I've been blocking ads since 1998, thanks to WebWasher. That acted as a local proxy that blocked all known ad urls. No heuristics, no algorithms, no nothing. Back in the good old days that was plenty.
this post was submitted on 28 Mar 2024
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Jeez, don't report on it. Now there's going to be an even bigger crackdown on them.
It isn't a secret
Adblockers get better the more they are battled
This is the best summary I could come up with:
More than half of Americans are using ad blocking software, and among advertising, programming, and security professionals that fraction is more like two-thirds to three-quarters.
More striking are the figures cited for technically savvy users who have worked at least five years in their respective fields – veteran advertisers, programmers, and cybersecurity experts.
"People who know how the internet works – because they work as developers or in security or in advertising – they've all over the years decided that it was a good idea to use a tracker blocker or content blocker or adblocker, whatever you call it," said Jean-Paul Schmetz, CEO of Ghostery, in an interview with The Register.
"It's pretty unanimous that people who work in this industry and know how these things function want to protect themselves."
Schmetz said one surprising finding had to do with the extent to which people trust various companies that collect online data.
But truly the best way to support The Register is to sign up for a free account, comment on stories, share our links, and spread the word of our honest independent IT journalism.
The original article contains 681 words, the summary contains 185 words. Saved 73%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Many websites, especially on the sketchy side of the internet, are completely unusable without adblockers
If you're on Android (and you should be) make sure to use nextdns. Check out their website. It's completely free and you can pick from a variety of robust filter lists that covers your ENTIRE phone(even in apps). There are even more privacy features plus it's completely free. They have a paid option but I've never seen a reason to use. I'm on my phone all day and never even come close to reaching the API limit.
Https://my.nextdns.io
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Not entirely surprised.
The numbers were already up there, but I imagine YouTube's recent campaign only drove them higher. More people than before are now aware that adblockers exist and they love using them.