ad industry Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner

[Reefa]

A commissioner at the US Federal Trade Commission who is leaving the agency after six years of working on consumer privacy issues has some critical words for the ad industry.

 

Speaking with Ad Age, departing FTC commissioner Julie Brill lamented the current state of consumer tracking and data collection on the web, linking the rampant rise of ad blockers with the ad industry's foot-dragging and non-cooperation in the commission's efforts to create privacy systems based on user consent.

 

"We've seen an incredible rise in consumers taking matters into their own hands, which is precisely what I said would happen back then," said Brill, who has tackled a host of consumer privacy issues during her tenure at the FTC.

 

Like many critics, Brill points to Do Not Track, the failed system meant to allow consumers to opt-out of invasive tracking by flagging their browsers, which the ad industry fought tooth-and-nail and eventually killed by ignoring the flags outright. She says that the industry's resistance to doing things the “easy” way is at least partly to blame for the consumer response.

 

"In some ways I think that effort fizzled because the multi-stakeholder process broke down," Brill said of the failed DNT program. "There were entities involved that weren't supporting the direction the group was heading and withdrew from the effort. It would have helped industry and consumers to have some rules of the road in online tracking."

 

Since then, the ad industry has experienced explosive growth in significant part through its unrestrained use of third party trackers, which collect information about website visitors to the delight of large data brokers like Axciom and Experian, which then use those digital breadcrumbs to build and monetize advertising profiles of Internet users.

 

In addition to privacy, ads have more recently become a major security issue. So-called malvertising campaigns now strike with alarming frequency, exposing tens of millions of users to malware by infecting the very networks advertisers use to convince us to buy shit.

 

It's no wonder, then, that there's now a cottage industry for ad-blocking and privacy extensions like uBlock Origin, Disconnect, Ghostery and Privacy Badger. Since most online publishers (including Motherboard) depend on ad revenue to survive, some sites have responded by forcing users to disable ad-blockers and tracker-blockers, sometimes not distinguishing between the two.

 

Like Brill's comments suggest, it's crazy to think this all could have been avoided if the ad industry would have just played ball with Do Not Track. But the industry has become voracious in its quest for growth, and whoever replaces Brill will be hard-pressed to work toward some kind of compromise.

 

SourcE

[luisam]

Just guess, but I believe ad industry "buys" it's exception to be white-listed for ad-blocker apps and presume the cost is payed by advertiser. I have Ad Block extension installed and pop-unders for certain ads do go through!

Also, some advertisers "BLACKMAIL" visitors, simply blocking access to page material until Ad Block is removed. So you have the option not to access the page or remove block. Normlly I leave block on and don't visit the page!

Specifically Ad Block classify some pages as advertisement, not being that, dpecifically. I had to remove Ab Block for Yahoo News. now I get it AND ads include. Well, yahoo ads are not really to aggressive.

[Karlston]

Don't know about the tracking being the main reason for ad-blocker popularity.

 

For me, it's the annoying distracting animated BS that web sites are infested with.

 

"Adblock Plus" and "Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus" are the first two add-ons I install on a new browser install.  The latter is good for those pesky slideshows and anything else which are more than just an image, for example, the endless lists of irrelevant crap that eBay decides you just have to see.

[vibranium]

Agreed. While I buy a lot of stuff online these days, I've bought NOTHING based on those pesky click-forward, pop-up etc. ads.

[steven36]

On 4/3/2016 at 7:03 PM, luisam said:

Just guess, but I believe ad industry "buys" it's exception to be white-listed for ad-blocker apps and presume the cost is payed by advertiser. I have Ad Block extension installed and pop-unders for certain ads do go through!

Also, some advertisers "BLACKMAIL" visitors, simply blocking access to page material until Ad Block is removed. So you have the option not to access the page or remove block. Normlly I leave block on and don't visit the page!

 I dont seem to have this problem looking at yahoo news using  uBlock Origin , Policeman and some userscripts .

 

On 4/4/2016 at 8:14 PM, Karlston said:

 

"Adblock Plus" and "Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus

The people who make this software are in bed with Microsoft ,Google , Yahoo etc . They get paid by ad companies to allow ads so this outfit is no better than the AD  companies themselves.

[luisam]

24 minutes ago, steven36 said:

They get paid  by by ad companies to allow ads so this outfit is no better than the AD  companies themselves.

 

It's annoying to see those ads even having Ad Block, Adblock Plus or some "super hyper blocker all ads" but let's recognize that it's better to see one unwanted ad than an avalanche of 10 popunders, popups, flash,  etc. But more annoying is when some websites DEMAND you to remove "ad blocking" to access to the page content. They might have their reasons to try to "enforce" ad watching but users should at least try to avoid these kind of sites. Not because I won't reconize their right to get some honest revenue for advertising but most time the quality and objet of those ads, deeply contamiated by misleading content, fakes, scam sites, rogue software, etc.

I just hope that this kind of unfair, let's call ROGUE advertising is doomed to disappear: no reasonable computer user should have any ot this material as reference. At least, I don't even read their content, just click to remove them as fast as I can

[steven36]

3 minutes ago, luisam said:

 

It's annoying to see those ads even having Ad Block, Adblock Plus or some "super hyper blocker all ads" but let's recognize that it's beter to see one unwanted ad than an avalanche of 10 popunders, popups, flash, .. spcially being these browser extensions free. But more annoying is when some websites DEMAND you to remove "ad blocking" to access to the page content. They might have their reasons to try to "enforce" ad watching but users should at least try to avoid these kind of sites. Not because I won't reconize their right to get some honest revenue for advertising but most time the quality and objet of those ads, deeply contamiated by misleading content, fakes, scam sites, rogue software, etc.

I keep flash turned  off  with plug in toggler  in palemoon and Firefox  also using a good script blocker like policeman  or uMatrix will block 3rd party sites from hijacking if not hidden and can block ads and get around anti adblock sometimes ,  ad bypasser  blocks some hidden hijacks sites , Anti Adblocker killer reek gives you access to many sites that ban adblock and with uBlock Origin you can ban hidden hijacks sites by just adding them to you're filters .

[Karlston]

10 hours ago, steven36 said:

The people who make this software are in bed with Microsoft ,Google , Yahoo etc . They get paid by ad companies to allow ads so this outfit is no better than the AD  companies themselves.

 

If the Adblock Plus developers are, which I doubt, then they're doing a pretty lousy job of letting any ads show.

 

Adblock Plus has a setting to "Allow some non-intrusive advertising", enabled by default, but easy to turn off.

[steven36]

18 minutes ago, Karlston said:

 

If the Adblock Plus developers are, which I doubt, then they're doing a pretty lousy job of letting any ads show.

 

Adblock Plus has a setting to "Allow some non-intrusive advertising", enabled by default, but easy to turn off.

I use to use it in combination with ad muncher  for years , But every since all the hype in the news about them getting rich off ads i dont no longer use it.