Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦

If large websites respected our choices regarding ads (DNT is a decade old, people!) and served contextual ads when asked to not track, we would not need to use #AdBlockers.

Instead, for over a decade now web publishing industry's been hell bent on screwing readers over, ignoring clearly stated preferences, misrepresenting what they do with the data, and using dark patterns to maliciously mis-implement legal requirements when forced to do so.

Stop this crap and I might disable my AdBlocker.

Aug 17, 2023 at 3:34pmWeb
Show threadAndy CarolanAug 17, 2023
@rysiek I resisted using an adblocker for as long as possible, but without it, much of the internet is now unusable. I'm simply not going to sit there and wait for multiple adverts to load, just to read a short article! And on mobile, it's my mobile data plan they're using for all those irrelevant autoplay video ads
Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Aug 17, 2023
@andycarolan 💯
Show threadPiTauAug 17, 2023
@andycarolan @rysiek I thought the modern internet is broken beyond repair. Then I forgot to import my Firefox profile on a freshly installed OS. I refuse to believe, that there are people using internet without uBlock Origin. Even then a lot of sites are bloated. I'll probably go on a rant about this soon...
Show threadMad Argon Aug 17, 2023
@PiTau @andycarolan @rysiek After Firefox reinstallation, when I didn't have any plugins, I received some YT links from friend. Opened them... And almost immediately I started to swear and wanted to throw my laptop out through the window. It is absolutely unbearable.
Show threadAndy CarolanAug 17, 2023
@PiTau The internet is very broken now. Search for one is a joke. Sponsored and irrelevant content regularly appears before relevant results. Search should have been immune to manipulation by companies and individuals... but here we are. @rysiek
Show threadaburka 🫣Aug 17, 2023
@andycarolan @rysiek Hmm, you seem to have scrolled away from the video to the actual article. I'm sure you meant to keep watching it in picture-in-picture mode so it covers up the text. I'll just freeze the whole page while that loads for you.
Show threadAndy CarolanAug 17, 2023
@aburka Yeah, that's like every site when viewed without an ad blocker now @rysiek
Show threadJonathan Kamens 86 47Aug 17, 2023
@andycarolan Indeed. For many years I insisted to myself and others that ads were the cost of free content and if you wanted content to continue to be free you should should be willing to put up with the ads.
Then I found out just how privacy-invasive the whole AdTech industry is.
Now I use ad-blockers everywhere I possibly can.
If they aren't going to be civil, then neither am I.
Show threadAndy CarolanAug 17, 2023
@jik Oh totally 100%. And that's just what we actually hear about... the amount of manipulation and data scraping that occurs must be insane.
Show threadAsta McCarthyAug 17, 2023
@rysiek Thats why #AdBlockers should be called by their main purpose: #TrackingBlockers
Show threadKevin Karhan Aug 17, 2023

@rysiek I'll never disable my #AdBlocker out of principle because these sites won't respect my #privacy and literally lie into my face!

If they'd care about #Privacy they'd make their shit #accessible, #SelfHost #ads, not use #Tracking and shit like #CloudFlare...

Show threadSabrina Web  📎Aug 17, 2023
@rysiek I think I'd use an adblocker anyway, to disable those annoying autoplaying videos (that I pay when I'm not on wifi). But in 2023, I think that using an adblocker is a form of self defense
Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Aug 17, 2023
@sabrinaweb71 yeah, that's why I said "might".
Show thread🇸​🇭​🇮Aug 17, 2023

@sabrinaweb71 @rysiek even formerly "reputable" sites like YouTube are now serving flat out scam ads (I see one pretending to be from MrBeast at least once every single time I visit YT w/o ad blocking) and ads that even shady 0day DDL Warez websites from the early aughts wouldn't accept, like skeevy casino ads or weird dating sites nobody's ever heard of.

Ditto for a _LOT_ of newspapers' websites. I think it was Time, but one of those hundred+ years old, established news magazines, that on mobile literally often has 3-4 ads on screen at once, which makes me believe nobody actually working on the site ever views it without adblock, either.

And that's not even getting into ad networks getting owned and serving straight up malware.

Show threadgrob (teeth era) 🇺🇦🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️Aug 17, 2023
@rysiek the amount of trust advertises would need to build up for me to do that is enormous. Certainly for established players with a track record, pun coincidental.
Show threadCassandrichAug 17, 2023
@rysiek Respecting DNT is nowhere near sufficient. They absolutely must stop displaying unvetted ads, especially accompanied by code provided by sketchy third parties, which are a prime channel for browser vulns and wetware vulns. Only zero-code ads vetted as non-scammy and non-hate-inciting by their ad departments (lol that used to be a thing) are anywhere near acceptable.
Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Aug 17, 2023
@dalias oh absolutely!
Show threadLisPiAug 18, 2023

@dalias @rysiek Given ads are ultimately attempts at exploiting meatware vulnerabilities to extract money, I'm not sure that'll happen.

The very act of offering information unprompted/unqueried can be manipulative.

Show threadCassandrichAug 18, 2023
@lispi314 @rysiek Yes but there's a huge difference in trying to get someone to buy sneakers and trying to get them to spend their life savings on shitcoins or join a cult of hate.
Show threadOssi HerralaAug 17, 2023

@rysiek Ad networks were also used to distribute malicious content. Thus #AdBlockers are essential security measure for safer online experience.

I recommend adblocking to every individual and all companies should include this requirement in their security policy.

Show threadRairiiAug 17, 2023
@oherrala @rysiek were? they STILL ARE used to distribute malicious content!
Show threadAnkit Anubhav Aug 17, 2023

@Rairii @oherrala @rysiek Indeed and not only the ads on shady websites, Google ads also. Not long back even Ransomware was being shipped through Google ads.

https://therecord.media/microsoft-royal-ransomware-group-using-google-ads-in-campaign

Microsoft: Royal ransomware group using Google Ads in campaign

The Royal Ransomware group used Google Ads in one of their campaigns of attacks, according to a new report from Microsoft.

Show threadFarce MajeureAug 17, 2023
@oherrala @rysiek as usual, "the purpose of a system is what it does". That malware networks also deliver ads just means they have a side hustle that's supposed to look slightly less corrupt.
Show threadJernej Simončič �Aug 17, 2023
@oherrala Have group policy set up at every client that installs uBlock Origin and Consent-O-Matic in Firefox, Edge and Chrome. There's significantly less support requests.
Show threadMoved to @[email protected]Aug 17, 2023
@rysiek There is also a strong argument to be made that advertisements are fucking stupid and nobody buys shit based on them anymore... I buy shit when I need it, not when an advert tells me to, and usually, what makes me want to buy something is the company that's selling it knowing everything about it, and not treating the customer like an idiot. Something most companies today fail miserably at...
Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Aug 17, 2023
@cody absolutely. The only real benefactors of the current system are the ad networks, mostly Google.
Show threadWagesOfAug 18, 2023

@rysiek give me an option to pay you what the advertiser gives you for my attention and I'll pay it.

Protip: that's $0.0001 per view, not $5/month.

Show threadalcinnzAug 18, 2023

@WagesOf @rysiek Though I don't mend giving $5 a month to people who's work I really value!

But if everyone's asking $5 a month, I'm sorry but that adds to be out of my budget...

Show threadWagesOfAug 18, 2023
@alcinnz @rysiek my Mastodon host is totally worth it! CNET, no wai.
Show threadMoriAug 18, 2023
@WagesOf @rysiek DNT was always an assure non-solution that everyone always knew wouldn’t work and that advertisers loved agreeing to as they could use it as a marketing datapoint.
I still last turn it on- but that’s more to be vaguely annoying than anything else.
Show threadMichał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦Aug 18, 2023

@mori @WagesOf sure. But it's also a setting that is out there, is a standard, is well understood, and we can show that advertisers and web publishers outright ignore it.

That's also a valuable datapoint.

"Oh you value my privacy? Respect my clearly stated and communicated preference then."

Show threadAndres JalintonAug 18, 2023
@WagesOf @rysiek
As I see it is an excellent point and solution until you get to the transaction fee. There is no way to transfer $0.01 over the internet.
Show threadWagesOfAug 18, 2023
@Andres @rysiek this was what microtransactions was referred to in the 90s. If they cared to solve it, they certainly could have by now.
Show threadWANDERING🏴‍☠️LENSAug 18, 2023
@rysiek even if they did all that, id never have it disabled because from the moment they were able to do so, ads and ad serving networks were in the practice of executing code that the site owner hadn't audited and had no idea what it was doing. Chew through enough trojans and browser hijacks and you learn your lesson
Show threadAdlangxAug 19, 2023
@rysiek meh, ad based content is not ever going to work.