What is this symbol of a key, marked with a red arrow, near the top right on the screen of my Android phone? A dictionary app I have been using for years suddenly started displaying a page telling me to disable my ad blocker if I want to continue to use the app without limitation, but I am unaware of any ad blocker on my phone and can't find any app with that symbol. If it stands for an ad blocker, I need to locate it so that I can disable it.

 

Using a VPN ?

As far as I know, there is no VPN on my phone, but I am going to investigate this now.

Just a FWIW though not android this is the symbol on mine for a VPN

Searching the installed apps with the search word "VPN" I found OpenVPN for Android and PureVPN. I uninstalled both but the problem persists.

 

22 minutes ago, Ralf001 said:

Using a VPN ?

That's exactly the symbol that appears when I connect with my VPN (NordVPN).

 

9 minutes ago, Puccini said:

I uninstalled both but the problem persists.

Open this site on your mobile browser:

https://iplocation.com

 

What does it say about country and organization?

 

most likely a VPN sign, and yes it could be an adblocker because some adblockers setup a "fake VPN" network connection to intercept all traffic and filter ads out of this traffic.

 

There is another hint on the net that the symbol would appear if "Safe Browsing" is enabled? I can not reproduce that.

 

Do you have any internet safety related SW installed?

Virus scanners and the like?

32 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

That's exactly the symbol that appears when I connect with my VPN (NordVPN).

 

Open this site on your mobile browser:

https://iplocation.com

 

What does it say about country and organization?

 

It shows my country and the name of my local Internet Provider.

31 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

There is another hint on the net that the symbol would appear if "Safe Browsing" is enabled? I can not reproduce that.

 

Do you have any internet safety related SW installed?

Virus scanners and the like?

I've got "Avast Security & Virus Cleaner" and "Malwarebytes"

Uninstalled Malwarebytes, which was disabled.

 

Found Ghostery and uninstalled it.

 

The key symbol is still there and the dictionary still ask me to switch of my ad blocker.

 

8 minutes ago, Puccini said:

I've got "Avast Security & Virus Cleaner" and "Malwarebytes"

most likely one of those set up a "fake VPN" to filter out ads and malware.

Restarted my phone (Samsung A52s). The problem is still there.

6 minutes ago, fdsa said:

most likely one of those set up a "fake VPN" to filter out ads and malware.

I want to keep Avast.

 

It offers VPN for a fee, but I did not buy this option and is not activated.

https://www.androidtipster.com/what-is-the-key-icon-on-android/

 

Information about how to find and remove a VPN.

• Navigate to the ‘Settings’ menu of your android phone
• Now, depending on the model of your phone, you have to go to the ‘Wireless and Networks > VPN’ option. For some models, it might be Networks>More>VPN.
• Or else, search for ‘VPN’ on the search bar above the screen. And tap on the ‘VPN’ option from the search result. Whatever the case for you, your aim is to find the VPN settings on your android phone
• Now that you are on the VPN settings, you will find the name of the VPN apps installed on your phone
• Among them, you will find an app that will be in the ‘Connected’ state
• So, tap on the connected app. In doing so, a popup will appear saying whether you would want to disconnect the VPN service or not
• Simply, tap on the ‘Disconnect’ option and the VPN app will be disconnected

9 minutes ago, chickenslegs said:

https://www.androidtipster.com/what-is-the-key-icon-on-android/

 

Information about how to find and remove a VPN.

• Navigate to the ‘Settings’ menu of your android phone
• Now, depending on the model of your phone, you have to go to the ‘Wireless and Networks > VPN’ option. For some models, it might be Networks>More>VPN.
• Or else, search for ‘VPN’ on the search bar above the screen. And tap on the ‘VPN’ option from the search result. Whatever the case for you, your aim is to find the VPN settings on your android phone
• Now that you are on the VPN settings, you will find the name of the VPN apps installed on your phone
• Among them, you will find an app that will be in the ‘Connected’ state
• So, tap on the connected app. In doing so, a popup will appear saying whether you would want to disconnect the VPN service or not
• Simply, tap on the ‘Disconnect’ option and the VPN app will be disconnected

Going to work on this.

Found it but is an app we are no allowed to talk about. It allows disabling by app and I see that Opera, the browser I use to access the AseanNow forum, is disabled. What I called my dictionary app is not in the list and now I see that the icon for it on my screen is not for an app but it is a shortcut for a page being accessed with the Chrome browser. I shall have to change this for access with Opera, I guess.

 

Thanks to everybody who participated in my search to solve my problem.

9 minutes ago, Puccini said:

Found it but is an app we are no allowed to talk about. It allows disabling by app and I see that Opera, the browser I use to access the AseanNow forum, is disabled. What I called my dictionary app is not in the list and now I see that the icon for it on my screen is not for an app but it is a shortcut for a page being accessed with the Chrome browser. I shall have to change this for access with Opera, I guess.

 

Thanks to everybody who participated in my search to solve my problem.

An app we are not allowed to talk about, why?

8 minutes ago, proton said:

An app we are not allowed to talk about, why?

Probably an ad blocker app.

I found it on the link to which chickenslegs pointed me. On my Samsung phone, it was Settings >Connections >More connection settings >VPN, where  "Always-on VPN" is now disabled. 

 

What really solved the problem in the end was saving the link to that dictionary web page in Opera and I am now using this. With the link from the Chrome browser, I was asked to choose between disabling the ad blocker (of which I had no knowledge and did not know where to look for it) and paying for a subscription. With he link from Opera, I now got the option of clicking on "Continue with ads" and "Subscibe". I selected "Continue with ads" and on subsequent page loads I no longer have to make this selection but am brought directly to the page. Opera probably has set a cookie for this.

The dictionary web page concerned is duden.de and I use it because I am in the process of learning German.

 

I find it interesting that the mobile version of different browsers behave differently in the situation I described. Too bad if Google is now losing out on some advertising income.

Couldn't you try and find another dictionary that doesn't try to serve you ads?

7 minutes ago, phetphet said:

Couldn't you try and find another dictionary that doesn't try to serve you ads?

Nothing half as good as Duden. I am OK with the ads; the publishers have to make a living, after all.