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> Today, for instance, we see that a majority of people who install an ad blocker don't actually do it to block ads (that's just an added bonus). They are actua
by mlinksva 9y ago
> Today, for instance, we see that a majority of people who install an ad blocker don't actually do it to block ads (that's just an added bonus). They are actually doing it to block tracking.
Is there any evidence for this at all?
- hobs 9y agoNo, and I would say that statement is laughably wrong. Users install ad blockers to prevent annoying stupid things from monopolizing their time and space. Telling a person "if you install this they'll stop tracking you in some abstract way" is way less effective than "install this and you wont have to wait to watch youtube videos."
- tcd 9y agoI don't think so - I think blocking goes for both annoying and dangerous ads, _and_ blocking trackers like facebook/google's invisible pixels. At least I run ublock origin, adguard, scriptsafe and privacy badger for maximum protection.
- danso 9y agoHow many users do you think are like you? Especially in the number of plugins?
- Sir_Substance 9y agoHere's #2 running a pretty similar cocktail (ublock origin, umatrix, privacy badger, httpseverywhere, cookie autodelete and decentraleyes). There's dozens of us! Dozens! But more seriously, there's actually lots of us. You don't hear about us because we don't narcissistically post about it on facebook. We just block shitty software and move on with our lives. I have no stats for you though, because stats are usually collected through third party trackers, and I block them all, so I'm never represented on anyones metrics. Based on some rough stats like these[1] and my own experience, I'd guess something like 1-3% of the population in western countries. [1] https://www.quantable.com/analytics/how-many-users-block-google-analytics/ https://www.quantable.com/analytics/how-many-users-block-goo...
- freehunter 9y agoBut the statement wasn't "many people block tracking", it's "the majority of people using ad blockers are doing it for tracking and not for ads". That's a far different statement that is far harder to back up.
- Sir_Substance 9y agoSo, of that list I just posted: ad blockers: ublock origin ad and tracking blockers: umatrix privacy badger tracking blockers: cookie autodelete decentraleyes other: httpseverywhere I'm mostly blocking trackers.
- p1necone 9y agoGood job repeatedly misunderstanding what the other commenter was saying.
- enedil 9y agoYes, I do it too - I have ublock orogin, privacy badger and httpseverywhere. I do it because the web is faster without ads and trackers. Just look at devtools and see how much time is saved by blocking requests.
- corobo 9y ago> install this and you wont have to wait to watch youtube videos Exactly the reason I installed an ad blocker. If YouTube had released their Red subscription in the UK I might never have installed the blocker (actually probably would have eventually, but later than I did)
- weego 9y agoI don't believe the majority of people do not understand what 'tracking' entails even after the major outlets have talked about it. Most people do hate intrusive ads though so I do find that very hard to believe
- michaelbuckbee 9y agoI did some research on this last year. ABP still has the largest install base and about 50% of users click the 'block trackers' option when installing. uBlock origin is 2nd and rising in popularity and it blocks trackers by default. Both they (and others) depend upon the EasyList collection of urls/regexes, etc. to block out sites and includes https://easylist.to/tag/tracking-protection-lists.html https://easylist.to/tag/tracking-protection-lists.html
- feedmeseymour 9y agoEvery person I know that uses an ad blocker (5, including myself) does it to prevent tracking. In fact, I want to white list certain websites (a dozen or so) to continue seeing ads, but I don’t want to because I know that they are likely using Google for their ads and I don’t want Google’s little grabbling hands tracking me.
- freehunter 9y agoSo 5 people out of how many million? Just Adblock Plus on Chrome has over 10,000,000 installs, and "most" of 10,000,000 is a big number. Even bigger when you say "not using it for ad blocking"
- gambiting 9y agoI work in IT and I don't know anyone(myself included) who uses ad blockers to block tracking. It's just about the annoying ads for me.
- verylittlemeat 9y agoThe #1 reason I use adblock is to block youtube ads.
- hrktb 9y agoNot evidence, but a portion of the users install blocking software to speed up browsing, and and tracking blocking will often be the first target (it can be under “block third party script”, same effect) An example of this mindset: http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-speed-up-browsing-by-using-an-ad-blocker-in-ios-9/ http://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-speed-up-browsing-by-usi...
- ajeet_dhaliwal 9y agoAgreed, I doubt this and if they have evidence, should link to a source/study.
- raquo 9y agoPersonally, I use adblocker for both purposes, but if not for tracking, I would be disabling it on many more websites to support them.
- fencepost 9y agoPersonally I do it for both, but I also run pretty locked down on my daily driver Firefox (less so on Chrome, which I use for sites that Just Won't Run without a bunch of dependencies that I don't want to individually whitelist). For users I deal with, I do it as a preventive measure - I worry about phishing/spearphishing and other email vectored attacks, compromised websites, and the risk of a compromised ad network where even if something malicious is killed in minutes it could still reach tens of thousands of people. And I still get AV alerts at least a couple times a month where the AV has blocked access to something that's recognizably part of a remote access scam.
- return0 9y agoI d wager adblocker usage correlates with youtube ad frequency.
- ggregoire 9y agoI'd completely reverse the phrase: "majority of people who install an ad blocker do it to block ads. Blocking trackers is just an added bonus".
- floatingatoll 9y agoOne of our mobile apps, Firefox Focus, pointedly targets users who want to block tracking but don’t care about advertising otherwise. I’ve personally heard a pair of unprompted non-tech people in a non-tech city discussing it over beer after work. I submit the existence of our app and my personal experience as sufficient to meet the terms of your question. “is there any evidence at all”: yes!
- notatoad 9y agoyour anecdote - not evidence - supports a claim that some people care about blocking trackers more than blocking ads. Which is a lot less contentious a claim than "a majority of people who install an ad blocker don't actually do it to block ads"
- floatingatoll 9y agoIndeed. If you’re truly in need of proof of the original claim, search advertising industry news for their various survey results of real people. The ad industry is pretty convinced that people are generally anti-trackers and not as much anti-ads. (They could be wrong, as could their surveys — but if you trust nothing, then no point can be proven.)
- donohoe 9y agoYes. I’ve seen private studies on this. However it’s not the primary use-case BUT it’s still a significant enough reason.
- donohoe 9y agoI should note another (statistically) significant but smaller reason is to reduce bandwidth.
- arkh 9y agoNot a majority. But I know GA is staying in the "not trusted" list of Noscript.