Question Annoying Ads appearing on news notifications

[Very-Annoyed]

Hi there,

I'm new here so please bear with me if I've posted in the wrong place or missed something important

I have a Motorola E6s that's running on Android 10. The phone works fine for me, does everything I want but I have an issue with ads appearing!
I have very little in the way of extra Apps installed, BBC Weather, Waze, Plantnet and Whatsapp. No games or anything besides those Apps mentioned the phone is just stock Motorola/Anroid 10.
The ads aren't from when I'm browsing the internet (using Firefox 124.2.0 and also have Chrome124.0.6367.54 installed but rarely use it).
I have News notifications set to appear as I like to keep up with what's going on in the world.
When I tap on the icon, top left of the screen, and view the article there are always ad's for dating sites or others for sex toys/underwear etc. They are not popups at all but are within the body of the news article and scattered further down also. I could put up with random shopping crap but these I don't want.
I do use dating sites but do not visit them using my mobile phone, I use a Windows 10 PC when doing so and again use Firfox as my browser and use AdBlock.
Is this behaviour what's called "cross device tracking"?
Regardless of what it's called I would like to stop these ad's being incorporated within the notifications I'm recieving if this at all possible.
I have tried a number of times clicking on the little triangle icon, top right of the ad's, and changing the settings but nothing seems to stop the constant stream of ad's being served up to me.
I'm concerned that these same type of ad's are or could be served up to anybody using my router, visitors/relatives, that I'd prefer them not to be seeing. Will others logged into and using my router be seeing these same ad's?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! When you get these notifications, swipe down the notification panel, take a screenshot, and post it here: https://forums.androidcentral.com/threads/guide-how-to-post-screenshots-on-android-central.413366/

There's a good chance these are notifications from a website through Chrome that you may have unwittingly allowed. It's easy to turn those off -- I can explain how if we confirm that's the issue.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

Welcome to Android Central! When you get these notifications, swipe down the notification panel, take a screenshot, and post it here: https://forums.androidcentral.com/threads/guide-how-to-post-screenshots-on-android-central.413366/

There's a good chance these are notifications from a website through Chrome that you may have unwittingly allowed. It's easy to turn those off -- I can explain how if we confirm that's the issue.

Thanks for the quick reply B.Diddy.

Was hoping to find something on the phone now but a case of Sod's Law the only notification I had was actually ad free.

I can't say definately but I think that when I get them they are via Google which may tie in with these being connected to
to some setting within the Chrome Browser. Hopefully I'll get some of things appearing later today or tomorrow, when I do I'll take screenshots as post them as you've requested.

What I don't understand is how can a browser setting, I veryrarely if ever use Chrome, affect ad's being served up with news notification? Having said that I'm far more familiar with PC's/Windows than I am with Mobiles and Android.

 

[winmod21]

Thanks for the quick reply B.Diddy.

Was hoping to find something on the phone now but a case of Sod's Law the only notification I had was actually ad free.

I can't say definately but I think that when I get them they are via Google which may tie in with these being connected to
to some setting within the Chrome Browser. Hopefully I'll get some of things appearing later today or tomorrow, when I do I'll take screenshots as post them as you've requested.

What I don't understand is how can a browser setting, I veryrarely if ever use Chrome, affect ad's being served up with news notification? Having said that I'm far more familiar with PC's/Windows than I am with Mobiles and Android.

Just FYI and reference —
I've been using the Samsung Internet browser since 2011, [latest version: 24.0.7.1], with 'News notifications' always toggled off under 'Useful features', and with the 'ABP for Samsung Internet' & 'AdBlock for Samsung Internet' ad blockers enabled — under Samsung Internet 'Settings' > 'Ad blockers' (where there's approx 9 different ad blockers to choose from).

I hardly ever notice any ads, as most seem to be either blocked and/or whited out, in most of the newspapers and online media publications—that I briefly visit—to read misc articles therein. Including here at Android Central, (where AC long ago gave-up on asking to me to disable my ad blockers; or maybe they just don't ask anymore).

View attachment 361911



As well, I've been using the Startpage search engine, since the mid-to-eary 2000's.
In comparison, my wife uses Bing "for the points". But she also gets lots of annoying ads.

 

[B. Diddy]

Thanks for the quick reply B.Diddy.

Was hoping to find something on the phone now but a case of Sod's Law the only notification I had was actually ad free.

I can't say definately but I think that when I get them they are via Google which may tie in with these being connected to
to some setting within the Chrome Browser. Hopefully I'll get some of things appearing later today or tomorrow, when I do I'll take screenshots as post them as you've requested.

What I don't understand is how can a browser setting, I veryrarely if ever use Chrome, affect ad's being served up with news notification? Having said that I'm far more familiar with PC's/Windows than I am with Mobiles and Android.

It's pretty common for people to unwittingly accept notifications from a website. Many websites will ask permission to give notifications when they're first visited, and it can be very easy to unwittingly accept that just to get on with the site.

You can go to Settings>Apps, select Chrome, then Notifications, and look through the various websites that have permission to give notifications. Look for any site you don't recognize, and if they have permission to give notifications, turn them off.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

Hi again,

Found one of these ad's within a news article this morning, took the screenshot and promply lost it, seems screenshots now don't get save with other images by default!
Anyway had a browse thgrough the Google news article and found another similar type which I'm attaching for you to view and advise on. Will keep my eye on the notifications that come through and hopefully will have more of this to send you.
One thing that I find very strange though today. I'm now getting adverts offering me App's to prevent ad's! Numberous ad's mainly for Total AdBlock! Feels just like some B******'s watching everything you do now!

Derek.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

Just FYI and reference —
I've been using the Samsung Internet browser since 2011, [latest version: 24.0.7.1], with 'News notifications' always toggled off under 'Useful features', and with the 'ABP for Samsung Internet' & 'AdBlock for Samsung Internet' ad blockers enabled — under Samsung Internet 'Settings' > 'Ad blockers' (where there's approx 9 different ad blockers to choose from).

I hardly ever notice any ads, as most seem to be either blocked and/or whited out, in most of the newspapers and online media publications—that I briefly visit—to read misc articles therein. Including here at Android Central, (where AC long ago gave-up on asking to me to disable my ad blockers; or maybe they just don't ask anymore).

View attachment 361911

View attachment 361905View attachment 361906

As well, I've been using the Startpage search engine, since the mid-to-eary 2000's.
In comparison, my wife uses Bing "for the points". But she also gets lots of annoying ads.

View attachment 361907View attachment 361908View attachment 361909View attachment 361910

Thanks for chipping in WInmod21,

I've been using an adblocker for some years now on my PC, currently using AdBlock with Firefox on it and never have popups or popunders or any other unwanted stuff, it's very effective combined with Firefox.
So as AdBlock only works in combination with Firefox when browsing on a PC, do these adblockers intended for
use on an Android mobile device, my phone, work across the device as a whole and not only within the browser?
As an observation on Firefox for Android, I have no adblocker currently running and get very few if any ad's thrust at me
of any sort on the odd occasion I use my phone to browse the web.

Derek.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

It's pretty common for people to unwittingly accept notifications from a website. Many websites will ask permission to give notifications when they're first visited, and it can be very easy to unwittingly accept that just to get on with the site.

You can go to Settings>Apps, select Chrome, then Notifications, and look through the various websites that have permission to give notifications. Look for any site you don't recognize, and if they have permission to give notifications, turn them off.

Hi again B.Diddy,

Just read through this and have gone into the Notifications and the websites there. One that jumps out at me is Digital Wellbeing.
No idea what that is as I haven't installed or downloaded it. I have read now that it's reguarded as being Spyware but that it's somehow part of Googles Play Services. I've disabled the App notifications for now but would rather uninstall the thing but sounds like it will cause Google to complain about DW not working.

Derek.

 

[B. Diddy]

No, Digital Wellbeing is a legit part of Google's Android (and Samsung has their own version of it as well). It's not spyware. Since it's a core part of Android, you can't uninstall nor disable it, but I guarantee that it's not the cause of the problem.

 

[notforhire]

I might be missing something, but the shot above reveals nothing more than Google ads within a specific web page. I alternate between Edge and Samsung for my browsing. On my PC, I use Edge. I also have ad blockers employed on each browser. As mentioned above, I have a lot of "white space" where an ad wanted to be when I visit a web page.

 

[B. Diddy]

i agree with notforhire -- I somehow missed that post when I typed my last response. That's definitely just an ad that's embedded in the news site. Inappropriate ads like that can be due to annoying practices by whoever runs the ad network (which you can't really do much about), but can also be based on a user's search/web surfing patterns. If this kind of ad definitely is unrelated to any of your web activity, then try turning on Personalized Ads in your Google account settings (myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy). If it does happen to reflect your web activity, then you may instead want to turn Personalized Ads off.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

No, Digital Wellbeing is a legit part of Google's Android (and Samsung has their own version of it as well). It's not spyware. Since it's a core part of Android, you can't uninstall nor disable it, but I guarantee that it's not the cause of the problem.

Oh well, I'll turn the notification s for back on then if it's needed. Cheers for that!

 

[Very-Annoyed]

i agree with notforhire -- I somehow missed that post when I typed my last response. That's definitely just an ad that's embedded in the news site. Inappropriate ads like that can be due to annoying practices by whoever runs the ad network (which you can't really do much about), but can also be based on a user's search/web surfing patterns. If this kind of ad definitely is unrelated to any of your web activity, then try turning on Personalized Ads in your Google account settings (myaccount.google.com/data-and-privacy). If it does happen to reflect your web activity, then you may instead want to turn Personalized Ads off.

So how do I go about turning the Personalised Ad's settings on and off please? Sure I've tried doing that before and works for a while but then they come back, perhaps after some update.
Will an ad blocker stop those appearing with a news article?
Also will these type of ad's be pushed at anyone using my hub to access the web?

 

[Very-Annoyed]

I might be missing something, but the shot above reveals nothing more than Google ads within a specific web page. I alternate between Edge and Samsung for my browsing. On my PC, I use Edge. I also have ad blockers employed on each browser. As mentioned above, I have a lot of "white space" where an ad wanted to be when I visit a web page.

Hi notforhire,

Thats not a screenshot of a webpage, it's from within the text of a news article.!
But I'm not as good with Android related stuff as Windows/PC

 

[B. Diddy]

So how do I go about turning the Personalised Ad's settings on and off please? Sure I've tried doing that before and works for a while but then they come back, perhaps after some update.
Will an ad blocker stop those appearing with a news article?
Also will these type of ad's be pushed at anyone using my hub to access the web?

Whatever you set your Personalized Ads to in your Google account should stay that way until you change it again. I gave the URL for it in my previous post -- it's part of your Google account dashboard website.

Ad blockers can block those ads. I use ad blockers on my Chromebook, but not on my phone, so I wouldn't be able to give you any good recommendations. Others on this forum do use ad blockers, so I'm sure they can suggest some.

 

[Laura Knotek]

This is from Google on my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. I'm using AdGuard. Notice how I get a blank space where an ad on that page would have appeared.

 

[joeldf]

I exclusively use Firefox on my S24+ with only uBlock Origin ad block extension running, and that seems to take care of a good bit of any web-based ads.

I also have Blokada that works to block most ads from apps. Because it runs afoul of Google's ad requirements, you have to download from the Blokada site. But it's also available from the Samsung Galaxy Store.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

Thanks for the advice from you all,. I had installed AdBlock Plus yesterday and things seemd to improve adwise since. On seeing uBlock Origin mentioned above, which I used on PC and didn't know it was available for Android, I've swapped to uBlock as recall it was good and had great reveiews.
I'll bear the Blokada option in mind also. I know that Google, God Bless 'Em, don't like you being able to stop them serving up ad's but I don't want to be flooded by chite I don't need or want to see. If I'm interested I'll look for myself.

Thanks again.

 

[winmod21]

~
So as AdBlock only works in combination with Firefox when browsing on a PC, do these adblockers intended for use on an Android mobile device, my phone, work across the device as a whole and not only within the browser?
Derek

I haven't heard or read about them working "across the device as a whole and not only within the browser?" But I haven't noticed any other ads "across the device".

We also use uBlock Origin on all our PC's.

Whilst it's slightly tedious to do so, I think it's also a good idea to regularly "Delete browsing data" each time you leave the web, or at least daily.

 

[Very-Annoyed]

Looking for Blokada that's mentioned above by Joeldf. I found that available on the Google Play for download, version 6 in fact.
Think Blokada may have changed how it works recently to avoid Goolge's policy on Ad Blockers. Link below:-

Blokada 6: The Privacy App+VPN - Apps on Google Play

Protect your privacy online with Cloud and VPN

play.google.com