Most free web sites pay for their upkeep with ads. It has been an unwritten agreement since forever (or at least as long as there have been ads on the web) that if you consume the content, you pay the creator by looking at the ads on their site.
Consuming the content without looking at the ads is like shoplifting because you don’t like the way a store’s checkout counter works and/or the fact that they want money from you at all.
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Counterpoint: The checkout counter at the store doesn’t follow me out into the parking lot, grab my license place number and sell it to whoever wants it, or follow me into other stores.
Definitely an unpopular opinion, though! Take my upvote.
They may grab your payment info though, and use it to build a profile of you that tracks your spending habits to share with others.
Source: was one of the people whose cards had been compromised by the massive data breach Target had about a decade or so ago, because Target had been saving payment information on every customer to build profiles from.
Now I think the newer chip-based cards and tap to pay have made it harder to track customers, but that’s basically why every company is trying to push its own app these days.
Unpopular indeed.
- you pay the content creator by buying their content, not by browsing ads on their site – ads are a really annoying tip jar being waved in your face when you’re trying to hand money to the cash register
- advertisers have been given plenty of warning to behave themselves and they refuse, they are parasitic leeches bleeding both creator and purchaser
- adblockers are the effect, not the cause
- original websites were ad free
- banner ads were added and we tolerated them
- advertisers then added in distracting flashing effects, loud audio cues, broke security with Flash, broke accessibility
- adblockers invented
- advertisers shed crocodile tears and pretend to be contrite
- advertisers start pushing tracking, malware, phishing, crypto-miners
- adblockers are now as important as antivirus for the safety of your computer/tablet/phone
Definitely was one of the ones way back who said "If they keep it classy I won’t disable my adblocker. I want to say, generously, that maybe 10% of sites made ads that weren’t intrusive. Ad companies can’t handle themselves, they have to take over the entire page and distract from the content. It’s their own fault we use ad blockers.
Little bit of column A, little bit of column B. There are sites I appreciate which don’t allow you to pay to disable ads - so I sometimes take a look at one or two.There are others where the ads get annoying, so I stay away, or leave when I’ve had enough of 35 animations slowing down my web browser.
I have yet to see an ad that managed compromise the safety of my computer (knocks on wood). I am aware that this has happened, but I would be really cross with BitDefender if it happened to me.
I would love to support sites by viewing their ads, but I object to the behind-the-scenes data transactions that are associated with ads. maybe I’ll click, maybe not, but creating profiles of me that people sell is not acceptable.
If using a adblocker is theft then watching a commercial without buying the product is theft.
or not watching the commercial.
By what logic?
OP’s logic
Please elaborate. The connection between the two claims isn’t obvious to me.
LOL
I wholeheartedly disagree with you. I am so confused. Do I upvote or downvote?
Definitely up :)
Thanks
Another translation of OP’s opinion: walking on the street without looking at storefronts is unfair. Stores pay a substantial rent to be there and a lot of money to renovate and pay people to put up stuff for you to look at. Anyone not looking at these store fronts are robbing people of their money. There should be traffic stops where people have to describe exactly the location, size and content of every ads on the street. Failing to do so should be punished by law.
Sssh. Don’t give them ideas.
That right here is the problem with communities like this one
OP made a perfect post for this community, an extremely unpopular opinion, and gets downvoted
What about people who pay for their internet by data used, is the website not stealing from the user by wasting data with the unwatned ads?
Not sure if the opinion is popular or not, but only ⅓ of web users even use ad blockers.
That’s mostly because at least 70% of web users nowadays have no clue what they’re doing.
Honestly, that seems high
I agree. Applies to piracy as well. I still partake in both - I’m just not lying to myself about what I’m doing.
I find the mental gymnastics hilarious that people perform in order to justify doing that so that they can still feel good about themselves. I think it’s quite similar to eating meat. I know the animals are suffering and it’s hurting the climate and there’s no moral justification for buying factory farmed meat but I still do because it’s so good.
Someone gets it :) You may downvote me.
I think I’d be ok with removing my ad blocker if ads were simple and non intrusive and creators actually got a decent chunk of the ad revenue. The reason I use it however is that most websites have proven that if you give them an inch they’ll take a mile. So many websites now have so many ads that the actual content is barely visible through the mid-page ads, auto play videos, popups and banners. And that’s not even mentioning the tracking and cookies they now request/use. The internet has become unusable without an ad blocker. If I want to support someone’s content I’d rather use whatever donation method they have set up.
If you’ve ever managed or monitored a corporate firewall, you’re honestly doing yourself a disservice by not using an adblocker these days. The amount of malicious advertising that corporate firewalls block these days from employees on the internet is astounding.
Legitimate as traffic accounts are constantly hijacked by threat actors as its such an easy way to spread malware and compromise machines.
Only in the same way you’re supporting the local economy by being pickpocketed. There are better and less shady ways of doing it.
