We’re happy to announce the launch of R.O.B.E.R.T, which obviously stands for Remote Omnidirectional Badware Eliminating Robotic Tool. Duh.

In laymen terms, R.O.B.E.R.T blocks various malware, ad and tracking domains at the DNS level, on our servers. This has the advantage of working on all platforms, including our desktop apps and mobile apps. You can head over to the My Account page to customize your R.O.B.E.R.T.

Note: This feature set has been superseded by a subsequent upgrade of R.O.B.E.R.T. The only relevant info are the benchmarks at the bottom of the page.

Currently, there are 4 blocking options available:

No blocking — this is how Windscribe used to operate. R.O.B.E.R.T will hang back and do nothing. Malware, phishing and botnets —this is the new default, currently enabled on your account. In this mode R.O.B.E.R.T will block hundreds of thousands of known malware distributing websites, phishing domains and domains used for botnet administration. Unless you’re doing malware research, or something shady, there is no reason to disable this. Ads & trackers — this mode expands on top of mode 2 and also blocks hundreds of thousands of known ad and tracking domains. This will have a huge positive impact on your browsing speed, and data usage, especially on mobile. Social Networks — this mode expands on top of mode 3 and also blocks all known social networks which track your activity across websites you visit. Most major websites have social network trackers.

Mode 2 is available to all users, free and Pro, however all other modes require a Pro account.