"I will set up any network I'm in charge of with a DNS that has doubleclick.com as 127.0.0.1, and also many others."
You mean doubleclick.net? Alas, that's a typo that would let the ads in.
Like you I redirect doubleclick and "many others". But not to localhost. I like to log all the requests either via pflog or a socket logger. Useful for examining what apps are trying to do from my device over the network. Sometimes I redirect certain domains to my own httpd and serve my own "fake" resources (placeholders for in-app ads, etc.).
You say "any network I'm in charge of".
What if there were a DNS caching server reachable from anywhere that blocked these ad servers for you? That is, what if there was a "public DNS" like 8.8.8.8 or 208.67.222.222 except not run by a company that sells ads or "security services"?
What if there was a turnkey ad-blocking DNS caching server solution that one could run on any suitable hosting provider virtual machine instance?
Would anyone be interested in such a thing? I have had this personal DNS idea for many years, ad blocking is becoming much more popular only recently.
I think users controlling their own DNS is a key step toward taking back the www from the "corporate dreck". Maybe blocking ads is the stimulus for such a change.
I've been pondering this myself recently, and decided to explore setting up my DNS-level adblocking in Bind using RPZ instead of my hosts file.
It was quite easy, and I now even use nsupdate to block new ad domains that show up so that I don't have to restart my DNS server to add new names to block.
I pondered making my server publicly available but had concerns about bandwidth, and other potential legal shenanigans. That said I couldn't put my finger on what exactly I'd get in trouble for if I made it public, so perhaps it's just FUD?
Awesome idea. Please please please if you are going to do it first look for a business model. I guess the people coming to you to avoid ads won't be too eager to pay. Myself included :)
Maybe have a data mining or statistics service to pair with it. A curious search brings up an interesting QA about OpenDNS https://www.quora.com/How-does-OpenDNS-make-money.
Wait, what? It's my responsibility to invent a new business model for someone else? Or is it my duty to watch (possibly malware-infected) ads? I'm not sure what you're saying here.
If you're advocating for imposition of a legal duty to watch ads, then I demand the legal imposition of a duty for advertisers to frequently acknowledge that there is no "free" market any more.
You mean doubleclick.net? Alas, that's a typo that would let the ads in.
Like you I redirect doubleclick and "many others". But not to localhost. I like to log all the requests either via pflog or a socket logger. Useful for examining what apps are trying to do from my device over the network. Sometimes I redirect certain domains to my own httpd and serve my own "fake" resources (placeholders for in-app ads, etc.).
You say "any network I'm in charge of".
What if there were a DNS caching server reachable from anywhere that blocked these ad servers for you? That is, what if there was a "public DNS" like 8.8.8.8 or 208.67.222.222 except not run by a company that sells ads or "security services"?
What if there was a turnkey ad-blocking DNS caching server solution that one could run on any suitable hosting provider virtual machine instance?
Would anyone be interested in such a thing? I have had this personal DNS idea for many years, ad blocking is becoming much more popular only recently.
I think users controlling their own DNS is a key step toward taking back the www from the "corporate dreck". Maybe blocking ads is the stimulus for such a change.