Adblocking Discussion

Do you use an adblocker?

  • Yes!

    Votes: 65 95.6%
  • No!

    Votes: 3 4.4%

  • Total voters
    68
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shukla44

Level 13
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Well-known
Jan 14, 2016
601
I use adguard & noscript both with Kaspersky ad-blocker & privacy protection modules.

I have been infected with ads & malvertizing before. I have lost money & time trying to fix what is screwed up by ads & pop-ups. I hate ads & pop-ups, so i block them, all of them, no whitelist. I understand about revenue & many people's livelihood is depended on ads but i can't damage my livelihood for the sake of supporting, which in fact is just a drop in a bucket. I know this explanation may sound selfish or rude but i didn't intended it to be this way.

If you are trying to get a justification for blocking ads (bad or good), then IMO, doesn't exist.
 

_CyberGhosT_

Level 53
Verified
Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
Aug 2, 2015
4,286
I think a lot of it for me is that Ad's are not "just Ad's" anymore, they at times are very intrusive,
some include malicious links and malicious content. Those that don't use ad blockers can do that,
I believe its their right to use or not use as they see fit. But you will never convince me to not protect my
assets and family online. They need to adopt a accepted structure for internet ad's then they would lessen the
need for ad blockers, until they do that they can cry all they want about me blocking their ad's.
 

shukla44

Level 13
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Top Poster
Well-known
Jan 14, 2016
601
If you are trying to get people to remove their ad-blockers & support the developers, this is not the way. The only argument in your favor is destroying the livelihood by safe ads blocking, which is also not a good one. If someone livelihood is depended on the ads they are serving, then that person is pretty much done for IMO.

Let's say for an arguments sake, some users drop their usage of ad-blockers by reading your post (futile sentiment), then sooner or later, they will get infected & they will then blame you. Are you ready to face that? If the user infected a beginner, then he/she won't be able to deal with it like you described (on-demand scanners, system images, etc) & will lose a lot of money & time to fix what was caused by a misguided attempt to support a person's livelihood. I mean, come on.....

This is not a small matter, certainly not a agree to disagree topic. Please don't take the above comments to be casting blame or trash-talking. I am just pointing out a likely outcome. No offense intended.

Regards.
 

_CyberGhosT_

Level 53
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Honorary Member
Top Poster
Content Creator
Well-known
Aug 2, 2015
4,286
If you are trying to get people to remove their ad-blockers & support the developers, this is not the way. The only argument in your favor is destroying the livelihood by safe ads blocking, which is also not a good one. If someone livelihood is depended on the ads they are serving, then that person is pretty much done for IMO.

Let's say for an arguments sake, some users drop their usage of ad-blockers by reading your post (futile sentiment), then sooner or later, they will get infected & they will then blame you. Are you ready to face that? If the user infected a beginner, then he/she won't be able to deal with it like you described (on-demand scanners, system images, etc) & will lose a lot of money & time to fix what was caused by a misguided attempt to support a person's livelihood. I mean, come on.....

This is not a small matter, certainly not a agree to disagree topic. Please don't take the above comments to be casting blame or trash-talking. I am just pointing out a likely outcome. No offense intended.

Regards.
I hate to say it, but the truth of the matter is often times no matter how flawed ones reasoning,
they will choose the flawed reasoning rather than concede to a dif way of thinking. That is not mean, it's just
the gods honest truth. I have been guilty of it as well at times in my life. The positive side is that it
is a way of thinking that is curable (for some). lol ;)
 
Last edited:

Handsome Recluse

Level 23
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Top Poster
Well-known
Nov 17, 2016
1,242
Adblockers exist. Adblockers are being implemented. No amount of philosophy can counteract this. Plain and simple. Philosophy's not a practical subject anyway. Ultimately, people go with their gut feelings and market forces take over. Fortunately, the technology sector is unlikely to be perverted, is constantly improving and is the most innovative sector. Market forces + Human innovation will find a way. Just Believe!!!
 

reboot

Level 3
Verified
Well-known
Jan 27, 2017
139
I hate to say it, but the truth of the matter is often times no matter how flawed ones reasoning,
they will choose the flawed reasoning rather than concede to a dif way of thinking. That is not mean, it's just
the gods honest truth. I have been guilty of it as well at times in my life. The positive side is that it
is a way of thinking that is curable. lol ;)

Thank you for the reminder that the most difficult feat in thinking is to escape from your point-of-view. That's true for you, that's true for me, that's true for all of us!
 
W

Wave

@_CyberGhosT_ I guess a lot of us have our own views of opinion which may counter an actual fact regarding online safety, and therefore we use our own opinions to base how we should be doing things, which does increase the chance of our infection; we're all guilty of ignoring solid-hard evidence for our own personal preferences and opinions, everyone does it. So I definitely agree with you (CyberGhost) ;)

At the end of the day, the fact of the matter is that using an adblocker will definitely keep you more secure while browsing the internet, reducing the attack vectors. There are many ways that advertisements can be maliciously abused and I regularly see it, even when my adblocker is enabled it is not always capable of blocking 100% all advertisements. The malicious advertisements can redirect you to malicious URLs containing exploits/drive-by-download attacks, fake AV scan pages, and so on. That being said, popups are often abused and ad-blocker's usually tend to protect under the pop-up scope as well.

If you wish to support developers of specific sites then you can work with any available white-listing feature, it's all added for a reason... If exclusions weren't necessary sometimes then the exclusion functionality wouldn't exist.

Personally, I think that if the OP doesn't want to use an adblocker for the reasons he provided and wants to share his opinion, then that's fine and of course he's entitled to it. But I think trying to condone dropping usage of an adblocker is a very bad idea, especially for the reasons that @shukla44 mentioned. At the end of the day, if the OP doesn't want to stay better protected then that is his decision.

Facts are facts, opinions are opinions; my opinion is that an ad-blocker should be used, the OP's opinion is that they shouldn't, and the fact is that using an ad-blocker will enhance your protection while browsing online. :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

reboot

Level 3
Verified
Well-known
Jan 27, 2017
139
i don't think so, because you got tracked every time an ad is served (it's called browser fingerprint).

Panopticlick

Thank you for validating my point. If one tells people that we shouldn't use an adblocker because we are stopping nice people from earning money from advertising revenue then shouldn't one apply the same logic to cookie cleaners and any other technology that stifles the advertising process?

@Wave you're writing skills are much better than mine. Can you confirm that I have made sense?

@uncle bill thank you for sharing Panopticlick it looks like an excellent tool.
 
W

Wave

@Wave you're writing skills are much better than mine. Can you confirm that I have made sense?
Yes, you've made sense IMO. All the posts in this thread are perfectly readable as far as I'm concerned, or I didn't have any trouble reading any posts here at least. :)

This has been an interesting discussion though, when the thread was created I knew that opinions would kick start differences within 5 hours of it being posted so I was lurking previously, haha.
 

ozone

Level 3
Verified
Jan 17, 2017
97
For me the main reason I use "blocker" is security and privacy. I don't mind ads, but they don't respect Do Not Track, some ads include malicious code and sometimes they are NSFW.

Of course I will miss ads which tell me that I had won 100000$, just to click and provide phone and credit card numbers, ...

but without ads sites are loading faster and it's more secure, just you won't have a chance to win something.

this is interesting addon to fight against ads, but what will happen if it silent clicks on ads with malicious code...
AdNauseam - Clicking Ads So You Don't Have To
 
W

Wave

For me the main reason I use "blocker" is security and privacy. I don't mind ads, but they don't respect Do Not Track, some ads include malicious code and sometimes they are NSFW.

Of course I will miss ads which tell me that I had won 100000$, just to click and provide phone and credit card numbers, ...

but without ads sites are loading faster and it's more secure, just you won't have a chance to win something.

this is interesting addon to fight against ads, but what will happen if it silent clicks on ads with malicious code...
AdNauseam - Clicking Ads So You Don't Have To
FAQ · dhowe/AdNauseam Wiki · GitHub
 

Like a Western!

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Apr 6, 2016
440
i don't like the way how MT push its users to use AdBlockers/plugins like uBlock or...
in such a untrustable cyber world , you need to install such these softwares or plugins as few as possible!
but if you notice that some of MT Staffs, insist on using such these softwares/plugins which is not necessary, even they could call your system unsafe cause what? you have not adblocker ( you still have anti malware, we all know adwares are part of malwares family ! ) or sometimes your system are not safe because you are not using VM ( only if you using a VM you will be secure ! otherwise you are at risk, for me? this is an opinion that when i hear it i will say LOL ! ) instead you are using SD.

in the end i just want to say, don't listen to all the MT's words, do listen to their right words only. this is your system, they all are not Edward Snowden, the same thing happened for me in my config page, i am at ristk, why? i have not VM i'm using SD, i have not uBlock, i don't trust them simply. i seen another topics like my config topic which Staff insist on that a system is Unsafe , while that system was Ok in any terms,just missed some anti-malware or i don't know 1-2 plugins !

and again( :D ) in the end, don't believe all things in Privacy Policies pages which written in Companies Websites, what do you expect? they simply tell you we are watching you? what do you expect find in their privacy policy pages exactly? find it yourself, start from old documents which published in Google you spy on those companies instead of them on you, ask your friends ask from trusted tech guys, not for example PcMag writers !
for example i'm pretty sure that 99% of you already don't know which anti-virus companies whitelist governmental spywares. find the truth yourself :) becuase, if i tell you the truth now! you will reject that based on that privacy terms page on your favorite company.
thats it :D
 

Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
if you don't want to block ads, you can still use ublock origin, disable all the filters, just add
- tracking filters
- hphosts exploits (emp)
- hphosts malwares (emd)
- adguard spyware
- malwaredomainlist
- disconnect malware
- disconnect malvertising
- ransomware trackers
- ublock filters plus (for better popup blocking)
- ...

similar filters can be found here: FilterLists

also install popup blocker (strict)

I guess those filters won't block ads but at least make you feel more confident while surfing, right?
Smart approach around the whole Ad-Blocker discussion. :p A content blocker such as uBlock Origin doesn't need to be used solely for Ads, but more for Privacy reasons.
 

Ink

Administrator
Verified
Staff Member
Well-known
Jan 8, 2011
22,361
i don't like the way how MT push its users to use AdBlockers/plugins like uBlock or...
in such a untrustable cyber world , you need to install such these softwares or plugins as few as possible!
but if you notice that some of MT Staffs, insist on using such these softwares/plugins which is not necessary, even they could call your system unsafe cause what?
Source?

Please don't confuse Staff with members, and MalwareTips is a community, not a dictatorship. We also share our own personal opinions on certain subjects, which may differ to your views.
 

Like a Western!

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Apr 6, 2016
440
Please don't confuse Staff with members,
i did not that.
just search in config topics for example my own config topic
not a dictatorship
thats why i love MT, i swith to MT from a dictatorship forum :)
We also share our own personal opinions on certain subjects,
you need to be observant more than the others in those subjects, because in those subjects your opinion may changes somethings , if it wasn't dictatorship, your personal opinion should not be able call a system at risk! right?
 
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