UK porn pass scheme abandoned

[spacein_vader]

It's not the prolific ads I really resent. I mean, I detest them and block any and all ads I possibly can.

BUT .... I accept that sites need revenue to run. Either a site is good enough that I'd pay for ad-free access or, if the adverts get too intrusive, I'd just not use that site.

What I really, really don't like is the invasion of privacy involved in tracking. I mean, at least with schemes like a suoermarket reward card you have the option of just not getting one. I, personally, fully support the ethos of the GDPR in requiring truly informed explicit consent. That's all it needs. Then, we each have a choice of losing privacy but gaining rewards, or not losing privacy and not getting the rewards. I would pick the latter every single time and there isn't a realistic, practical reward scheme generous enough to change that and I doubt there ever will be.

It's not impossible though. I run a forum and it has a single non tracking static advert, an Amazon referral banner, which only tracks you if you click it.

We host it so you can't block it unless you block the whole domain but my pi+hole leaves it alone anyway due to the reasons above.

[Zak33]

Are all men in porn called Bob?

only if mending old washing machines, with a heavy fake dutch accent.

[dannyboy75]

Are all men in porn called Bob?

It’s interweb-speak for mammary glands

[Millennium]

only if mending old washing machines, with a heavy fake dutch accent.

Surely a Swedish accent?

[spacein_vader]

I'd have thought Roger was a more appropriate name.

[Saracen999]

It's not impossible though. I run a forum and it has a single non tracking static advert, an Amazon referral banner, which only tracks you if you click it.

We host it so you can't block it unless you block the whole domain but my pi+hole leaves it alone anyway due to the reasons above.

I don't have any real problem with that, and I understand why it's there. And, if I used your forum, I have the choice to ignore or click.

It's sort-of the digital world equivalent of a printed ad in a magazine. That, I don't much mind, but I do object to junk mail through my letter box (I get very little these days, probably because it's relatively inefficient and much more expensive) and I detest pestering unsolicited telesales phone calls (and I get even fewer of those, largely due to a call blocker). To be fair, most pestering phone calls these days are scammets anyway, and the blocker almost entirely eliminates them.

But ads of the type you describe are pretty inoffensive, even to me.

[Millennium]

Saracen I had an automated phone call just this morning claiming to be from BT telling my my internet was being cut off for security and to (press sound 1).

Also I get 'all the 'junkmail''. Every other day I see a work of design I need to just recycle.

You should do a post on your call blocking solution some day! I'd be interested if you don't mind the work : ))

[Saracen999]

@ Millenium

I have in the past, but here's it briefly.

It's a small contraption that you plug your phone line into then plug the device into your wall socket.

Then, when any incoming call arrives, the blocker picks up the call silently and handles it in one of several ways, according to how you configured it.

First, it looks for caller-ID info. Anybody you've white-listed gets put straight through and any delay is so small they'll never know the blocker handled the call.

Anyone blacklisted gets a message saying you don't want their calls, and the blocker then disconnects. Your phone will not have rung, and unless ypu check the logs, you'll never know it happened.

Where it gets more clever is that there are a series of call types for which you can degine actions. So, you might choose to handle international calls differently from 'number withheld', which is different to 'switchboard' calls, etc.

But the basic call handling is :-

1) Blocker picjs up call, and doesn't ring your phone,

2) Blocker plays a pre-recorded (by you, or use the default) message saying a call handler is filtering calls, please announce who you are and it will attempt to connect

3) If no voice is detected, blocker tries again, twice IIRC, and if still no voice message, plays a 'disconnect' message and, well, hangs up.

4) Your phone STILL hasn't yet rung.

5) Once a voice message is detected, only then does your phone ring, and you hear the message and can

a) whitelist permanently, which puts the caller through.
b) whitelist this time, which puts caller through but they'll still get call-handled next time they call.
c) blacklist once only. Caller gets a message saying "unable to connect", which is what they'll also get if you're out or don't pick up the call.
d) Blacklist petmanently. Caller added to blacklist and future calls are rejected without your phone even ringing

There's more, but that's the basics.

Oh, and you can give selected people a pass-code. When the call-blocker picks up the call, they type that in and get put through.

That's useful if family or close friends are calling from an unusual and unknown number. I use it to pass foreign family, bypassing an overall block on international calls.

Oh, and at no point can a caller hear you, or talk to you, until they are put through, either by virtue of whitelisting, or because you heard the caller announcement and you opted to put them through. Until that point, a caller has no way to know if you are even in.

I first got one for my elderly and recentky bereaved mum-in-law, who was pestered incessantly by nuisance calls. They dropped to irtually zero (getting through) immediately, and she no longer gets more than even a rare attempt, which is blocked by the blocker anyway, so she doesn't know they tried. I suspect her number gets marked as having a blocker on those lists and they don't even waste their time.


The blocker? There are several, at varying costs. This one is Truecall, which is around the £100 mark (many others range from £20-£50, but I hear varying reports of thei r efectiveness.

It is also Truecall technology that BT include in some of their phones but as I understand it, they are pretty much preconfigured, so you lose most/all of the versatility.


Also, there are several versions, one for disabled (IIRC) one for smal, business, and one that in addition to the above, has a call-recording (to SD card) feature so if you talk to insurance companies, buy goods by phone, etc, you csn keep evidence (transfer to PC) of exactly what you and they did or didn't say, and when.

[Saracen999]

Oh, and I forgot .... it can be monitored, reprogrammed, etc via the internet. It's a subscription service, free for first year then something nominal like £15/year.

[Gentle Viking]

dammit i was about to launch VPNporntunnel.co.uk