That's all true - we mention these directly on our FAQ ([redacted]) -- many are issues we plan to address as soon as possible -- the application 100% works in terms of functionality, but is definitely still under heavy development!
> i wonder how you see this playing out in the future
In the near future, we're planning to expand into more general adblocking; we're currently focused on growth & there's still a lot of internal discussion happening, but we're most seriously considering a Spotify-style or micropayments model... very early days though - we just officially launched last week!
Shameless plug (Founder here), but I’d highly recommend checking out [redacted] as an alternative!
We work on a number of major publications that 12ft does not, including NYT, WSJ, and several others. We have a full list of supported publications here: [link redacted]
It's a 'local proxy' - meaning it runs entirely on your device, and filters network traffic. Beyond this, there are a wide variety of client-side filtering techniques that we use; we mix and match these based on the specific implementation of each publication (they're all pretty different in practice).
So as a few people have asked, this actually lets us use a variety of client-side unblocking techniques (like inbound request modification) that browser extensions can't (due to extension API limitations), and effectively unblock publications that the browser extensions don't (can't) — think major ones like WaPo and Bloomberg. The app also works across all browsers, not just Chrome / Firefox. As an aside, due to limitations caused by how cellular networks handle IPs, it's next to impossible for these sites to implement IP-based metering without severe adverse side effects, but the proxy does give very fine-grained control over how the user is presented to the end-site (including apparent IP address).
Right now, we don't make money or monetize at all, and are still exploring options. For the foreseeable future, we're 100% focused on growth and plan to raise VC funding to sustain operations. Ultimately, we want to find a monetization solution that works well for everyone and keeps our interests aligned with the best interest of our users.
That's understandable - if you'd like a work around for now, the app has a 'pause' feature (which, if active, will cease to proxy traffic completely - you can just turn it on briefly as needed, then 'pause' it after loading the article).
The reason for the root cert is that in short order (after cleaning up our infra, etc.) we're actually planning to expand to a full-spectrum adblocker.