> Dark traffic is unlike anything we have seen before. It’s demonetising publisher content at scale without user consent.
Bull**:
1. Regardless which type of adblocker (dns, browser, modified apps, ...) it always is with users consent, since its not the default.
2. If ads hadn't got this annoying, privacy abusing and dangerous(fake hotlines, malware, scam, ...) this wouldn't be something that is even required for an good security baseline. My employer requires that we use adblockers.
"Web traffic that cannot be measured, and therefore monetised... [ad blockers] block all on-site analytics"
I don't think that's true at all. Clients can not prevent measurement through server side logs. Publishers have just decided to put all their eggs in one basket by deploying a bunch of trivially bypassed JavaScript adtech trackers, and now it has come back to bite them.
> Publishers have just decided to put all their eggs in one basket
Isn't that just the ecosystem provided by the Big Tech ad platforms? Publishers at some point very much wanted to sell ads directly as the CPMs were 10x of what they are now. Then FB and Google took over as the middlemen, pushed CPMs down, added sophisticated targeting and set the precedence for how things are implemented.
Sure the tech giants could team up with the publishers to take back control but they'd need to share more of their revenue in exchange which I am doubtful they'd go for. Not just because it means losing control but also it creates the hassle of having to deal with a fractured landscape of publishers of very varying technical acumen.
They have access to everything you are doing. If you have installed a random adblocker it might have your very private information and could probably be selling it.
I think there is a opportunity out there where in adblocker also acts like a subscription management platform similar to spotify that allows users to monetize their content and subscription revenue is shared with thr content providers.
All I'll say in response to this: good. These adtech companies deserve it. Let the adblockers thwart them every single time they try to do anything. Maybe they [the adtech companies] will learn (eventually) that malicious, privacy invading, and outright dangerous ads are not, in fact, okay at all. Or pigs could fly, too...
I don't even bother with ad blockers anymore. I just use NoScript. That it removes some 99.999% of ads is just a nice side-effect, but if a site was just displaying some ads without the tracking nonsense I would be fine with that, within reason.
If I visit a site about some type of game and there is a generic ad banner for some such game, as on one or two sites I frequent, that can even be useful to me. It's all the sites that try to show personalized ads tracking me between sites I do not want to ever see. Luckily almost all those sites rely on client-side ad scripts served from some third-party server, which means they are blocked by default by NoScript, so rarely a need for more advanced blockers.
I have installed adblocker cca 10 years ago when I got a full screen ad over a page with a close button jumping around. Advertisers has unintentionally poisoned their own well.
Today we are in a positive feedback loop. Advertisers are getting more aggressive, more sneaky and when they can show you an ad they want to milk that attention so more people are using adblockers. Advertisers are running towards extinction thanks to their stupidly aggressive tactics.
I use a pretty regular Firefox albeit in PortableApps form for... at least 7 years? The only thing is what I select the strict option for the 3rd-party access.
The amount of times of times the sites guilt-trip me into "you are using the adblocker you scum" is quite amusing.
I like the idea of 'pay with money or views' so I'm totes fine with seeing the ads... but apparently the site owners don't want to burden themselves with serving the ads from their own systems which is the reason I don't see half the ads in the first place.
No, I don't have a solution for the current situation but I certanly can say - I'm glaf to see the ads what supports you if you are okay to serve them yourself.
> We must recognise users are not the main driver causing this
The main driver causing users to adopt ad blockers is, unsurprisingly, ever more aggressive and obnoxious adtech which turns web browsing into a miserable experience.
Add in tracking and security risks, and it's unsurprising that organizations would want to adopt ad blocking as well.
Wonderful. Something in the tech sphere is working as desired. To the companies unhappy about this reduction in their parasitic data leaching, as parasitic data leeches, fuck you.
"Pihole + Unbound recursive DNS" has been one of the best decisions I made years ago, alongside De-Google 2 years ago.
Everything is blocked on the network level so SmartTV and IoT doesn't even know things are being blocked while still works fine.
OPNSense Firewall makes sure that nobody except Piholes can get out, it is beautiful.
If I am out, WireGuard VPN sends all the traffic through my home network.
Everything loads bloody fast, ADs???
Tracking???
Personal data collection???
What are those???
When I need to access other networks like the office, it feels like people are living in a whole completely different world, seeing people's phone with so much garbage being loaded.
Since I went De-Google with GrapheneOS and replaced the majority of apps with their mobile web version, things have never been better.
On Android, some apps have plus 20 permissions which can be blocked on GrapheneOS including the ones hidden with normal Android, from messages to the device sensor.
All of these data is being collected to feed targeted ADs.
"Oh I don't care because I have nothing to hide", you do you :)
This is a great way to tell me you think your viewers are stupid and worthless by default.
I use adblockers on everything. I also spend between $300-$3000/month on purchases made online personally and tens of thousands a month professionally.
However, I never spend money on sites that advertise to me. If you force my seeing ads before I can see your site, I leave and spend my and my companies money elsewhere.
24 comments
[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 45.5 ms ] thread> We and our 909 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device
1. Regardless which type of adblocker (dns, browser, modified apps, ...) it always is with users consent, since its not the default.
2. If ads hadn't got this annoying, privacy abusing and dangerous(fake hotlines, malware, scam, ...) this wouldn't be something that is even required for an good security baseline. My employer requires that we use adblockers.
I don't think that's true at all. Clients can not prevent measurement through server side logs. Publishers have just decided to put all their eggs in one basket by deploying a bunch of trivially bypassed JavaScript adtech trackers, and now it has come back to bite them.
Isn't that just the ecosystem provided by the Big Tech ad platforms? Publishers at some point very much wanted to sell ads directly as the CPMs were 10x of what they are now. Then FB and Google took over as the middlemen, pushed CPMs down, added sophisticated targeting and set the precedence for how things are implemented.
Sure the tech giants could team up with the publishers to take back control but they'd need to share more of their revenue in exchange which I am doubtful they'd go for. Not just because it means losing control but also it creates the hassle of having to deal with a fractured landscape of publishers of very varying technical acumen.
Was a user's choice to mute or skip ads on live TV "dark viewership?"
They have access to everything you are doing. If you have installed a random adblocker it might have your very private information and could probably be selling it.
I think there is a opportunity out there where in adblocker also acts like a subscription management platform similar to spotify that allows users to monetize their content and subscription revenue is shared with thr content providers.
If I visit a site about some type of game and there is a generic ad banner for some such game, as on one or two sites I frequent, that can even be useful to me. It's all the sites that try to show personalized ads tracking me between sites I do not want to ever see. Luckily almost all those sites rely on client-side ad scripts served from some third-party server, which means they are blocked by default by NoScript, so rarely a need for more advanced blockers.
Today we are in a positive feedback loop. Advertisers are getting more aggressive, more sneaky and when they can show you an ad they want to milk that attention so more people are using adblockers. Advertisers are running towards extinction thanks to their stupidly aggressive tactics.
I use a pretty regular Firefox albeit in PortableApps form for... at least 7 years? The only thing is what I select the strict option for the 3rd-party access.
The amount of times of times the sites guilt-trip me into "you are using the adblocker you scum" is quite amusing.
I like the idea of 'pay with money or views' so I'm totes fine with seeing the ads... but apparently the site owners don't want to burden themselves with serving the ads from their own systems which is the reason I don't see half the ads in the first place.
No, I don't have a solution for the current situation but I certanly can say - I'm glaf to see the ads what supports you if you are okay to serve them yourself.
The main driver causing users to adopt ad blockers is, unsurprisingly, ever more aggressive and obnoxious adtech which turns web browsing into a miserable experience.
Add in tracking and security risks, and it's unsurprising that organizations would want to adopt ad blocking as well.
Everything is blocked on the network level so SmartTV and IoT doesn't even know things are being blocked while still works fine. OPNSense Firewall makes sure that nobody except Piholes can get out, it is beautiful.
If I am out, WireGuard VPN sends all the traffic through my home network. Everything loads bloody fast, ADs??? Tracking??? Personal data collection??? What are those???
When I need to access other networks like the office, it feels like people are living in a whole completely different world, seeing people's phone with so much garbage being loaded.
Since I went De-Google with GrapheneOS and replaced the majority of apps with their mobile web version, things have never been better. On Android, some apps have plus 20 permissions which can be blocked on GrapheneOS including the ones hidden with normal Android, from messages to the device sensor. All of these data is being collected to feed targeted ADs.
"Oh I don't care because I have nothing to hide", you do you :)
I use adblockers on everything. I also spend between $300-$3000/month on purchases made online personally and tens of thousands a month professionally.
However, I never spend money on sites that advertise to me. If you force my seeing ads before I can see your site, I leave and spend my and my companies money elsewhere.