Tracker and Ad Blocker on iOS

Contents hide

In addition to Vivaldi not tracking you, we protect you from web trackers and give you the option to block ads.

Tracker blocker

Tracker blocker prevents ubiquitous web trackers from following you around the web and from gathering personal data about you. When the feature is enabled, trackers are blocked by relying on lists of well-known tracker URLs and stopping requests to those URLs before they are ever sent.

Ad blocker

While blocking trackers, the Tracker Blocker also blocks many of the ads on websites. So, the Ad Blocker can be viewed as an additional level of protection you can use to block ads that the Tracker Blocker hasn’t already blocked.

We recommend blocking trackers on all sites, but blocking ads only on sites where they are intrusive or distracting. As ads are a big, if not the only, source of revenue for most websites consider not enabling Ad Blocker by default to support content makers.

Blocking settings

To change the blocking level for all websites:

Go to Vivaldi Menu > Settings > Ad and Tracker Blocker > Default Blocking Level.
Choose between:
- No Blocking,
- Block Trackers, or
- Block Trackers and Ads.

Blocking per site

To change the blocking level for a particular website, while the site is open in the active tab:

Tap on the Content Blocker button on the left side of the Address Bar.
Choose between:
- No Blocking,
- Block Trackers, or
- Block Trackers and Ads.

Alternatively, you can add sites to the Exception List from Vivaldi Menu > Settings > Ad and Tracker Blocker > Exceptions > Manage blocking level per site:

Tap on Add New Domain.
Enter the website’s link.
Select the blocking level.
Tap Add New Domain.

To change the level of blocking for exceptions:

Tap on the website on the exceptions list.
Choose between:
- No Blocking,
- Block Trackers, or
- Block Trackers and Ads.
Tap Update.

To remove a website from the Exceptions List:

Tap on the website on the list.
Tap on Remove.
Alternatively, change the blocking level to your default setting.

Blocking Sources

You can view and manage Tracker and Ad Blocking sources in Vivaldi Menu > Settings > Ad and Tracker Blocker > Sources.

To enable a blocking source, tick the box for the listed source. Untick to stop using the blocking source.

Adding Lists

If the blocking source you want to use for Tracker and Ad blocking isn’t already listed, you can import more sources by:

Tap on Add New Source.
Enter the URL of the blocker rules.
Tap Import.

Hide Cookie warnings

Since Europe’s GDPR and a few other user privacy laws don’t allow placing cookies in your browser without consent, most websites ask for your permission as the first thing after the web page is loaded. The fastest option is to just accept everything, which always serves the interests of the website not the user. The other option is to manage your preferences and disable the data usage options all at once, if you’re lucky, or one by one, if the website wants to make it especially cumbersome.
Vivaldi offers a third option by including two blocker lists in the Ad Blocker that hide these banners and dialogs on most websites. To enable these lists:

Go to Vivaldi menu > Settings > Ad and Tracker Blocker.
Enable Block Trackers and Ads.
Go to Sources > Manage Ad Blockings Sources.
Enable “Remove cookie warnings (Easylist Cookie List)” and “Remove cookie warnings (I don’t care about cookies)”.

If you only wish to hide the cookie warnings, but don’t want to block ads, disable other blocking sources.

Please note that not all cookies are used for creating behavioral profiles about users. Some are necessary for the website to function. When the website you’re viewing doesn’t look or work as it should, please disable the blockers. You can do so per site from the Content Blocker menu on the Address Bar.