ewx: (penguin)
Richard Kettlewell ([personal profile] ewx) wrote2015-09-21 01:19 pm
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Ad-blockers

Ad-blocking in web browsers has been going on for years, but it’s generating more press lately because Apple have started doing it. (Possibly also it’s reached sufficient levels that it’s starting to hurt). I have very little sympathy for the organizations impacted by this for a number of reasons, but in particular:

  1. Online adverts represent a serious threat vector. Breaking into a obscure blog and using that to server malware only infects that blog’s readership; breaking into an ad server affects the readership of everything that uses that ad network. This isn't a hypothetical concern; here’s a recent example (edit: here’s another) (edit: another, with a bonus of some social engineering to get users to make themselves vulnerable). If I asked an ad network to indemnify me against any losses resulting from permitting them to access my computer, what sort of response do you think I might receive?

  2. Ad-blockers do indeed disrupt the business model of many websites, and this may yet be fatal for large numbers of them (or at least a contributing factor in their demise). But so what? The web has already thoroughly disrupted many existing business models[1], and is continuing to do so; if ad-blockers do kill a bunch of websites then really we’re just seeing another round of the same thing.

[1] although to my surprise I saw an apparently surviving video rental store on Saturday morning.
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[identity profile] venta.livejournal.com 2015-09-22 07:55 am (UTC)(link)

I've been watching the while ad blocker conversation with interest, but your point (2) is something I have neither thought of nor heard anyone else raise.

sparrowsion: (angel)

[personal profile] sparrowsion 2015-09-22 11:21 am (UTC)(link)
As someone on the other side of the fence (ie I'm someone who would be impacted if the online advertising business collapsed), I think, possibly with the benefit of hindsight, that the ad industry has made two big mistakes. One has been to engage in an arms race with ad blockers. The other has been to make ads excessively annoying (autoplay video). If they could accept that some people are going to block them, and annoyingness is balancing attention-grabbing with offputtingness, and one reason for blocking, then the ad-delivery technology could be kept simple, more secure, and fewer people would install add-blockers.

[identity profile] pjc50.livejournal.com 2015-09-22 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Also the use of tracking and surveillance. There were at least two big opportunities to reach a ceasefire here - "Do Not Track" and the EU cookie directive - and neither was taken.

Another factor is that when people are on mobile the ads cut into very limited data allowances, or actually cost people money to receive.

[identity profile] pseudomonas.livejournal.com 2015-09-22 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes. For me the third-party tracking is the decisive factor. I'd like to allow ads, but not ones that try and achieve maximum privacy-violation, which as far as I can tell is just about all of them :(
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