The issue of advertising on the web has always been a sensitive subject and has provoked much debate. Indeed, most online media are financed by advertising and without it they could not exist. But faced with the proliferation of tools to block advertising, economic models have changed and more and more major media have opted for paid articles or subscriptions. Nevertheless, there are still sites on which it is an obstacle course to succeed in accessing the content without clicking on an ad… These sites are the very reason for the existence of ad blockers!
It is always difficult to approach the subject of ad blockers when you are judge and jury, but for my part I believe that it is all a question of common sense. On Byothe.fr, I chose to keep some ad spaces on my articles, considering that these are not particularly annoying… But on the other hand, it is clear that these spaces allow to finance the hosting, the domain name… of the blog. Moreover, most tools offer white list systems allowing not to block ads from sites that you wish to support… So if you like Byothe.fr, don't hesitate to whitelist it. !
But where these tools can get really interesting is when they go beyond just being an ad blocker and also focus on blocking anything that might harm your privacy!
And that's exactly what Shelblock does.
Block ads and trackers on the web and in apps with Shelblock
The Shelblock software is free and will therefore allow you to block ads and trackers on your web browser, but also on certain applications installed on your computer. Currently, the software is available for PC, but a Mac version seems to be about to arrive.
In addition to that, what's cool about Shelblock is that it is also able to manage ads from certain software installed on your PC: Deezer, Spotify, MyTF1, M6Replay… and even trackers specific to Windows 10.
To use this software, it's very simple, download it, install it and click on "Protect me" to start your protection. You will then be able to browse the application to define exactly the settings that suit you. In the "Blocking" tab you can manage everything you want to block: ads, trackers, malware sites, etc.
In the filter tab, you will be able to manage your white list. So that's where we need to add byothe.fr, eh 😉 ! By the way, this can also be done by clicking on the Shelblock icon that now appears in your browser.
The "Statistics" tab is very interesting because this is where you will be able to see the usefulness (or not) of Shelblock. Indeed, on the tab is displayed a complete dashboard that will allow you to follow detailed statistics on what has been blocked by Shelblock: ads, spies... and data saved by not displaying ads.
Finally, be aware that Shelblock exists in a paid premium version. With Shelblock Premium, it is possible in addition to all this to stop even more effectively the advertisements of streaming applications like Spotify, Deezer and YouTube to listen to music or watch videos in peace. This version also allows to reinforce the blocking of phishing sites and virtual currency sites for better protection of personal data. The Premium finally allows to activate parental control to block certain websites for children, filter the results of search engines and set a password.
In short, if you are fed up with abusive advertising and want to protect your privacy when browsing the web, Shelblock is a pretty cool tool with quite a few features, even in its free version!
