Policy · Desktop & Android

Adblocking in Snipe

Snipe ships with content blocking built in, on every platform, on by default. This page explains what blocks ads on each platform, which filter lists are used, and why a small set of sites is allowlisted.

⬇ snipe-allowlist.txt What we will never do

The short version

Ads are blocked out of the box. Desktop Snipe uses uBlock Origin compiled into the core. Snipe for Android uses Adblock Plus with 30+ updatable filter lists. Both platforms share a single curated allowlist of trusted sites — Snipe’s own services plus ad networks known to respect privacy and serve non-intrusive ads.

You can edit or disable any of it. Nothing here is locked.

Desktop

uBlock Origin in the core

Desktop builds of Snipe do not treat adblocking as an extension. uBlock Origin is compiled into the browser and active from the first page load. It cannot be disabled by accident, silently unregistered by an update, or broken by an extension-store policy change.

The desktop blocker runs a curated whitelist of contextual, non-tracking ad networks (see The trusted-sites allowlist below) alongside standard uBlock filter lists. Everything is user-editable: you can add lists, remove lists, and override the allowlist per-site from the uBlock dashboard, exactly as you would in the standalone extension.

Android

Adblock Plus with 30+ lists

Snipe for Android integrates Adblock Plus as its blocking engine. It subscribes to more than 30 updatable filter lists covering ads, trackers, annoyances, and regional filters, refreshed automatically on the same cadence as upstream list maintainers publish them.

The Android build applies the same trusted-sites allowlist as desktop, translated into ABP syntax so behavior stays consistent across platforms: a site that shows non-intrusive ads on your desktop shows the same on your phone.

Shared across platforms

The trusted-sites allowlist

Both platforms carry one shared allowlist — 34 apex domains, each covering its subdomains. It exists for two reasons:

First-party Snipe surfaces

SnipeSearch, SnipeSocial, SnipePay, Snipe Pics, SnipeOffice and the rest of the ecosystem are allowlisted so the browser never blocks its own services or the contextual listings inside SnipeSearch Adclicks.

Privacy-respecting ad networks

A small number of networks — EthicalAds, Carbon Ads, BuySellAds and similar — serve contextual, non-tracking ads. Sites funded by these networks (Read the Docs, for example) are how a meaningful part of the independent web pays its bills without surveillance. Blocking them punishes exactly the publishers doing it right. Snipe allowlists them.

The list also includes a handful of infrastructure domains (playback measurement and tag-management endpoints) required for streaming services such as Disney+ to function correctly, since Snipe does not phone home to any “acceptable ads” program that would otherwise negotiate this.

34
apex domains
365
day refresh
£0
buy-in price

The allowlist:

Companion file · uBlock / ABP syntax

snipe-allowlist.txt

The full allowlist as shipped in Snipe. Import it as a custom filter list, or open it to audit every entry.

⬇ Download snipe-allowlist.txt
Hard rules

What we will never do

Your browser

Changing the defaults

Turning blocking off entirely is supported on both platforms. It’s your browser.

Feedback

Reporting problems

If a site breaks with blocking enabled, or you believe an allowlisted domain no longer meets the non-intrusive, non-tracking standard, report it at SnipeSearch Support. Allowlist entries are reviewed on report and on the annual refresh cycle; any domain found to have introduced tracking is removed in the next list update, which reaches all installations automatically.