Hot Take To block ads for protection against malvertisement and tracking or to allow ads to keep services free?

[Parkinsond]

"I don't use ad blockers but I completely understand why many people do given how incredibly ad infested many sites are.

What I do not agree with is the self righteousness of some anti-advertising proponents. No, you're not protecting the world from some evil. You're just acting in your own self interest, which is absolutely fine.

I think advertising critics are ignoring a bunch of issues:

- Subscriptions kill anonymity and privacy even more effectively than the most shady practices of the advertising industry. Payment requires identity checks and they are heavily policed all over the world.

- Ad funded sites are funded progressively. Rich people subsidise poor people's media consumption and access to services, because advertising is paid for by consumption and rich people consume more than poor people.

- Subscriptions do not necessarily protect against adverts or tracking. All the newspapers I'm subscribing to have advertising on top of it, including all the privacy hostile tracking that comes with it.

- Making overt advertising less effective pushes advertisers to use less overt but far more insidious forms of influencing people. This destroys the whole "I don't want to be manipulated" argument in my view.

- Blocking ads on the open web makes advertisers and content producers move to closed platforms where blocking doesn't work.

In my opinion, what we need is less obnoxious and more privacy friendly advertising. Unfortunately, I have no idea how to get there. I have no horse in this race and I have no solutions."

 

[ForgottenSeer 123960]

Excellent points about the socioeconomic benefits of the ad-funded web and the very real privacy threats of subscription models. You're right that there's no perfect solution right now.
However, viewing ad-blockers purely as an anti-capitalist or 'anti-annoyance' tool ignores a massive technical reality, cybersecurity. The infrastructure of third-party ad networks is inherently broken from a security standpoint. Because ads are injected dynamically, even the most trusted websites accidentally serve malware via compromised ad networks (malvertising). Worse, many of these attacks are 'drive-by downloads' that infect devices the moment the ad renders, without the user ever clicking anything.

Until the ad industry can mathematically guarantee that their dynamic delivery networks aren't being used as Trojan horses for ransomware and tracking spyware, using an ad blocker isn't self-righteousness, it's basic digital hygiene.

 

[Jan Willy]

The real malvertising comes from influencers on Facebook, Telegram and specially TikTok. Often it's like poison for children and adolescents. It's too simple to point to the responsability of the parents.

 

[Parkinsond]

The real malvertising comes from influencers on Facebook, Telegram and specially TikTok. Often it's like poison for children and adolescents. It's too simple to point to the responsability of the parents.

Some may use the same argument of "subscribing to paid tier to keep free tier maintained for those who cannot afford".

 

[blackice]

Yeah, I didn’t block ads on mobile in the past. But then some websites became unusable with autoplay videos that take up half the screen and pop-up banner ads that take another 1/4. It just became unusable. I never minded banner ads. Still don’t in a browser. On a PC I’ve only ever blocked ads to protect against malvertising. It may just be too late for power users to change. But there’s still a large swath of people who don’t Adblock.

 

[Parkinsond]

It may just be too late for power users to change. But there’s still a large swath of people who don’t Adblock.

That's true; what is going to happen if all users are blocking ads? Websites and related services relying on ad revenue only will be deprecated?
If this is going to happen, would selectively allowing ads on websites which do not push intrusive ads and which I like to support be a good decision?

 

[Sampei.Nihira]

That's true; what is going to happen if all users are blocking ads? Websites and related services relying on ad revenue only will be deprecated?
If this is going to happen, would selectively allowing ads on websites which do not push intrusive ads and which I like to support be a good decision?

It will never happen that all users block ads, so we who are in the minority are safe.

 

[Parkinsond]

It will never happen that all users block ads, so we who are in the minority are safe.

Yes, it is a theoretical assumption more than realistic expectation.
Most users do not know there are browsers other than Chrome and Edge; ad-blocking extensions would be like a rocket science.