Hello there! Welcome to another Cliff Notes blog post! Today, we will discuss a topic that is a favorite of mine: Ad blocking! If you haven’t already, read up on my post about online privacy. The two go hand in hand.
Just like on TV, radio, in the newspapers, magazines, and while driving down the highway, The internet is also littered with advertising. Unlike the former forms of advertising, internet ads can not only be annoying, but a serious threat to both your privacy, and your device’s security. We’ll cover these in this post.
On the positive side, unlike TV, radio, etc, you CAN remove ads from web pages. This is called Ad blocking, and is a very popular form of “cleaning up” a web page. (Well, you can cut the ads out of newspapers, but then you cut out parts of whatever is behind it!)
IS IT LEGAL?? Yes! Not only are there no laws against ad blocking, but such a case was tried in Germany, and the courts there ruled in favor of Eyeo, the creators of AdBlock Plus. AdBlock Plus (ABP for short) is a once popular, but still available browser-based ad blocker.
WHY BLOCK ADS? There’s dozens of reasons one would want to block advertising on the internet. I will list the most common reasons:
* Decluttering – Ads can often get in the way of the content you are trying to access. Blocking these ads can really clean up the look of the web site.
* Optimization – Blocking ads can drastically speed up the loading times of a website. Unlike ads in the early days of the internet, which were usually just small GIF/JPG files that linked to some other site, ads today employ tons of javascript code. Loading and running all of this code can severely slow down your browsing. This becomes especially noticeable on slow connections, such as DSL or Satellite, as well as on older devices and those with low performance specs.
* Saving data – Same with optimization, loading all of those ads and their associated javascript code can consume a serious amount of data. This is especially problematic on metered connections. Employing an ad blocker can cut data usage by as much as 80%.
* Preserving Privacy – The majority of ads today employ javascript that is used to identify you on the internet. These ads leave what is known as “Tracking Cookies”, small files containing data related to your browsing session. Ad services use these cookies to track and target individual users across the web.
* Enhancing Security – Some ads out there can also easily infect a system with malware. This is known as “Malvertising”. While the ad is running, malicious javascript code is quietly downloading malware, ransomware, etc to your system. While some of you out there are going “Oh this only happens when you go to sketchy sites”, Malvertising can happen, and has happened on major sites such as CNN, MSN, Fox News, etc.
* Avoid interruptions – This is especially true on mobile devices. Don’t you hate it when you’re in the middle of a game, or even a good video, when BAM, Ad! Ad blocking can put an end to this quickly and quietly. Game on, Binge on, free of interruptions.
TYPES OF ADS: Internet ads come in many forms. Here are some of the common ones:
* Banner ads – The original form of ads. These are the ads you see at the top, along the side of, and often in the middle of (and over top of) your content. These are the most common on webpages.
* Video ads – These are ads that come in the form of videos, complete with sound. These often run like TV commercials. These are common on sites like Youtube, most social media, and most news sites with video players.
* Popup/under Ads – Another original ad format. These operate by opening the ad in a whole new window/tab on your browser. Popunder ads open the ad behind your current browser window, waiting to ambush you when you close the browser. The majority of browsers today already block popups and popunders.
* Native ads – These are a less intrusive ad format that is inserted in with your desired content. Often times these are just random links to other sites. These are placed by javascript from an ad server. Commonly found across many different sites as a form of less intrusive advertising.
* Interactive ads – These are ads that the user can interact with. Most commonly found on mobile games and apps.
* Sponsored content – Often marked as such, these are often posts that are paid for by the company who’s product or service is represented in the ad. Commonly found on news sites and social media.
WHAT IS A TARGETED AD? Targeted ads, better known as personalized ads, are ads that are tailored to your interests. The data from this is usually gathered from your browsing habits. Let’s say you are browsing the web for hunting gear. After a bit, you’ll start seeing ads for things ranging from hunting rifles to camouflage.
Likewise, if you spend a lot of time on websites related to technology, you may start seeing ads for computers, mobile devices and various PC components. The majority of sites do offer a way to opt out of this type of targeting. Targeted ads pay out way better than untargeted ads due to the higher possibility of someone buying that product or service. Those who opt out of personalization will still be served ads, but they will be completely random. These types of ads are the ones that follow you from site to site, and can even begin to appear on your social media accounts if you’re logged into them.
TYPES OF BLOCKERS: We’re going to cover the 3 common types of ad blockers that are available today:
* Browser-based – This is the most common form of ad blocker, and the most popular. Blocking is limited to the immediate web browser. Popular blockers include uBlock Origin, AdBlock Plus, and AdGuard.
* System-based – This type of blocker runs at system level, and covers all applications (including browsers) running on that device. AdGuard is the #1 blocker in this case. Some antivirus and system security suites also come with system-level ad blocking.
* DNS-Based – This one is more comprehensive, and runs at the network level, providing blocking capabilities to all devices connected to the network. The two popular ones here are AdGuard Home, and Pi-Hole. There are also outside DNS services that provide ad blocking, such as AdGuard DNS and NextDNS. Unlike the first two, the latter two only require simple system configuration.
WATCH OUT: Some devices will break around this barrier by using their own DNS configurations. If you do not have a router/firewall that allows you to forcefully redirect DNS, you will find ad blocking on these devices to not be as effective. Devices such as Smart TVs and streaming sticks are notorious for this
SETTING UP AN AD BLOCKER: This part is easy if you’re just setting up an in-browser blocker. Simply go to your browser’s extension site and look for an ad blocker. uBlock Origin is the most effective of the lot. Little extra configuration is generally needed unless you want to use extra filter lists.
WATCH OUT: If you are using Chrome (or a derivative of it), Recent updates have severely limited ad blocking capabilities. It is best to use a browser such as Firefox, which fully supports uBlock Origin, or Brave, while being based on Chrome, has uBlock Origin’s features built in at the core. Both are privacy-first browsers.
System-based blockers install just like any other application. On mobile devices, such as Android, you will need to download it externally as Google as banned ad blockers from the Play store (For obvious reasons. After all, they are an ad company!). Little extra configuration is generally needed unless you want to use extra filter lists.
Setting up a network-based blocker such as Pi-Hole or Adguard Home require knowledge of Linux command line, as well as advanced networking skills. As such, this is not for the faint of heart. The rewards are epic though as you can spread ad blocking power to everything on your network.
USING YOUR AD BLOCKER: There’s no instructions needed here. Once the blocker is in place, simply start surfing the web, and take notice of the massive difference versus before you had the blocker. You’ll also see this on your internet bill if you are on a metered connection.
For Device-wide blockers, it should already be up and running. On Mobile devices, a blocker will create an internal VPN connection. This does not send any data outside your device, but rather through the blocker app for filtering. This will strip ads from the majority of apps on your device.
DNS-based blockers operate at the network level, and will strip ads from any device connected to your network.
WATCH OUT: DNS-based blocking does NOT strip ads from places like Facebook, Youtube, TikTok, etc as these are served from the same domains as the non-ad content. Browser-based blockers are the most effective here.
DOES AN AD BLOCKER ONLY BLOCK ADS? Nope! Ad blockers can block nearly anything on a site. The two most common things ad blockers block are ads and trackers. Trackers come in two forms: Site analytics, and ad trackers.
Analytics aren’t as bad on tracking as ad trackers, as all analytics do is let the site owner know just how well their site is doing in terms of visitors, and some can even let the owner know if someone runs into an issue on their site. Blocking these is kind of like walking into a store, completely shrouded in a Cloak of Invisibility. The site owner won’t really know you visited as it won’t show up on their analytics.
DOES AD BLOCKING AFFECT WEBSITES? Of course. The reason for ads on websites is to help the owner of the site to keep it online. Ads often pay for a website’s presence, as well as a little extra income for the owner. Many sites employ security measures to help avoid malvertising, and offer a way to leave feedback about the ads.
In other words, if you really like the site, Turn off the blocker just for that site. uBlock Origin offers a way to do this with a big blue power button in the addon control panel. If you can donate, however, that’s even better. In other words, the content isn’t really free, you’re paying for it by being served some advertising. A good site owner will always know the proper balance between content and ads.
A SITE IS ASKING/DEMANDING I TURN OFF MY BLOCKER: This depends on the site. If it’s one you’re just coming to for the first time, it’s better to just leave the site and look elsewhere for your content. After all, there’s never only one website that has a specific type of content.
If it’s one you frequent, it doesn’t hurt to support the site, although it would be safer to see if the site is accepting donations. Blockers such as uBlock Origin are able to remove these anti-adblocks from the webpage, so there should be little to no issue. The truth of it is that sites that employ anti-adblock methods tend to fail faster than those who don’t, as most users see this as pushy. There is also the problem of keeping up with ad blocker developers who quickly find ways around these.
WATCH OUT: If you go on a site and it asks you to pay to proceed, either pay up or find another site (Recommend to go elsewhere). This is known as a Paywall. Circumventing a paywall is technically a violation of the current DMCA laws, and in some countries, counts as unlawful access to a computer.
Because of this, most ad blocker maintainers will not support bypassing paywalls. (This doesn’t stop third party developers from it though). This is, however, different from a site asking for donations to help with maintenance and running the site. One can usually just click out of those. As of this time, there has not been any known legal action end users, but some tools used for this have been taken offline.
Take this knowledge with you as you navigate the wild west that is the internet, and you will enjoy an experience that is free of ads and security threats.