Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking measures

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by jancsika on Thursday December 28, 2017 @07:27PM (#16026418)

Some adtech startup should just quit playing games and go full creeper mode:

* simple text-only ads

* give the advertisers the tools to generate text content that is minimally distracting, maximally invasive, maximally creepy, and maximally personally-identifying

"$35,000 in debt, unemployed, recently dumped and insecure about your male sexual identity? You deserve this special price on Axe Body Spray..."

The buzz alone would get people to turn off their ad-blockers just to see what content gets generated for them.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by reificator on Thursday December 28, 2017 @07:47PM (#16026533)

So an updated version of the classic browser/IP/country/OS sign people used in their forum signatures?

http://www.danasoft.com/vipersig.jpg

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by kilroy123 on Thursday December 28, 2017 @09:47PM (#16027131)

It's that pretty much Google ads?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by jancsika on Friday December 29, 2017 @12:50AM (#16027861)

No, because Google advises their advertisers not to creep out their potential customers.

AFAICT an ad from Google is chosen based on the reams of data Google has about me, but the content of the ad seems generic (or at least seems like it's meant to come off as generic so as not to creep me out).

The hypothetical adtech I'm describing would of course choose the ad based similarly on reams of data about me, but the content of the ad would itself also be worded using invasive data about me.

Google ad: "get some cheap technical degree"

Creeperville Ad: "climb out of your 35,000+ debt with a technical degree"

There are even more convincing examples wrt pornography but I'd rather not go down that rabbit hole.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by PrimHelios on Thursday December 28, 2017 @09:44PM (#16027121)

If anything, I would keep my adblocker enabled just to see those creepy ads, that would make for some interesting browsing sessions.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Many major websites are taking silent anti-ad-blocking me... by raguuu on Friday December 29, 2017 @05:49AM (#16028793)

They would still find themselves in the filter lists. It's hard to trust any ad company, that is unfortunate truth. I did text only Amazon links sort of advertising but it triggers some unlock filters because of the affiliate link.

[ Parent | on HN ]