Browser privacy and security has become mired in a battle over the future of Internet publishing
As if life wasn’t already hard enough for online publishers it has recently been getting a lot tougher thanks to adblockers. Loaded as free extensions to desktop and mobile browsers, up to a third of Internet users now run them which spells big trouble for the swathe of big websites that depend almost completely on serving ads to make money.
Adblockers block the platforms that serve ads, including pop-ups, pop-unders, banner ads, video ads, leaving untouched only ads embedded on websites. They do other things too such as nixing the third-party tracking cookies used to fuel targeted, programmatic advertising platforms that monitor browsing behaviour in order to serve users ads at a moment decided by secret algorithms.
Although most users run adblockers to speed up browsing, limiting ad-tracking systems has obvious privacy benefits as well as boosting general security. Programmatic advertising gathers data about individual users on a mass scale, in effect spying on which sites they visit and the subjects that interest them. Predictably, cybercriminals, have started hijacking this automated ad architecture to spread clickfraud and malware malvertising, a security issue that has become a major concern in the last two years.
The case in favour of using adblockers appears open and shut, then. They boost privacy by shielding users from invasive tracking, greatly reduce the risk of malvertising, allowing users to consume content without visual distraction.
But what of hard-pressed publishers? Big brands such as The Washington Post and Forbes have tried to retaliate by politely blocking readers using adblockers unless they agree to turn them off. Unfortunately, some adblockers have figured out how to bypass this detection, in effect sending publishers back to square one in a debilitating war of technological attrition.
Acceptable Ads
This is where the adblocking story suddenly gets more complicated – and controversial. Back in 2011, the German company that makes the leading adblocker, Adblock Plus, looked into a crystal ball and worked out that this stand-off might come to pass and wondered what could be done to stop the adblocking and publishing industries slowly industry eating each other’s tails.
Its executives had a brainwave. Why not let some ads through and charge the biggest advertisers for the privilege of being on this whitelist? Users would be able to opt out of this technology but most wouldn’t. The most annoying ad servers would still be blocked but enough premium ones would get through to keep advertisers and publishers in business. Best of all, adblocking companies would have a long-term business model.
Problem solved? More like poking a nest of hornets at is turned out. Although some ad networks were willing to pay while adblockers were a small sector, once the technology became mainstream and the ad revenues at stake rose sharply, many started to rankle at what they saw as a classic middleman tactic. The Internet has been accused of this a lot over the years. Online businesses start selling direct to consumers but later discover that ranking and rating directories, search engines and a myriad of other businesses slowly insert themselves between them and the customer, in effect hijacking eyeballs without (the argument goes) adding any value.
To larger firms, adblockers looked like a particularly egregious example of this concept – pay up or we’ll stop people from viewing your ads. Recently it has got so bad that one advertising firm branded some adblockers as tantamount to running an “extortion racket”. Strong words.
And Internet users?
Where do ordinary Internet users fit into all of this? It’s a constituency that started using adblockers to reduce ad interruptions but is increasingly concerned with worries over privacy and security. Adblockers look like a solution in one tool but if they end up damaging publishers then perhaps it’s protection that comes with hidden downsides.
Interestingly, not all tools labelled as adblockers work in the same way and some put more emphasis on the privacy and security themes than pure adblocking. This hints at the future of this sector. For instance, Privacy Badger (backed by the Electronic Freedom Foundation) is, as its name suggests, really a privacy rather than adblocking tool while a respectable halfway house might something along the lines of Ghostery. The latter allows ads that comply with something called AdChoices but makes it much easier for users to opt out while also heavily foregrounding privacy. Privacy-oriented browsers such as Firefox also want to up their game.
In the short-to-medium term the success of adblockers is likely to change the way advertising works as publishers look for new ways to engage readers commercially. Clickbait articles will reduce in number as outlets decline – most experts agree there is already too much content whose sole purpose seems to be a doomed attempt to host advertising the users don’t want to look at.
Malvertising is a growing influence on this debate. If this problem gets worse – and there is plenty of evidence that it has the potential to get a lot worse – then security programmes such as antivirus will be forced to treat browser-based ads with even more caution that they already do. This could in time overtake adblocking as the biggest reason these ads are interrupted, an irony given that it is a problem caused by a lack of security inside some ad networks.
What has become clear is that there is a glaring need for more tools that foreground privacy and security and not simply convenience and performance. Too often right now, these have become unhelpfully wrapped into the issue of blocking ads as an end in itself. History tells us that to ignore security would be a major missed opportunity.
Adblocking tips – how to separate the best from the rest
With so many to choose from which features count?
- The point of an adblocker is usually to boost performance. They do this well but have some drawbacks (see below).
- Adblockers are generally good for privacy (less tracking) but be aware that most allow ads through as part of their business model by default and so privacy becomes partial.
- A good adblocker will be upfront about its membership (or not) of acceptable advertising programmes (such as Acceptable Ads and AdChoices) and make it simple to opt out.
- The ability to turn off an adblocker or whitelist websites is essential – without this feature adblockers might break some e-commerce websites or be refused access to content by a growing number of publishers which detect when they are running.
- Adblockers will often claim to block phishing sites but this technology is unlikely to be better than what is supplied on a well-configured browser. Users should not rely on this type of security alone.
