Submitted 1 day ago by 1984@lemmy.today to technology@lemmy.world
They call it “dark traffic” - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.
Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.
gasp you mean to tell me you DON’T like 20 million videos playing over the top of the recipe that you’re trying to read while trying not to burn dinner? unbelievable.
smh these motherfuckers are so brazen
Speaking of cooking and not wanting to see 20 videos playing over the recipe:
No ad blockers needed
oooh i love this! thank you! FOSS cooking is indeed based af
Looks like it hasn’t been updated in a few years, but its open source so you could just fork the repo and add more. There are also quite a few forks already.
Advertising should be illegal. Huge waste of money and everyone’s time.
It’s an interesting stance, but ask yourself, where is the line between advertising and promotion or sponsorship.
I think that requiring that advertising is factual might be a better way to address the issue.
Ultimately as a society we haven’t come up with a better way to communicate the existence of products and services to each other, and we’ve been using advertising for 5,000 years or so.
Here’s how you make people aware of your products.
You sell a quality product for a reasonable price.
That’s it.
Instead, capitolism has become this game of cat and mouse where the consumers ALWAYS lose. Just a game of shrinking product sizes, reducing quality, and raising prices. Little by little.
It’s most obvious when you haven’t had a product in a while, maybe years, and you grab it again. Only to realize they’ve gone through several iterations of enshitification.
When I was a kid, Andy Capps Cheese Fries used to be about as long as my pinky, and they were thick. Now it’s like the length of my pinky until my second knockle, and it’s like the same thickness as a pretzle stick. Sure, it’s technically the same product, but everytime I buy them I realize why I was disappointed the last time I bought them. And I won’t buy them for another 5 years. Maybe by then they’ll be the length of my pinky nail and as thick as a sewing pin, but cost 8 dollars instead of the 25 cents it was when I was a kid.
They did a durability test on hammers. In one side was an old rusty hammer. It had a date of 1931 on it. In the other was a brand new hammer bought that same day from Home Depot.
The new hammer crumbled long before the 1931 hammer did. This test was done in 2017.
But I never buy products because they advertise. I buy them because I remember how good it was the last time.
Except now, you’re advertising BAD memories. Because when I go in expecting this much, with this quality, and instead I get a fraction of it, with only a fraction of the quality…congradulations. You saved money on production costs. You also pushed your customer away from being a repeat customer.
All this business schools, and all the data they have I’m sure shows that their way is better. So explain to me why it seems businesses these days struggle to make the line go up, but when I was a kid business was booming?
Marketing is society’s cancer.
When a company has a good product/idea, they grow organically. If I’m looking for something, it should be enough to have information available through manufacturers websites and customer opinions, there is ZERO need to shove ads down people’s throats, which usuall translates in overconsumption and buying the best marketed (not the optimal) product.
So yeah, fuck marketing in general, big corporations greed and their entitlement to control the web traffic.
Like “back in the day” on TV: turning the volume of the ads up to be louder than the program you are watching; bells, horns, alarms; extremely misleading ads (people doing things absolutely stupidly, but suddenly better with product)… Loud and abusive scams is too much of it!
Unfortunately I don’t think you can just make it illegal. People/companies would still do it, just covertly. Then you end up in a situation where adverts are not marked as such and that’s probably even worse than the current situation, where ads at least identify themselves as ads.
Yeah no, I have seen multiple businesses closing down due to poor marketing promotion/budget.
And then we all complain that we didn’t know about a certain product/service because they didn’t market it good enough (we have seen it a lot of times with movies for example, then they turn into obscure classics with the pass of time, but not really profitable), also some games that didn’t really made themselves known while in critical selling weeks?
Who is gonna be the brave soul to release a game when GTA VI appears? That would be marketing suicide, no matter how good your game is.
I have seen multiple businesses closing down due to poor marketing promotion/budget.
Only because they were competing against businesses with possibly shittier products but certainly better marketing. Remove all the marketing, good and bad, and suddenly it’s a real merit-based competition.
It is very idealist, but IMO worth considering. There can (or at least should) be less intrusive means of letting people know of a product.
People don’t mind ads for the most part it’s the fact that they take over 3/4 of the screen and generally try to be as obnoxious as possible.
If we stuck with banner ads no one would care, but they just had to make ads as shitty as possible.
I absolutely do mind.
The ad industry is an abusive ex that complains when you defend yourself.
They’re not ex. They’re serial rapist.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again.
Adblockers are a critical part of any modern computer’s security suit, and everyone should use them.
I won’t even consider removing mine unless the owners of a site with ads take full responsibility for any dammage to my computer coming from visiting their site with out an adblocker.
This is due to the fact that ads can be hijacked and infect your computer with malware just by accessing the site.
I have also experienced my browser being hijacked by clicking a link that was compromized, it redirected my browser in a loop, then opened a javascript password popup box that took all focus from the browser window and refused to go away, while the page below displayed a message that I needed to call tech support.
It was very annoying to resolve, Firefox would by default restore any pages that was open in a tab if the browser crashed, and since the password prompt was stealing focus from the browser window, I had to kill it through the Task manager, which restored the page on start up…
I had to create a new profile, then it it solved it
I don’t know if anyone reading this will ever have this problem (if you got this far without installing an adblocker, this is your wake up call - go get one now), but ctrl+W is the shortcut to kill a tab and that should work regardless site focus or popups
Unless the lovely javascript detects that you’re trying to close the tab and hijacks that to ask you if you are sure you want to forcefully tell them to fuck off and die leave the page. It’s only one extra click, sure, but I remember some from the old days that wouldn’t let you close shit. Ugh, thank god for better modern standards and adblockers.
Maybe the problem is the advertisers and not the consumers. Jeeeesus.
US trade association News/Media Alliance announced it had secured the takedown of 12ft.io
Oh thats why that stopped working. Bunch of jerks.
25 years of adblockers and that is the single most important thing that keeps me from cutting myself off the web. I’ve donated money to adblockers and will continue to do so until I die! I send emails to the web sites that ask me to remove the blocker to tell them I will not and that there are many other sites that welcome my adblocking ass!
I think about doing that except with VPN’s.
“The growth of dark traffic undermines the ability of publishers to fund the production of quality content, or even operate as a business. We must recognise users are not the main driver causing this.”
“It’s demonetising publisher content at scale without user consent.”
They act like we don’t know what we are doing and want the ads. People who block ads in browsers like ddg and brave choose those browsers for that reason.
Yeah, but bad ad choices cause people who would otherwise be fine with ads that fund content to block. Some will never go away, in the same way some will always pirate, but the ad landscape has become like the streaming landscape and pushed people towards these choices
Absolutely. Too bad that even unobtrusive ads still can’t be trusted not to have trackers.
Without user consent? That’s exactly the opposite
Ads are out of control, they fill my day.
My home, my rules. Ads are not allowed on the devices i BOUGHT.
99% of the targeted ads i get tend to be targeted at someone who has a family and makes 3 times my wage, so you’re wasting business resources for your own gain and wasting my time by serving them to me.
So fuck off outta my house.
Proud to be part of a growing tradition.
I have my entire network running with a DNS that blocks all advertising by default. And then, just to make absolutely certain, I run browsers with UBlock Origin on them.
Any good guides you know of to set that up?
Pi-hole. You’ll want to run two, because machines will use both a primary and a secondary server for their DNS requests. If you don’t want to buy a pair of raspberry pi’s, you can run it in Docker, which basically keeps it isolated to its own tiny virtual machine. So you’d just need to spin up a pair of docker containers to run the pair of pi-holes. If you’re using Docker, they’ll need a pair of volumes too, or else they’ll lose all of their data every time they reboot.
You’ll want this to be on a machine that is running 24/7, because any time it shuts down, your internet will essentially stop working. That’s why lots of people end up just throwing a few raspberry pis in a closet and forgetting about them.
Once it’s installed, you’ll need to load it with block lists. The default ones are pretty basic. I’d just google something like “pihole blocklists” and figure it out from there. Each list will be a URL, which allows the pihole to pull updates, (which you can tell it to do via the built-in web UI).
My DNS is from controld.com.
What you do is you log into your router and on the local area network page there’s generally a section to change the DNS settings of your router and you just put in the IP addresses that control D gives you.
You can also set it up on iOS and Android so that you are also protected when you leave your home network and are on the go on your cellular network.
As I said, along with Control-D, I also use U-Block Origin to catch anything that it might miss.
The other thing to do is use as many open source applications as you can possibly get away with.
Besides Pi-hole, there’s Adguard. The “home” version works just like Pi-hole on a device on your network (but is a little slicker in my opinion), and a DNS service where you just set your router’s or devices DNS to their service (less private, but no dedicated device required). That’s an option that is not ideal, but far better than not blocking at the DNS level for anyone uncomfortable configuring a device on their network.
Seeing static banner ads on 2000s websites without popups or tracking: 🤷♂️
Blocking ads on Firefox after popups and other crap started: 😀
Browsing the internet on Android before I realised the browser supports addons: 🤮
Blocking ads and tracking on Android via uBlock origin and Privacy Badger: 😀👍
My feeling of guilt when scummy megacorporations miss out on ad revenue:
There are a couple of steps missing at the beginning. There was a time when we only blocked popups; other types of ad were fine, but popups were annoying enough that they needed special attention, and the popup-blocker was usually built-in to the browser without needing an extension. It took a couple of years for the non-popup types of ads to become obnoxious enough to warrant blocking.
Even better: system-wide DNS adblocking on Android. Get rid of in-app ads too.
My feeling of guilt when scummy megacorporations miss out on ad revenue:
😛
Let me know when you can’t inject malware via ads…
Using an ad blocker makes me tech savvy? Oh, la, la. Hand me my monocle and glass of schardonayegh.
I mean, basically yes? Do you think most people ever touched the addons button?
Well, no, but is that really the bar? It is a pretty low bar no matter how you dress it up. Now leave me alone with my schaedeghenayegh.
You think most people open settings? You’re more optimistic than I am.
Sorry that’s spelled jardoughneigh you uncultured swine. Give back that monocle at once!
And just like that, 200 redneck women said in unison “huh, that’s a real pretty name. Schardonayegh. Ooooh, even better -Schardonayegh Lynn. I love it!”
It’s not about blocking ads for me, that’s a happy side-effect, it’s about owning your computing and taking the necessary protection against tracking. Before “ad blockers” existed I spent a lot of time manually configuring my browser to block websites from connecting me to unnecessary, potentially intrusive third party servers, after all it’s my browser and my internet connection. Now uBlock Origin does that for me, it’s not an ad blocker, it’s a wide spectrum content blocker and the user should have the final say on what they connect to. I think we should stop calling them ad blockers.
Call them what they are. Internet condoms.
And I’m one or them. Every time I turn it off things become legitimately unusable.
I didn’t mind having a couple of static ads on a page. But now it’s so much. So many dynamic ads, autoplaying videos, popups asking you to sign up to a newsletter, etc. No thanks.
I wouldn’t mind unobtrusive ads targeted to the content of the page being viewed -but that doesn’t happen. Modern ad networks all work on surveillance, and are indistinguishable from what we used to call “spyware”. I have avoided spyware since the 90s.
I honestly wouldn’t care if you put your mattress ad on a web page I’m reading about mattresses. I might even click on it!
Besides the trackers and malware, ads can be categorised as a flaw in technology. A kind of software parasite that uses a computer's resources without providing any additional functionality to the user.
Ads are malware (software maliciously made to do something the user wants), yes. :3
AdBlocker is the one who should get the Nobel Peace prize.
what is with p.i.p video everywhere. hate it. can’t figure out how to block it. firefox
Have you tried AdNauseam?
When I was about five years old, my parents were shopping for a car. When the radio said Brand X Dealer was the best place to buy a car, I was so excited to tell them what I’d just learned.
I haven’t forgiven advertising since.
Can only imagine how f’d up kids’ minds must be now
Was so proud when my kid stated that ”If the thing is good enough, it does not need advertising. Only poor stuff needs that.”
My kid hasn’t ever seen an ad on any streaming service or any web page, ever. And I block ads via DNS. We don’t have any kind of live TV service or cable so they literally have just never seen any ads, ever.
Sometimes if we’re out at a restaurant, some TV is playing live content and an ad runs. My kid is shocked like it’s the first time he ever ate sugar.
Glad I can keep that toxic trash out of my house and out of his life.
My daughter has become obsessed with watching videos about the game Wobbly Life. There’s one YouTuber who seems to post extremely frequently and advertises in every video for a subscription mod platform. She is now always asking about that mod platform, and the best way we can explain it to her (because she’s 5 and simply too young to understand what mods even are, has zero room for any nuance on her world views etc.) is we just give her a hard-line “we do not pay for mods”
I still whitelist sites a like with sensible ads. Axios for instance.
But I had to rip APNews out when Google Ads tried to serve me malware.
I don’t even bother reporting ad network malware. No one gives a shit including site owners and network operators
What was the malware?
IDK, it was awhile ago and blocked in the page it auto opened. By Cromite maybe?
GOOD. most people wouldn’t care about blocking ads if they werent so keen on shoving them down your throat ever harder.
I actually like how people are again on the wave of understanding that anarchism is right even if you’ve voluntarily consented to hierarchy. And other similar things.
Sometimes you need to break rules. Entropy and life are more important.
One could only dream my friend. One day we will all help and care for each other.
This is easily solved by not using 3rd parties and tracking data for ads. If the ad was just part of the page (similar to an ad in the newspaper) then ad blockers would not be able to detect them at all. A YouTuber saying “before we get started, this video is sponsored by [relevant related company]” does not get blocked by ad blockers.
However, in order to do that websites would be responsible for the ads they display. If they don’t do their due diligence they won’t be able to pass it off as “we’re not responsible for it, it’s our ad company that put it there.” They don’t want to be responsible for the ads they show, but they want you to be responsible for the ads you don’t watch.
A YouTuber saying “before we get started, this video is sponsored by [relevant related company]” does not get blocked by ad blockers.
Well, there’s sponsor block which uses crowd sourced timestamps to skip those segments, but yeah you’re right.
I personally feel no need to get sponser block because:
Everything the ads do to force you to pay attention it to (like not being able to fast forward) makes it easier for ad blockers to detect and block.
Everything the ads do to demand your attention (by being annoying as fuck) drives people to block them.
Psychology has revealed that the ability to direct attention to and process stimulus is limited, and that it’s more limited in the most vulnerable members of society, including those with autism and those with too much stress.
Stimulus engineered to capture attention must therefore be treated by the law as a form of violence.
Adblockers the heroes we need.
SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 1 day ago
The fbi suggests using an ad blocker. Guess what an ad blocker is as important as an antivirus.
Trainguyrom@reddthat.com 23 hours ago
Malvertising has become pervasive enough that adblocking is starting to become a necessity from an IT perspective
Blackmist@feddit.uk 1 day ago
More, if anything.
Korhaka@sopuli.xyz 1 day ago
I have an adblocker but not an antivirus
SonOfAntenora@lemmy.world 1 day ago
You either have a mobile, a Linux device or Windows, which has defender by default. The amount of virus fir Linux is relatively low, and mobile…most antivirus are redundant for mobile anyway, so you’re set.