March 24, 2021
5660
0Is AdGuard Safe to Use?
The Internet is now an entertainment platform and an incredible information space in which people live and communicate with their friends and work. But the trend of recent years is that many site owners prefer to earn money by placing ads on them.
What is the best way to surf the net securely without ads? Find out here.
Sometimes the number of ads is such that it is impossible to use the page normally, even though it may have some important or interesting information! AdGuard is the program that can help you solve this problem.
Today we will learn more about this program and tell you whether is AdGuard safe to use or not.
Previously, we’ve told you about Advanced SystemCare safety issues. If you’ve missed this topic, you can read the article here.
What is AdGuard?
AdGuard is a program for protecting against malware and getting rid of intrusive advertising on the internet. In short, it is an application that will help ensure a safe pastime on the internet.
You can download this program as a version for Windows or macOS and install it on your computer, or find it in your app store and install it on your phone with the Android or iOS operating system. This product is also available to all users of popular browsers as an extension.
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The program developers themselves describe its benefits in this way:
- Ease of use and ergonomic menu.
- It does not require mandatory configuration, so it starts working immediately after installation.
- A variety of installation methods from a local browser extension to a full-fledged program.
- Pages on the web start loading much faster.
- Traffic savings are achieved; it allows you to block text, animations, and video ads.
- If there are ads on the site that the application cannot block, a notification is sent to the developers. The functionality improves over time.
- It protects against viruses and works on various operating systems.
- Unwanted sites for children will be blocked.
- Developers provide 24/7 technical support.
These benefits are supplemented by an equally important advantage – its light weight. The full-fledged program requires only 15-25 MB of RAM to work, which is not a problem for a more or less modern PC.
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AdGuard interface
When you start the program, you will see a very simple and intuitive interface. It will not be difficult for an ordinary user to understand it.
In the program window, you can see the main features of AdGuard, located in separate blocks. When you hover over them, you can configure each of them in more detail.
The main features:
- Anti-banner. The main function of the AdGuard program, which removes ads from web pages.
- Privacy protection. This feature prevents the use of cookies by web resources. It also blocks the detection of your location and hides or changes IP addresses. Sites can use these parameters to get detailed information about users. To prevent this, you need to activate the “Antitracking” option in AdGuard, since it is not active by default.
- Anti-phishing. This module prevents you from visiting malicious and fraudulent websites and online services. The program does not allow the display of the content of the dangerous site. Instead, you will see a warning about the danger of this resource.
- Filtered applications. In this option, you can add resources for filtering yourself. If you want to view ads on certain sites, or there are some sites that you use but AdGuard blocks them, then you should add them or exclude them from the list of filtered applications, as well as add them to the exceptions for checking by this program.
- Parental control. This option allows you to automatically close access to sites by age categories and also allows you to remove sites of this type directly from the search results of popular search engines. It also allows you to prevent downloading executable files (.exe extensions) that can harm your system or install unwanted software. This feature is disabled by default.
- Extensions. In the program, this option is called “Cross-browser User Script Manager.” This feature allows you to add one extension to this manager and work with it in all browsers without the need for a personal installation.
Know more about existing methods of internet tracking protection.
Is AdGuard safe to use?
The question of the security of this program has long been of interest to internet users. After all, the developers themselves do not disclose what methods of data protection they use. On the official website of AdGuard, you can see a note that the program is safe to use and does not disclose data to third parties. But whether this is actually the case is unknown.
In addition, users complain that the app installs a bunch of security certificates in the browser. This is not so convenient, because often this approach leads to the inability to go to a particular site. Again, experienced users will probably be able to remove the most annoying of them, while for beginners this task can become simply insurmountable.
In addition, the program increases the functionality in the paid version. The free version immediately asks for the key file when installing. Of course, as a result, the AdGuard anti-banner does not receive positive recognition from users.
The technical support service does not particularly help in cases of a program malfunction. As practice shows, they simply advise you to remove and reinstall the program. Again, even after that, there may be problems with activation. This does not add any confidence in the program.
Some antivirus programs are not at ease with this application, and therefore sometimes give errors. Sometimes they lead to the restart of the “Explorer” or the antivirus application itself.
On the internet, you can find a lot of reviews about how the program worked perfectly for the entire demo period, and after that it suddenly began to miss almost half of the ads.
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Final word
So, what can we say when summing up the results? It is easier for experienced users to configure all the necessary plug-ins in the browser they use so as not to return to this issue later. In addition, if you have the necessary knowledge, you can simply activate the appropriate options in the antivirus software you use.
Many utilities of this class provide the appropriate options, and therefore it is not worth paying for the same thing twice. Reviews indicate the good functionality of this application but also note the existence of high-quality and free equivalents.
For instance, you can look into the free and secure Utopia P2P. This is a private ecosystem that is absolute free of censorship, surveillance, and ads.
In short, the choice is yours!
In 2021 the question of internet protection is primary! Learn more about working methods of online protection.
