An ad-blocker like uOrigin can break online courseware and banking sites. If you install it on a student’s machine, and the ad block you consider ‘mandatory’ damages their experience, they might decide to drop (or fail) their course if they can’t figure out how to undo the damage you’ve done to their browser.
Non-experts cannot repair the issues caused by experts inflicting these steps on their computers. Don’t be that expert.
Imagine if this was the early Windows XP days, and someone was saying, "don't install virus protection or anti-malware on a Windows box, because some programs will be falsely flagged." Yes, sometimes safety valves trigger prematurely or block things they're not supposed to. That doesn't mean inexperienced electricians should remove all of their fuse protectors.
And the risks of breakage here are honestly really minimal. If a student taking an online courseware site notices breakage, 9/10 times they'll call up the person that set up their program and ask for help, and then that person will explain over the phone how to whitelist that one specific site. Or worst case scenario they'll file a support ticket and the support person will explain how to do that. They're not going to just say, "well, I guess I fail" and drop out of school.
DO be that expert. We should be practicing an ounce of protection. It is far easier to prevent viruses and phishing attacks for a nontechnical user than it is to recover from them. I firmly believe that anyone who can't be taught how to disable an adblocker should not be allowed to browse the web without one.
You're describing this setup like it's a choice between complicating someone's life or giving them a simple browser that just works. Phishing attacks are nasty. No matter what choice you make, a new user is going to have a complicated element they need to be educated about. You either have to teach them to use an adblocker, or you need to teach them Internet security best practices.
To jump back to the same comparison I made earlier, this is like wiring a house without circuit breakers because the owner is too scared to mess with the little switches. Is it simpler? Sure, but it stops being simpler when their house burns down.
Nontechnical users click on things; they particularly click on flashing banners that tell them they've won prizes, and they particularly click on images with scary fonts that tell them that their Facebook has the virus and needs to be updated. If you're going to give a nontechnical user a browser without an adblocker, you need some kind of other defense against phishing attacks, fake download links, cryptocurrency miners, and compromised Ads/CDNs that scrape credentials out of payment forms.
Do you have an alternative defense? If not, then I really feel like for someone as tech-illiterate as you're describing, giving them a bare browser is roughly the equivalent of throwing them naked into a hostile environment.
Disabling uBlock Origin is literally two clicks. I understand someone not knowing how to do that -- I don't understand not being able to explain how to do it.
And even in the crazy case where someone drops a course, that's still a preferable scenario to me over helping an Uncle remove a keylogger because a big scary box told him to click it on it.
When I set up a computer for someone I either need to teach them how to whitelist a site, or I need to teach them Internet security, which is not always possible to do. I think it's irresponsible to put someone online who's not an expert without at least some protection to keep them safe.
Sites that break are almost always fishy.
But I have started telling people that, when a site is not working properly, they may be able to fix it by clicking the shield button and then the big power button to turn the blocker off. That's usually enough.
You are being a bit over-dramatic here I think. Most younger people are smart enough to try a different approach (eg using the phone or tablet instead).
A lot of people I've encountered are quite scared of computers, and experience a significant amount of anxiety when asked to use a computer in front of someone. What to us is as natural as reaching for something, is to them a task to be feared, anticipated with dread, embarrassment and shame.
All IT related people should spend time with such folks, as you did. It would definitely help the industry if we were all a lot more open and sympathetic to people who are mystified, scared, or angered by computers and software.
I could never teach my grandmother what an ad blocker is and how to disable it if a site is not working. That would be far beyond her reach. Some basic Youtube browsing and email reading/writing is the peak for her.
I was mostly commenting on the <=45 crowd where some basic computer literacy is usually there and can be beefed up, in my experience.
Yet our older generations are probably the ones that would need an ad blocker the most to prevent them from ending up on fishing/scamming sites etc.
I am that expert for a very large number of non-expert users. I taught them how to troubleshoot it in case something goes wrong (worst case: click the button to disable it on this page). I've asked them about their experience. There was no breakage and no complaints whatsoever.
I would say it definitely passes the wife test.
They're better off with adblocking, seriously.
No one is actually going to fail an online course because of adblocking.
If someone who does online banking can't handle the most basic concepts of computer hygiene to the point of turning off an adblocker and knowing when it's safe to do so-- they probably should stick to brick and mortar banking.
As bad as some web-browsing inconveniences are, these pale in comparison to having a computer beset with malware.
I do not at all agree that we should banish people unable to navigate adblocking from the Internet altogether. They are not 'lesser' people. They do not deserve to be denied access. They simply need more help than you and I.
I definitely agree that we should tax all Internet businesses to pay for the libraries, library computers, and librarians that help one-third of American citizens operate the Internet safely.
My grandmother is an amazing, intelligent person. I would not give her a potentially dangerous device if I wasn't also willing to sit down and talk to her about how it worked. Heck, with really nontechnical people I print out illustrated instructions so they can file them next to the computer.
That's what giving help means. Educate people about how their browser works. Teach them computer hygiene so they can use an adblocker. If you can't do that, then giving them a barebones browser with zero protections is not helping them.
No one's talking about banishing people from the Internet. We're saying that if they can't handle the most basic concepts of computer hygiene, they are not ready to do online banking yet, and they should wait until someone helps them get ready or until someone installs some safeguards on their computer to keep them protected in the meantime -- even if those safeguards make their lives less convenient every once and a while.
If someone can't work their turn signals, I don't think they should be banned from driving, but I do want to help them figure that part out before they start the car, and they should probably walk or be chauffeured in the meantime.
Most adults are able to understand the basics of computer hygiene. It is not that hard to explain the what an adblocker does and how to use it to most people.
The sad thing is browser makers aren’t willing to help out the people who really need it because doing so would impact clickbait revenue.
Instead, that task is left to us. It’s not an ideal situation but have you seen what happens to PC’s in the hands of folks that don’t have a concept of computer hygiene?
Click ublock logo > click big obvious shutdown symbol. That's it.
1) the person to realize the site is broken because of something on their end (as opposed to the site being broken because of something "on the internet")
2) the person to realize the cause of the breakage is ublock
3) the person to be able to find the ublock logo (not always obvious; some browsers hide extensions, sometimes people don't know where to look, sometimes they don't know "the little red shield" == "the ad blocker causing my problems")
4) the person to understand what the big power symbol does - if you only click the ublock logo, it's not obvious to a layperson that the power symbol is a button
5) the person to be comfortable clicking the button, and not more afraid of "breaking the internet" than they are desiring to fix the issue
I do informal tech support for family members who could not get past steps 1 or 2, even if I've explained it to them. We who spend our lives on the Internet take a lot of the things we grok about it for granted, but someone who only occasionally uses a computer won't necessarily have the foundation to make the connections we do when faced with a problem like this.
An ad-blocker like ublock-origin is a must-have ESPECIALLY for so-called nontechnical folks.
I make sure to put that on the browsers of my extended family whenever I visit and inevitably get asked to "clean" computers. Does it help prevent malware? Hard to say but I think yes.