2

AI-Driven Ad/Tracker Blocking

Not sure if this is possible or even practical to implement but if so, I would like to see it added - perhaps it could also be quasi user-driven so it could adapt/learn from the sites/domains the particular NextDNS user tends to allow/block

1 reply

null
    • Hey
    • 2 yrs ago
    • Reported - view

    It's possible, just not exactly practical with DNS based blocking. Ublock does something similar, it's not AI but, they block elements that have certain names like Ad or other known names and even then websites get past this by randomizing element names. The thing is AI works for Malware/Malwaretisements because they are served from random domains and they are theoretically easier to differentiate than normal websites so less chances of false positives. The issues with Ads is that they aren't usually randomized, 99% of the time it's from known domains, the reason for them not being from many different domains is simply for the Ad Serving companies to deal with the Providers, they make contracts and the Ads get served on x site the sites creator gets x amount of money. So it's harder to just put ads on your site without the backing of a large corporation like Google/DoubleClick, they also have heavy fraud and other protections that Ad Providers want as well so they aren't paying for fake interactions. That's the main problem honestly, and it is made even worse when that lets say 1% of ads that are self served are probably imbedded on the website so blocking those would either block the whole site or would require NextDNS to do HTTPs filtering and that is something they said is not worth it, stating that they won't take the risk of braking a website. So that leaves an extremely tiny bit of websites that aren't well known and serve Ads. NRD (Newly Registered Domains) blocking should give enough time (30 days) for the filters to catch up with that site. So, to finish what I'm saying, it's a good idea just implementing it would be less than practical even if they did HTTPs because of possible false positives between actual ads and website images for articles and other parts of the site that could create pretty annoying issues. 

Content aside

  • 2 Likes
  • 2 yrs agoLast active
  • 1Replies
  • 124Views
  • 2 Following