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HTC Keyboard Ads Likely an Error, But Damage is Already Done (androidcentral.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Ads in the stock keyboard app on a flagship smartphone added quietly via an app update, which then asks you to pay to remove them. You'd be hard pressed to come up with a more comically villainous thing for a phone manufacturer, or app developer, to pull on its users. Yet that's what's been happening to some HTC phone owners over the past day. HTC 10 owners seem to be worst affected (we're not seeing it on the newer U11 for what it's worth), with the ad bar taking up a good chunk of screen real estate. There's understandable outrage among HTC owners whose phones have started coughing up ads every time they open the keyboard. The consensus, obviously, is that this is not an OK place for ads to be appearing. In a statement, HTC said it was an error, and a fix is underway.
What's the BS? That it was a mistake? Plainly it was, despite the knee-jerk responses of the butthurt hordes. The BS is that it was let out without a decent check by HTC - the app is apparently a TouchPal app, which is where the mistake probably occurred. Blame HTC for not testing prior to release, or TouchPal(?) for similarly not debranding properly.
And Android users, those free apps aren't 'free'. Ads are the price you pay. Even paid apps monetize further with ads, I know, so choose between the truly minimal greed of independent devs hoping to score big, or the corporations able to nail you. Choose wisely.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
THAT, friends, is why you root the shit out of Android and then use an app like AdAway, which uses the /etc/hosts file to block ads, which is why root is required. I tried other adblockers that didnt use the hosts file and none worked worth a damn.. Before I rooted my phone, it was endless ads in EVERYthing, and of course, this crap was eating up my data like mad, for which I pay for what I use (am on Ting.com). Once I rooted and installed AdAway, no more ads, and my data consumption went down signifcantly...
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
Funny.
I have no ads anywhere other than in browser on sites that have them. Maybe it is because I choose decent apps and pay for them. Instead of downloading every piece of shit freeware on the face of the planet and then complaining about it.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
On Samsung phones, you can leverage Knox to get device administration without root. Adhell notably uses Knox and in addition to ad-blocking, it also allows freezing of preinstalled crapware.
All of that said, obtrusive ads should be subject to similar laws as the "do no call" list. A $500 fine for each infraction of a "do not advertise" list would go a long way.
I believe it was an error. Although HTC does deserve part of the blame.
You see, the "stock keyboard" was actually a third-party app, which is ad-supported by default.
The HTC version is supposed to be a special ad-free version, but somehow during the latest update the app developers pushed the ad-supported version to HTC devices as well.
If anything, this demonstrates the dangers of bundling apps that you don't directly control.
And who's to say the ad-free version doesn't still track the user or collect personal information? If it wants it could collect all your passwords too!
It was really poor judgement on HTC's part to use such an app for a sensitive component like the stock keyboard.