AdGuard: A Privacy Suite that Improves the Web Browsing Experience by Blocking Online Tracking and Ads

TL; DR: The internet has grown into a worldwide market where browsing habits and personal information is recorded, bought, and sold. By simply searching for a particular item, consumers are tracked across the web and assailed with advertisements for that item for weeks. AdGuard runs in the background to block all types of ads, removing them from a site’s code before they even have a chance to load. The software also rejects known malicious and phishing websites to protect consumers from sites that target their sensitive data. And, because it works on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS operating systems, AdGuard protects consumers regardless of the platform they use to surf the web.

On a whim, I recently checked the airfare for a trip to the West Coast over the holidays. Suddenly, every rental car company and hotel up and down the Pacific Coast found its way onto my social feeds through banner ads. I became a popular Twitter follow for travel agents.

It wasn’t a coincidence. Browsing history, as well as other personal information web surfers think is private, can easily be seen by others and often ends up in the hands of the highest bidder. The demand for personal information by brands looking to better market particular products as well as hackers looking to access credit card information grows every day.

Traditional pop-up blockers are effective at keeping annoying advertisements out of view, but they don’t do much else. For complete protection from targeted advertisements, consumers need a more powerful tool that stops the ad before it starts.

AdGuard is an internet leader in privacy protection and ad blocking. By employing a program that runs in a computer’s background, it filters out advertisements and unwanted content before a page loads, which not only protects privacy, but renews the enjoyment factor in any web surfing experience.

“Tracking and big data is the main problem of today’s internet,” said Andrey Meshkov, CTO and co-founder of AdGuard. “Companies know almost everything you do online. Privacy violations are the new norm, and it’s indeed alarming. It’s possible that the new General Data Protection Regulations will change some things for European users. We hope that will become an example that other countries will follow.”

In addition to blocking ads, the tool offers effective protection from online threats, like malicious software and phishing emails, and enables consumers to use the application as a proxy server that puts a fence between a personal computer and the outside world. Furthermore, AdGuard is available on Android and iOS mobile devices and provides comprehensive filtering of ads and downloads both in browser and on external applications.

For its commitment to the millions of global users who depend on the company for their privacy needs, we present AdGuard with our Editor’s Choice Award™ for developing an application that helps consumers take back their internet experience.

A slow internet is a big complaint among consumers today. We’ve grown accustomed to getting our information the instant we want it. Buffering and loading is an inconvenient speed bump that no one needs in their day.

AdGuard not only protects web surfers from ads, but it eliminates videos, rich media, or non-standard ads from website coding before the page is loaded on a screen. That means that those videos and banners that play in the background never reach the computer, and each page loads faster because of it.

“The entire AdGuard team has a common goal and mission to provide a fast, clean, and safe internet experience for everyone,” Andrey said. “It’s easy to stay focused on that and love your job when you know you’re working on a great product that helps to protect millions of users around the globe.”

AdGuard’s products work on virtually any browser, including lesser-known programs like Lunascape, Orca and Pale Moon. The simple-to-use application has both basic and advanced interfaces with fully customizable settings and statistics that can be reset at any time. Exceptions for any website a user chooses to see videos or ads on are easy to make.

With the full suite of security protection available across every computer in any home, AdGuard not only helps consumers retain privacy, but keeps the whole household secure.

The internet can be a trove of useful information and a tremendous tool for children to explore and learn about topics that interest them. It can also be full of unwanted downloads and images inappropriate for young eyes. AdGuard shields users of all ages with a set of parental control options accessible through a secure password.

The Safe Search mode can be enabled for any user and blocks all adult material from search engine results and direct-address typing.

The filters can be adjusted by user age, with standards changing as a child gets older. AdGuard relies heavily on research and user feedback to determine which sites are appropriate for various age groups.

“We keep a close eye on the industry news and try to catch up with the new technologies in development,” Andrey said. “In addition, we have a strong community backing us up – filter maintainers help us stay up to date, and we always consider valuable feedback from our users.”
The parental controls, as well as the other features included in the AdGuard suite, have been tested and cultivated over many years since the advent of unwanted ads.

“It started quite a long ago, but in the form of an ad blocker rather than a privacy suite,” Andrey said. “At that time, ads were extremely annoying – pop-ups and pop-unders were virtually everywhere. It was unbearable. Over time, the issue of privacy got more acute, and we responded by extending the program’s functionality to focus on protection from all sorts of tracking.”

Unwanted ads and tracking or malicious-intent applications have become more creative in how they deliver their message as new blockers are developed to stop the intrusion on computers and mobile devices. That’s why the security option users choose to protect their computers should be committed to being up to date and ahead of the curve.

AdGuard has proven to be just that. Since its inception as a pop-up ad blocker, the program has continued to evolve over time as the advertisements it intercepts become more sophisticated. AdGuard has grown into a full security suite that stops ads before they load speeding up your internet experience in the process.

It also blocks background programs, malicious software and phishing emails that target your personal information by posing as a company or friend to get access to passwords, account numbers and other info you want to keep private.

To keep the entire family safe, AdGuard includes a robust parental control interface that can be adjusted to the age of each child and cannot be changed or removed without a secure password.

There’s no reason that a consumer’s web experience should be broadcast to the entire world. We all have the right to privacy in our personal matters, and that should not change on the World Wide Web. Thankfully, there are programs out there working to help consumers reclaim their internet experience and the peace of mind that the web was founded on. With AdGuard, consumers can feel comfortable searching for that guilty pleasure online without the world knowing their every move.