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this post was submitted on 20 Dec 2023
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Technology
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Maybe we should stop calling them adblockers.
I am not blocking ads I am blocking spyware and malicious scripts. I wouldn't have anything against well behaving ads without js.
Also making it illegal is nit necessary, just don't show me your content and exclude it from search results and we are good.
I am selecting the files I wish to transfer and the ones I do not. It is my bandwidth. I also use reader mode as an accessibility feature.
"Selective file transfer" is a nice way to put it.
On that note, I wish Firefox had a setting to always load sites in reader mode, when available. Ideally with the ability to set exceptions, though.
This seems like a basic accessibility feature. I believe Safari can do it on a per-site basis, but all browsers should have the option as a global preference.
I'm not blocking ads; I'm exercising my property rights.
That's how we need to be framing this, and the level of outrage we need to have about it: who the flying fuck do these technology companies think they are, to presume to dictate how I am "allowed" to use MY OWN PROPERTY?!
This is nothing less than a war on private property rights. They are trying to subjugate us and turn us into digital serfs. We are justified in defending ourselves and our rights by any means necessary. They are lucky we're merely taking technological countermeasures and not shooting them in the street.
Yup, it's also why I refuse to run video games with kernel-level anti-cheat (and I use Linux, so that wouldn't work anyway), and why I block as much as I can through my browser. I do allow certain intrusions, like DRM for certain games or videos, but it's on a case-by-case basis and not something I just hand out.
So I completely agree. If they want me to pay for it, they need to find a privacy-respecting way to do it. I can buy a newspaper at the store with cash, and until I can accomplish the same thing through my browser, I'll keep using an ad-blocker. I'm happy to pay a few cents here and there, but I'm not making an account and I'm certainly not letting them plaster my browser with annoying and privacy-violating advertisements.
Meanwhile I just hate ads. I hate how deceptive and manipulative they are, and how the entire point is convincing people to Buy Product™ regardless of if it even works as advertised or will even be useful to the person. It always comes across as antisocial behavior to me, but maybe I'm way too radicalized from my hate of late stage capitalism and overconsumption.
This, some feel the need to balance their use of adblocking by saying how it would be better if ads were less intrusive, less spying.
We would be better without any ad at all.
I really think that's a separate issue, which needs to be discussed as a completely separated issue. I agree ads by their nature are manipulative, they serve the website and the advertiser not the user. I think that once ads are non user-tracking then we can have a discussion about advertising ethics and deceptive advertising (online ads have always been terrible even before they were privacy invading) but you can't have that discussion when it's mixed in with privacy issues. Only once you take away the privacy issues then we can have the conversation about ad-pollution versus website revenue.
I could tolerate well-behaved static image banners, but you know it would all be distracting videos at the least.
I really wish people would stop calling them adblockers too, they're wide-spectrum content blockers, and they're not blocking ads, they're blocking malicious ad-networks which is necessary for user security. Given the prevalence of online spyware it should be a basic feature built in to all web browsers.
It just gives spyware-promoting sites the ability to say "but you're hurting our revenue" which is a completely separate issue.
True. This is why I switched to uBlock origin, because it blocks so much more than ads: trackers, malware, and those stupid autoplaying videos. I really wish there was an "acceptable ad" option (per-site because some don't deserve that but many do) like Adblock Plus though, where it lets through unobtrusive ads.