Who doesn't use an adblocker and why?
Wondering how much of the Lemmy user base wouldn't use an adblocker. If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?
I don’t block anything. I work in accessibility, so it’s important to me to know what the experiences are like for my fellow users with disabilities. I also don’t want to recommend sites or apps that are riddled with inaccessible ads. I’d rather not give them traffic at all. Though even though I let them track me, I still get ads in a language I don’t speak for cars I can’t drive. What’re they doing with all that data?
So me seeing ads in random languages is not me being clever with identity obfuscation, but big data being big stupid?
And thank you for your work in accessibility 🫡
Apparently! I don’t hide my data in any way, and constantly get ads in languages I don’t speak. Usually French, but sometimes Hindi or Chinese. And as a blind person myself, I’m not sure that my well paid full time job working in large enterprise and big tech accessibility is altruism deserving of thanks haha.
A lot of people. For many, it's not even something they know exist. Even setting it up for them is a bother because of the occasional site it breaks, and the complete lack of technical awareness.
There's also many of us who don't use a laptop/PC to access the Internet.
I have adblock on my phone ;)
There's Android browsers with AdBlock. Mozilla is one of them...
firefox and ublock origin works on a phone just as well
I almost exclusively use my iPhone - I have ad blockers on it. AdGuard, Banish, and Vinegar.
Custom dns
Firefox on Android and its many derivatives (I use Fennec) have uBlock Origin as a browser extension.
I know some of family don't because they mostly rely on mobile devices and devices like Chromecasts where installing ad blockers can be a challenge. They don't use traditional computers.
They know apps like NewPipe exist but the effort to port things over or not get recommendations is too much for them.
I do use ad blockers and open source front ends/software/alternatives. Ex. AntennaPod instead of Spotify for podcasts and Linux instead of Windows because I didn't like ads in the start menu (amongst numerous other things).
I'm so proud of my kids who will demand adblockers if something in their YouTube app or their browser is broken. Even though they like to see toy ads now and then. But when they get the amount a regular mortal receives it's too much, even for them.
I get you. I like receiving honest real reviews for things rather than be advertised to. Let their quality speak for it. I also hate even minor spoilers for movies/TV shows/video game that you see in trailers.
I use uBlock Origin and Consent-o-Matic. Works like a charm!
Consent o matic is a new one for me. Thanks!
You're very welcome!
One question though.
Can't you enable a filter list on uBlock Origin that removes all cookie consents?
I think I have it on. It's under "Annoyances". Maybe it's not as good since you have them both?
I'm sure there is, but tbh I don't know how, since I don't need it.
The way Consent-o-Matic works is that it accepts all, securely deletes all of it immediately before it can do anything. That way the site thinks you have all of it so it won't ask again, but you actually get none of it.
All this plus removing the consent- and other pop-ups for you. A few of the nastier pop-ups might be on your screen for a tenth of a second or less as Consent-o-Matic gets rid of it for you, but otherwise it's like they were never there to begin with!
What is the difference between that and "I still dont care about cookies"?
That addon accepts all the cookies.
Consent-o-Matic blocks all the cookies.
The biggest thing I miss from seeing ads is knowing what movies are in theaters... And I never think about looking haha.
2 alternatives could be to follow an RSS feeds for trailers or turn on notifications for a movie trailer or review YouTube channel.
That is an excellent idea. Haven't done rss feeds in a long time.
My mom uses Edge, told me not to block Facebook ads and clicks on most of the clickbait articles on her MSN home page. It's like she WANTS them to collect as much data to sell and spy on her as much as possible 🤦
You'll be surprised how many people likes ads, and likes how much they know about you.
I don't agree, but I can see the logic in that. If you see ads anyway, why not see them specialised to you making them somewhat relevant.
Awful take I know, but it's the reality for many people.
That's not necessarily an awful take, to be fair. That is arguably to the benefit of the consumer, that they can learn about products that are relevant to them.
I'm completely disconnected from what new movies and TV shows come out after years of blocking all ads. I can see wanting to change but ads have only gotten more annoying so I have no desire to change yet
Personally, I get actually relevant Instagram ads pretty frequently, particularly for various events that I'm interested in. I've seen more than a few shows specifically because I saw an Instagram ad.
I'd naturally prefer no ads, but when they are necessary - and someone does have to pay the costs of running large platforms - I would prefer them to be actually relevant. It's still ultimately my decision as to whether I buy something or not.
I have AdNauseum on with the "Hide Ads" button unchecked and "leave non-tracking ads alone" option enabled. Privacy Badger is on too to detect tracking scripts.
I can safely ignore ads generally but what I want is to discourage the practice of annoying placements to farm clicks. If they want clicks then they can have as many of my fake ones as they wish.
If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?
Firefox on maximum security will get rid of all cookies when you close the window (ie exit from Firefox, not just close the tab). If there are sites that require cookies, you can use Firefox containers to stop it collecting data across other sites).
I do use adblockers but there are sites which deserve the revenue (and don't bombard you with shite) so I try to remember to whitelist them. But I'm not as diligent about this as I should be. Someone does have to pay for it and we don't have a decent system to do that without advertising (yet). I can't subscribe to the eleventy million sites I visit so advertising is a necessary evil (atm). Obviously, denying bad sites the advertising revenue is a public service, so there's that.
Lady I used to sit next to at work didn't use an ad blocker. She also would have like the "do you want to install this plugin?" thing open in her ide for weeks. I don't know how she did it. She's a software developer so she's reasonably tech literate. It just didn't bother her enough to think about doing something about it.
reminds me of one of my coworkers years ago, we all had cubicle desk computer jobs but oh Lord she had so many scribbled on post-it notes stuck all over her cubicle and all over the edge of her computer screen 🤦♀️ She was an older lady close to retirement age.
Some people just prefer post it notes.
I used to use a notepad but now there's too much going on so I have to use a spreadsheet.
By default I'm using adblocker but when I notice I'm visiting a new site more frequently like wikis for games, I disable it and keep it off if the site is usable.
if the site is usable
Unfortunately most of them are in Fandom so that's a big no.
I need to start doing this more. I just forget
I haven't bothered yet because I don't really frequent the types of sites where the ads get in the way (although my occasional Youtube visits are starting to convince me to use one).
I do use a plugin made by the EFF that blocks certain tracking cookies though.
This certain plugin, is it Privacy Badger?
That's the one!
If you do use one what other blocking do you productively use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?
I use an ad blocker, and in addition also use Pi-hole for network-wide domain based tracker blocking. I use tailscale to use this on my phone, but also have Tracker Control (the real version installed from F-Droid) to do something similar if for some reason I need to disable Tailscale (only one can be used at once, as they both use the VPN method).
I asked a friend of mine about this recently and she told me it was because it helps her kids learn patience.
That got me thinking about it, I personally learned a rather large amount of patience because of ads when I was growing up so it made a lot of sense to me.
Ads growing up didn’t track you all over the internet.
Ads teach people patience? That is the worst justification for ads I've ever heard. She's probably in the advertisement industry so she's pro-ads.
or she's not computer literate enough to install ad blockers and too proud to admit her lack of computer literacy.
No, they have a point. In hindsight, I definitely can see how the unskipable ads of cable TV resulted in a greater deal of patience. I'd be interested to see a more academic study of it, but anecdotally I definitely can see it.
As long as she doesn't buy anything they ask for that is coming from ads and tells them that the products advertised are probably the worst of their kind I would be okay with it.
People who aren't trying.
Because.
My wife, she plays mobile games where you get temporary boosts if you watch an ad.
You both know that good ad blockers let you whitelist some games?
I have 2 tablets, 1 to play the games, 1 to run the ads for those games. (And the ad tablet has nothing else on it)
I don't. I know they exist, and I could probably have one set up in under ten minutes, but I just don't care.
And I know what they do. I know what they collect. I used to sell online ads for the local paper, geomapping and all that shit. They still know.
I only recently started using uBlock but it's not really because of ads (which I don't mind too much as long as they don't prevent me seeing the page content). I use it mainly to automate the rejection of cookie popups, which have become absolutely absurd.
I just don't usually find ads to be intrusive enough to have blocking them be worthwhile.
As others have said, I don't mind supporting small content creators by watching the ads.
Edit: imagine getting downvoted for an honest answer lol. So sorry that you don't like my opinion!
Laziness.
Plus, if it’s too many ads and too much tracking, maybe it’s my using the thing that’s the problem.
This is my exact feeling as well. Too lazy to worry about blocking the ads; too dissatisfied if I have to deal with too many ads.
Yea. And all the work and effort put into ad blocking maybe could have been better spent on working how to create spaces and platforms that didn’t require ads?
Can’t help but feel we have moved on from the expectation of things being free on the internet and that ad blocking fanatics are a little stuck in the past.
I don’t because I work in SEO and I need to see how some things just work to troubleshoot or find hidden gems from competitors.
However, on my home computers I absolutely do!
I don't use an adblocker. 90% of the sites I visit don't abuse ads. When I was younger I used to go to sketchy sites to watch content for free, but now I'm in a position where I can pay for the content so I do. The last time I pirated something was an anime because no streaming service offered it, I had to buy blu rays.
Also, I like targeted ads. Most of the time you can ignore them, but every once in a while they show you something interesting that you do actually want. I've picked up a few board games that way. I didn't buy it through the ad, but it did cause me to start researching it.
90% of the sites I visit don't abuse ads.
Damn so you don't use YouTube?
YouTube premium
I didn’t until recently. I wanted to give companies I valued credit, in some way. But, ads are completely out of control and it broke me so I started using ublock a few months ago. It’s so much better and I’m not looking back.
I don't use any ad blocker, and I don't care.
I have been using adguard dns on my phone for years. For the past one year or so also using adblockers on browser (Firefox). Used to watch youtube with ads. Got fed up moved to watching youtube in browser with adblocker, then finally moved to newpipe sponsor block when youtube started adblocker shenanigans. For pc I use cloud flare dns, regular adblockers (Firefox) and keep privacy and security settings on strict.
I would use one, I'm not opposed, but I've just never bothered. I don't use a lot of sites with prominent ads.
I don't use ad blockers on YouTube because the creators that I watch on YouTube are people who I actually care about. I watch content on YouTube from real people who I want to be able to profit off of me watching their video. Ad blockers are effectively piracy, your taking the content without the agreed upon price, in this case, the price of the content is the ads.
And I don't make that comparison to convince anyone that they shouldn't use an ad blocker, I just think the decision of where to use ad blockers should be made with the understanding that you are pirating any content that you consume while using an ad blocker. Are you willing to pirate something from some random mega corporation? I am. Are willing to pirate content from this niche 3D printing YouTube content creator that you enjoy? I'm not.
As a default, I do use an ad blocker, but I will disable the ad blocker for any website that I can trust enough to not have malicious ads, especially websites that i want to financially support. Because for me all it means is sacrificing a little bit of bandwidth to load the ad that I'm just going to ignore anyway.
You say you'll disable the ad blocker for sites that don't push malicious ads? I've reported half a dozen deepfake "investment" ads on YouTube in the last couple of months, and they have done nothing about it. The ads YouTube pushes are horrible!
People advertising shady things is not the same thing as a malicious ad, at least not in the context of the point I'm trying to make. By malicious ad I'm referring to those things that pretend to not be an ad at all, they pretend to be the download button or a notification of an unread message, or something along those lines.
I may not be using the terminology exactly right, but that's the kind of thing I'm referring to. And YouTube does. A YouTube does a perfectly fine job at being transparent when something is an advertisement and when it's organic content. They're not maliciously being deceptive at what is an ad and what isn't.
your taking the content without the agreed upon price
At what point was a price agreed upon?
The price was agreed upon in the same way that the price in the grocery store is agreed upon.
The content provider set the price, in this case, the price being consuming an advertisement.
To be totally clear, I absolutely advocate for piracy in some situations, I'm not going to get into the weeds and talk about the specifics when I do or do not advocate for it, but to extend upon the grocery store analogy, there are also some situations where I would absolutely advocate for someone to steal from the grocery store. And I'm not going to get into the weeds and talk about the specifics for when I do or do not advocate for that either. The point though is by calling ad blocking piracy I'm not making a moral judgment on whether or not it is right or wrong, I'm just pointing out that it is functionally the exact same thing.
Are willing to pirate content from this niche 3D printing YouTube content creator that you enjoy? I’m not.
I cleanse my conscience by supporting many of them on Patreon.
Accidentally clicking on clickbait without an adblocker directly results in a spammer getting money, and that just makes me feel like crap. There's so much spam out there that wouldn't exist without ads, which makes it harder for quality creators to get attention and fair compensation. I feel I can only engage with the internet ethically by refusing to participate in the ad economy.
It sucks that alternative payment models like Brave's "Basic Attention Token" (or a fairer alternative) never got popular. The idea was to track the creators of websites/videos/etc. you visit and automatically split your monthly donation between them. IIRC it was proportional to the number of ads blocked for each creator, but you could tweak creators' multipliers to deny profit to spam and reward higher-quality creators. I'd also accept microtransactions for individual videos, news articles, etc. but no platforms for these exist because the big players in internet monetization are all so focused on ads.
Yes! This is exactly the kind of thing I'd rather see too. More directly financing the creators you enjoy.
I'm simply too lazy.
Lazy for what exactly? I pressed "install" years ago, and haven't touched it since. It does its thing in the background when I browse. Never any intervention from me.
I use my phone except for work. If there are good iPhone ad blockers, if use them.
I don’t use an adblocker when I browse in ios because I don’t know how to
Nearly everyone uses at least some level of adblocking. Pretty much every major browser blocks pop-up ads by default, so the people who are too lazy or computer illiterate to do anything other than the default are still going to have some ad blocking.
Internet Explorer 6 added this feature in 2001, so even your grandpa still stubbornly running his end of life Windows XP probably has a popup blocker.
On top of an adblocker, I use Pi-hole/Adguard home for DNS blocking.
For added privacy, I also use my own unbound DNS server, which can be easily setup with Pi-hole, so that I make as few external DNS requests as possible.
I turn off my adblocker for YouTube if it's a creator who should be getting revenue from the video. I'm not happy with Google's cut of it though...
I don't use one because I feel that the more people use ad blockers, the more intrusive and annoying the ads will be for people that aren't using one, and less overall content will be available for free. The only ads that I can't stand are video ads, and that's why I have YouTube premium.
The more intrusive and annoying the ads become, the more people will retaliate. This is war. eventually we will smash out those annoying ads. somehow. There must be some other more civilized pleasant method for companies to make profit. This is getting out of hand.
And that's why you fuckin SUCK
Because I am not sure if I want a 3rd party "controlling" my trafic. It sucks that my behavior is shared around in ad networks but I am not sure if the ad blocking components are more trustworthy. There are certainly good solutions out there but I am sceptic of the explosion of new ad blocking tools. Having said that, I never did a deep research to check if my scepticism is justified..
I don’t, without the advertising a lot of the content can’t exist and I like the context to exist.
Yeah, that's generally my take as well. Can't exactly expect people to make, curate and host content without any kind of funding, and despite what people may claim, it's a very low percentage of people who will actively pay for what they consume.
Then I have the Plugin for you two.
They block all ads like uBlock, but they make sure to click and view them first without you noticing. They'll also send the wrong information about you to the advertisers.
The content creators will actually receive more money that way.
This is a double edge sword.
Ad revenue has enabled poor content to exist.
Ads on useful content detracts from that content, and disrespects a user's time/attention.
If you pay them a single one time purchase of £1, that will be worth more to them than all the adverts you ever have or will watch.
No, because I want the content that I consume to be financially viable. You either accept the ads, or seek out other sites with other payment models.
Fuck that, the internet is free and for the people, let's make it unviable so we can reclaim it!
This. I don't skip the ads on creators I like because I want them to keep creating.
can i have sex with your spouse too
I use my usual addons like privacy badger, Ghostery, ublock and Tampermonkey to get rid of the annoying "disable your adblocker" message on youtube.
You only need uBlock Origin for all that.
Ads are what have been keeping the internet largely free. They don't really bother me anyways. Both the creator/site/company and the consumer benefit from this transaction. If the ads make the experience unbearable though, easy enough to simply disengage from it.
Internet is not free, and there was plenty of cool stuff online well before everyone decided to make money out of every single thing. So no, bad argument.
Edit: Let me correct myself: there was much more cool stuff before.
If it's free then why do I pay $150/ month between phones and home service?
That's the price of freedom my friend
That's an issue between you, your ISP, and your carrier.
Stop telling people to use adblockers ffs... Obviously most ppl on lemmy are smart enough to know about addblockers but the only way we get to keep using them is if enough "normies" watch adds. Stop educating people about addblockers for the love of god.
Adblockers are basic internet security these days.
We don't need "normies" to keep the internet full of ads. If everyone used an adblocker, companies would be forced to think of more respectable ways to sell their product. Because every way they can find to blast us with ads against our will, we can find a way to block them.
Adblockers are already a compromise, we can also just hack their servers and distribute through piracy if we felt it necessary.