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How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

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Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#121

Post by omnimus »

dm33tri wrote: post #101
tsimionescu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quitting Facebook itself would help with what you are saying, but I am curious what you replaced WhatsApp/Messenger with. For example, I have good friends in other countries, and sending pictures and short texts is one of the best ways to stay in contact. We do talk over the phone occasionally, but not having a simple way to send pictures or links would pull us much further apart. Sure, email could be an option, but…

Telegram might be convenient, it's a middle ground between bloated Facebook things and "geeky" apps like Signal (I don't dislike it, but it's just unpopular).

I guess it depends where you are. In central europe many people have Signal and its growing (i have 40 signal contacts).

Also i dont agree at all that its more geeky. If you don't think about technical backround Signal is ux wise simpler app.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#122

Post by commoner »

StreamBright wrote: post #117
1propionyl wrote: post #53

I'm surprised I haven't seen a single comment say what ought to be the obvious: the easiest way to never see Facebook ads is to just not use Facebook. I should hope I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but... quitting really isn't as hard as you tell yourself it is. It's not as essential as you think it is.

And what do you do with the 100.000.000 websites using Facebook logins, SDK, like button etc.? I think you need to go a bit further than just not using it. You need to block the entire IP range and DNS to completely block them.

There are filter lists for ad blockers that can block Facebook's third-party web requests.

Fanboy's Annoyance List and Anti-Facebook List: https://www.fanboy.co.nz/

Fanboy's Annoyance List (source): https://easylist-downloads.adblockplus.org/fanboy-annoyance....

Fanboy's Anti-Facebook List (source): https://fanboy.co.nz/fanboy-antifacebook.txt

AdGuard Social Media filter (source): https://filters.adtidy.org/extension/chromium/filters/4.txt

All of these work with uBlock Origin.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#123

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

Nextgrid wrote: post #105
atemerev wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being on Facebook is opt-in. I do use FB Messenger for talking to relatives, but that's about all.

It’s not opt-in when the cancer has contaminated a significant chunk of the web with like buttons and other stalking scripts and when the majority of the world is using it as its preferred communication platform, meaning opting out is inconvenient.

It's not opt-in because opting out is inconvenient?

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#124

Post by 2sk21 »

blunderkid wrote: post #77
1propionyl wrote: post #53

I'm surprised I haven't seen a single comment say what ought to be the obvious: the easiest way to never see Facebook ads is to just not use Facebook. I should hope I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but... quitting really isn't as hard as you tell yourself it is. It's not as essential as you think it is.

Exactly. The real reason why FB is evil is not because it makes a ton of money from data that you willingly provide it, its simply because of what it is - a platform that takes advantage of a human weakness - vanity, to keep you "engaged". It is an addiction that Zuck sells, pretty sure he knows it. The privacy bit is only a red herring and what should be the least of user's concerns. Just stop "using".

I think you have summarized my thoughts exactly on this. In their quest for increasing "engagement", they have unleashed a monster.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#125

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

babuskov wrote: post #65

I actually don't mind Facebook ads. If I'm on Facebook already, there's no additional javascript loading and hogging my browser with dozens of megabytes of tracking scripts. From performance point of view, browsing FB is a better experience than your average web site these days.

To be fair the ads tend to be better than the mountain of shit that my elderly relatives share on there. Then again I very, very rarely visit the site in the first place.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#126

Post by kelnos »

a13n wrote: post #52
notafraudster wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"do everything they can to monetize" Except, evidently, allow users to pay money to not be subjected to ads.

Wouldn't work. Users who are willing to pay to make ads go away are the most valuable audience for advertisers because they have money to spend. Therefore FB would have to charge a TON of money to make up for their billions in lost ads revenue, and nobody would pay that amount anyway.

That doesn't really make sense to me. I'm willing and able to pay for an ad-free experience. I will never ever click on an ad. Ever. I adblock like crazy. I don't see how I'm at all valuable to advertisers. And I suspect I'm nowhere near alone when it comes to people who would pay for no ads.

A quick search claims FB's annualized average ad revenue per user for 2018 was just under $25[0]. If I got value out of FB (I used to be a regular user, but now I just have the account for event invitations and otherwise never check it), I would absolutely pay $25/year to be able to use it without ads.

I suspect FB is near the top end for how much ad revenue they're able to extract from people; I imagine most sites are sub-$1 (certainly sub-$5), and could price subscriptions accordingly.

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/234056/facebooks-average...

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#127

Post by tomd3v »

jedberg wrote: post #78

What really makes me sad is that some presumably quite talented engineer spent time thinking this up and coding it.

Can you explain what is wrong with engineers working on problems like these?

As I see this, it allows businesses to connect with more people, therefore being more profitable, therefore making economy grow in general.

I just don't understand this hate towards developers who work for companies like FB and Google and whose job is focusing on increasing ad engagement. In my opinion, they definitely provide a hugely positive effect on economy (unless you think capitalism / consumerism is evil / wrong or whatever, which is another topic).

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#129

Post by randiantech »

1propionyl wrote: post #53

I'm surprised I haven't seen a single comment say what ought to be the obvious: the easiest way to never see Facebook ads is to just not use Facebook. I should hope I'm preaching to the choir, I'm sure, but... quitting really isn't as hard as you tell yourself it is. It's not as essential as you think it is.

Although I share hour feelings, is not that easy either. I have family all over the world, and facebook is the best way to get communicated with them.

Re: How Facebook Avoids Ad Blockers

#130

Post by _Understated_ »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #120
a13n wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't work. Users who are willing to pay to make ads go away are the most valuable audience for advertisers because they have money to spend. Therefore FB would have to charge a TON of money to make up for their billions in lost ads revenue, and nobody would pay that amount anyway.

Seems to have worked out fine for YouTube (Premium subscriber here).

Perhaps but I'd put money on them still data-mining the shit out of you...

So you're paying to remove ads but tracking and monetisation is still happening.

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