What's the consensus on AdGuard?

3 years ago by ominouslemon to c/privacy

I've been using AdGuard's DNS resolver on my Android phone for a couple of months, and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

The idea is that it filters out ad networks at the DNS level, so there is no need to root the phone (nor to install any app). You just put dns.adguard-dns.com in your "private DNS" settings and that's it.

Recently, though, I've seen a couple of people around here mentioning how Adguard is not trustworthy, or "kinda shady". What's your take on them? Their privacy policy seems OK to me, but I'd be interested to know more about them.

TheFreed 47 points 3 years ago

If they are "shady" they are in for a very long game. AdGuard has been around for over 20 years and I haven't seen any trustworthy reports they are anything else than what they say they are.

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NullaFacies 1 point 3 years ago

AdGuard was founded in 2009; are you mixing them and AdMuncher up? (1999)

https://wikiless.esmailelbob.xyz/...

(wikipedia page only seems to be in russian for some reason; edge, chrome and safari should translate by default, Firefox, I think you have to install "Firefox Translations")

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TheFreed 6 points 3 years ago

No I know it was 2009, I just really failed with calculation, but the point in the comment still stands. 14 years without credible evidence data is used for anything shady.

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noodlejetski 17 points 3 years ago

I prefer NextDNS for blocking ads and trackers, you get to choose your own blocklists and white/blacklist domains of your choosing if you run into some problems.

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Devion 6 points 3 years ago

Yup, I second NextDNS. It works perfectly, and the free tier is enough for my mobile, wife's mobile and my desktop. AdGuard is included, as are dozens of other (selectable) lists.

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f4b10 2 points 3 years ago

What is the address to add as private dns service? Thank you.

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noodlejetski 4 points 3 years ago

you set up your own address with the block lists you want through https://my.nextdns.io

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f4b10 2 points 3 years ago

Thanks

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Gargari 15 points 3 years ago

Adguard is good, very good. Their rules are default included on uBO, they know their jobs well so getting very good product. As an alternative you can consider NextDNS

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svamp 14 points 3 years ago

I have no idea if adGuard is trustworthy or not, I personally use adAway which is open source and under a GPLv3 license. Perfectly satisfied with it.

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ominouslemon 4 points 3 years ago

I was using AdAway before switching to Adguard. I loved it, but my problem with it was that it kept disconnecting randomly.

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jmp242 3 points 3 years ago

Huh, that's my complaint with the latest AdGuard - now it seems to just... go away... on my phone pretty frequently. The older version didn't ever stop unless I stopped it. I paid for a lifetime on my current phone, but when I get a new one I'll be checking out the free options before paying yearly for AdGuard.

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usuarioimanol 1 point 3 years ago

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svamp 2 points 3 years ago

I have never had a problem with adAway, worth it to mention is that I have never tried any other adblocking services on my andriod.

Edit: some news app that I use serve their ads threw the same domain as their news so that is, at least for me, hard to block.

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ominouslemon 2 points 3 years ago

I used to use it and I loved it. Lately it started disconnecting itself randomly, and that's why I've switched to Adguard's DNS resolver, because reconnecting manually every time was annoying.

In any case you should try it, it's free and maybe the problem was with my own device.

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brb 1 point 3 years ago

I've been using the rooted version for maybe 5 years now and never had a problem with it

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wilberfan 11 points 3 years ago

I JUST suggested AdGuard to two non-techie normie friends, so y'all better not make me take it back! ;-) That said, I've been using it on my Pi-4 at home and on my Android phone for more than a year now.

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forked_bytes 10 points 3 years ago

No opinion on AdGuard, but there are several options for ad blocking DoH:

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mishimaenjoyer 4 points 3 years ago

Add ProtonVPN‘s NetShield to the list. Also blocks trackers.

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netchami 1 point 3 years ago

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9krpm -4 points 3 years ago

protonmail has been seen sharing it's users data with 3rth parties. I assume that extends to all their services if necessary.

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zwekihoyy 4 points 3 years ago

you're gonna have to provide a source if you wanna spread FUD, chief.

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9krpm -3 points 3 years ago

no.

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mishimaenjoyer 4 points 3 years ago

Source: skizo rambling on /g/

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NullaFacies 6 points 3 years ago

As an ad blocker/tracker blocker, AdGuard works really well.

They also have a “browsing security filter” which may be of concern to some people. This filter, similar to smart screen and Google Safe Browsing, will check to make sure websites aren't in a list.

However, if you have it on, they have a section you can opt in (I think it is opt in) to send extra data to help with the security filter.

That telemetry may seem like too much for some people, but I think it's the only thing in AdGuard products that collects data, and even then, it's not for making the filter better and helping its development, not for selling data.

edit two weeks later: Fixed what I meant to say, thankfully people knew what I meant and upvoted.

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WhoRoger 6 points 3 years ago

I had been using them for ages, but they don't really filter out that much, so it's a tad pointless.

Recently I've switched to Rethink DNS where you can select the blocklists you want. And that's... Super effective.

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wilberfan 5 points 3 years ago

Doesn't AdGuard allow selecting blocklists?

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nachtigall 8 points 3 years ago

I think this thread is about their DNS resolver, not about AdGuard Home.

Other lists are possible there too though

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renohren 0 points 3 years ago

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WhoRoger 2 points 3 years ago

Ah I didn't know that. Is that a service you need to log in or is paid?

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Codilingus 5 points 3 years ago

Looks like they're using adguard home, which is self hosted and free. Like pihole but better IMO.

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netchami 3 points 3 years ago

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wilberfan 3 points 3 years ago

This is running on my network on a raspberry pi. It's free. There's an annual subscription for AdGuard on my phone.

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WhoRoger 2 points 3 years ago

Ok. Either way, RethinkDNS doesn't need to be self hosted either, you just get a custom DNS url that you can enter anywhere (doesn't even need the app). So it's up to preference what works for you.

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cheese_greater 3 points 3 years ago

Not sure how relevant it is but it is a Russian company, I believe. Take from that what you will.

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UprisingVoltage 45 points 3 years ago

It was founded in Russia in 2009, then moved its headquarters from Moscow to Cyprus almost 10 years ago, in 2014 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AdGuard

They've been a solid presence in the privacy scene for years now, contributing to spread privacy awareness and not incurring in a single major controvesy/scandal so far.

They're legit imo, and they provide solid services

Not sure about the basis for the claims of "shadiness"

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noodlejetski 1 point 3 years ago

Cyprus is a tax haven.

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Callendor 10 points 3 years ago

It has not been a tax haven in nearly 5 years.

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noodlejetski -4 points 3 years ago

okay then. Cyprus was still a tax haven when the Russian-based company moved there, I'm sure for completely unrelated reasons.

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hatchet 3 points 3 years ago

So they're good with privacy tech and money.

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Maximilious 0 points 3 years ago

This is my main reason for not using them. I have two Pihole servers running gravity sync, unbound and wireguard on each and VPN my phone back home for self hosted DNS resolution and ad blocking.

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DetachablePianist 3 points 3 years ago

+1 for pihole! Stupid easy for linux geeks to setup and maintain, but probably a pretty hard sell for the more general public. A cloud service like NextDNS might be more appropriate for average Joes. I can't speak to AdGuard since I don't use it, but I know that name gets mentioned frequently in privacy circles - favorably, I think...

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lcb -2 points 3 years ago

Well this part with Russian company it is so lol. I am more comfortable giving my dns requests to russia and not to my goverment

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Harrison 3 points 3 years ago

There's zero evidence of any wrongdoing or shadiness other than them having employees living in Russia. The company itself moved to Cyprus, many of their engineers left Russia, none of their servers are physically located in Russia, and they publicly disavowed Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This doesn't mean Russia couldn't apply massive pressure by threatening family members, etc, of course, but I personally have no concerns at this time and use AdGuard Home (their local adblocking DNS server) in my LAN and their iOS app on my devices. The iOS app in particular uses Apple's content-blocking Safari tech so it should be completely safe so long as you don't pay for a VPN or use a local VPN to block everything outside Safari.

If you're rooted on Android, definitely use AdAway instead, it just replaces the hosts file.

https://adguard.com/...

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brcl 0 points 3 years ago

Why do you mention paying for a VPN as unsafe?

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Harrison 1 point 3 years ago

Specifically, the way iOS content blocking works is guaranteed safe. All it does is write to a file loaded by the Safari browser to block content, the app can't do anything at all itself. No indication any VPN sold by AdGuard (or the local device-wide fake VPN) is particularly unsafe that I've seen.

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brcl 1 point 3 years ago

So if I just use private relay and AdGuard should be enough?

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Harrison 1 point 3 years ago

Yeah that'll block all ads and trackers that're possible without severe annoyance with a non fingerprinted browser etc.

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MNLFNUT8YG 2 points 3 years ago

Quad9 ?

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hempster 3 points 3 years ago

I don't think they block ads

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9krpm 2 points 3 years ago

the "default" blocks malware

quad9[.]net/service/service-addresses-and-features/

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laughingm0n 1 point 3 years ago

I have been a long term user of AG Home. My only complaint is some streaming services. We have YouTube TV and the audio gets out of sync sometimes....can confirm it was in fact AG but I guess it could be the older Pi I was running it on.

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zwekihoyy -3 points 3 years ago

it was good when I used it but I switched to nextdns and have liked it a bit more. adguard is based in Russia (I trust the company but who knows what laws could come about) and nextdns has been way more performant for me.

note: nextdns is based in the US so you're not really winning there but I choose to trust them so far

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TCB13 -10 points 3 years ago

I guess it depends on who you ask: https://lemmy.world/comment/2287714

I personally would avoid and it seems like a disaster pending to happen.

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southsamurai 11 points 3 years ago

Yo just linked to one of your own comments where you didn't explain anything.

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privacy

@lemmy.ml

login for more options

A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.

Some Rules

Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
Don't promote proprietary software
Try to keep things on topic
If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
Be nice :)

Related communities

much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)

go to feed...