours. The new Star Wars is breaking record sales. Later, the movie will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, digital channels, which costs a bit extra (and in the case of DVD/Blu-ray does involve a one-per-user physical object with some manufacturing cost to it) but in the end, the movie itself is made once and paid by many. Just like an app or game.

But a game/app that people can play/use for days, weeks, sometimes months, they often don't even want to spend a dollar on. And at the same time people will complain about it in reviews. Here's some examples I've seen:

• "The game doesn't run smoothly on my ElCrappo 2" Android 1.5 phone from 2007" - wham, one star review.
• "I can't use your all-touch app on my in-car entertainment system without a touchscreen" - wham, one star review.
• "I installed the smartwatch app but there is no icon on my phone" (doh, check your smartwatch for the icon) - wham, one star review.
• "Unusable unless you add a feature that says 'Johnny Poopants is the best' when I click a pink button - will give you five stars once that is possible" - wham, one star review. Needless to say, each customer has their own specific desires for an app, but none of them is willing to pay for it, and even if I would add that pink button, they'd never change it to a five star review.

Result? Low rating, so people are discouraged from using your app. People who like the game/app rarely leave reviews, while people who have no clue what they are doing do always seem to find the way to the one star review button as a way of taking your app hostage. Instead of making you money, they're taking it, by taking up your time trying to point them in the right direction, and by basically always leaving the one star review unchanged anyway as nobody ever cares to update them (nor are reviews the appropriate feedback channel to begin with, as they don't trigger notifications to either party), eventually scaring away future users. I'd love to create apps or games for a living (and just by myself), but it'd be a major step down for me financially and health-wise.

Oh, and if you do want to create your own paid app, because ads and IAP are evil but you still need to make money, how do you make people buy your app? With marketing. Which typically involves.... ads. In other applications / websites, sure, but there's almost no way around using ads one way or another if you want to make money in the consumer market.

So yeah, better get used to ads in your browser, on your phone, on your television, on the streets, in magazines (that you buy - now that's greedy), in cinemas (that you pay for - also greedy), etc. Even when watching a movie or game trailer online (which are basically ads) you get an ad before you can view the ad you want to see. You can block some of it, sure, but there's no escaping them fully. And more and more website and app developers are coming up with ways to render their website/app unusable if they detect that the ads are not being displayed. So best to either set your mind to just ignore them, or move to Antarctica and make sure you have no satellite connection. Unless we collectively find another way to get money to creators, ads will only get worse.

[lift]

Yep I'm part of an elite team seeking to collect data and destroy lives. We disclose our sinister plan in a top secret document that nobody reads. We chose a cleaver name for this document ..... We call it the privacy policy.


All of our apps are for internal corporate distribution on company owned devices.

Wait! You make apps for your company's internal use only but you still collect data and display ad's on those apps??? Did I read that right? Boy, you are worse than I thought and I thought you were pretty low before.

[kbz1960]

So are the ads for things you have searched for?

[lift]

So are the ads for things you have searched for?

Didn't you see this: "All of our apps are for internal corporate distribution on company owned devices".
There shouldn't be any ad's at all nor data mining.

[kbz1960]

Didn't you see this: "All of our apps are for internal corporate distribution on company owned devices".
There shouldn't be any ad's at all nor data mining.

Yes I saw that. But there is more talk of ads in the thread than just that guy.

[Engire]

Yes I saw that. But there is more talk of ads in the thread than just that guy.

Not to mention, if you are on a company owned phone using company owned apps, how can you expect privacy? Do what you are supposed to with company property and there should be no problems and/or need for privacy.

[anon(2325196)]

Maybe pay the ninety nine cents to make them ad free. That's what I would do if I was you. Don't be so cheap!

Posted via CB10

[paulbbp]

Wait! You make apps for your company's internal use only but you still collect data and display ad's on those apps??? Did I read that right? Boy, you are worse than I thought and I thought you were pretty low before.

You seem to be confused. The thought of ads must be creating a mental fog or something.

Yes we collect data on how the users interact with the applications. No we do not display ads or use the data for future ads.

We collect hardware information also. Things like OS version, available storage and battery life. Essential when troubleshooting and monitoring issues.

For example, if the app crashed we know exactly what the user was doing before the crash. We use this collected data to reproduce the issue and fix the problem that caused the crash.

If we see users spend most of their time on a certain page, then if we add a new button or feature we make sure it's easily accessible from that page.

Oh and I forgot to mention this terrible detail. We also collect who the user is. This way if we see an issue we can proactively contact them before it becomes a device down situation. An example, their tablet storage is almost full and will prevent them from receiving their next daily update from the business system.

Yes, we are just terrible.... To make it worse we continue to evaluate new technologies so that we can rise to a new level of wickedness.

For public apps data collection can be used for ads and that only, or even malicious things. Think bigger.... Developers can use this data for much more to bring value to the end user. The sky isn't always filled with black helicopters seeking to destroy you.

Reputable developers will declare in their privacy policy what data is being collected and how it is being used.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android on Priv.

[TheDutch20]

Simple explanation:

OS 10 no users
Android users galore

And this^^ remember what you all signed up for.. give and take
. Deal with it or go back to OS10 simple
..

Posted via CB10

[TheDutch20]

You seem to be confused. The thought of ads must be creating a mental fog or something.

Yes we collect data on how the users interact with the applications. No we do not display ads or use the data for future ads.

We collect hardware information also. Things like OS version, available storage and battery life. Essential when troubleshooting and monitoring issues.

For example, if the app crashed we know exactly what the user was doing before the crash. We use this collected data to reproduce the issue and fix the problem that caused the crash.

If we see users spend most of their time on a certain page, then if we add a new button or feature we make sure it's easily accessible from that page.

Oh and I forgot to mention this terrible detail. We also collect who the user is. This way if we see an issue we can proactively contact them before it becomes a device down situation. An example, their tablet storage is almost full and will prevent them from receiving their next daily update from the business system.

Yes, we are just terrible.... To make it worse we continue to evaluate new technologies so that we can rise to a new level of wickedness.

For public apps data collection can be used for ads and that only, or even malicious things. Think bigger.... Developers can use this data for much more to bring value to the end user. The sky isn't always filled with black helicopters seeking to destroy you.

Reputable developers will declare in their privacy policy what data is being collected and how it is being used.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android on Priv.

Just like EVERY other OS on the Market. Hats off to you for finally saying it. Why does bb10 have "logs " for you to repot problems with apps or anything so you can have someone who can see the data to help you

Posted via CB10

[bluetroll]

You just proved why developers are not building for BlackBerry 10...

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[app_Developer]

Again, we are all having this nice discussion on a site which exists because of advertising revenue.

[cactuspete23]

It would be a bummer if teh Blackberry had more ads than other phones

[yyz321]

I can't say for other apps, but I have Yahoo Weather on my Passport and it most certainly has ads.
Although, it's sideloaded Yahoo Weather through SNAP and as far as I know, there is no Yahoo Weather for BlackBerry through the BlackBerry world.