Life without SPAM

Just think how many data centers could be shut down or put to better use if there were no more spam or tracking emails or websites. But policymakers are struggling to make any changes. No one there wants to interfere with the “economic cycle,” even though these very companies are unlikely to pay much in taxes. In recent years, spam filters have improved, and end users remain largely protected as long as they keep an eye on their filters. Unfortunately, this doesn’t reduce network traffic.

Now the Fritzbox is taking it a step further. Starting with the current version 8.50, the developers of Fritz OS now allow users to block all kinds of websites right at their home network gateway, without needing an ad-blocker extension in the browser. Fritz took this idea from Raspberry Pi. There, the Raspberry Pi project “Pi-hole” runs a program at the network gateway that manages filter lists for the Domain Name System (DNS).

This allows users to block advertisers’ domains as well as the servers of tracking services from their home network. One can hope that such measures will lead at least some of these online polluters to give up their annoying practices.

It should be noted that users must inform other family members about the blocked services, since they, too, have a right to receive spam. We’ll have to keep a close eye on future developments, as we naturally fear that government agencies would also like to have access to the blocklists in order to make it harder for us to access certain content online.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Read more https://www.heise.de/news/Fritzhole-Adblocker-direkt-in-Fritzboxen-nutzen-11414833.html

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