On Ad Blockers – Manu
manuelmoreale.com/on-ad-blockers
What Jamie wrote
Moreale sharing his perspective on why he feels fine blocking ads in his browser. He limits the topic to just ad blocking, which I think is fine but keeps out the entire stack of surveillance software that comes along with ads. The argument that people running ad blockers are somehow hurting creators may in fact carry some water, but in my opinion no where near enough to change my mind.
I would argue that give the incredibly complex surveillance engines that watch us online, not using a content blocker and other privacy protecting software is just a bad idea.
Let's use a comparison.
- By running anti-spam software I’m technically harming all these spammers that wish to get some value out of shoving emails in my inbox. Is anti-spam software bad?
- By protecting myself from ransomware I’m technically limiting the revenue of criminal organizations looking to lock my computer on me and get some Bitcoin.
The argument is the same. The only difference is that one group is "good guys" and the other is "bad guys". The world is more grey than that.
If you have a simple ad network that doesn't surveil users I’m happy to let this ads in. However, I don't know anyway to test that. So in the meantime, I absolutely encourage the use of all forms of privacy software that you wish to use.
My current list: 1Blocker and Little Snitch Mini do most of the protecting for me, and of course I only use Safari.