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uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

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Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#721

Post by ohyoutravel »

nerdsniper wrote: post #402
Sophira wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Eventually, this arms race ends with a computer vision model that looks at the screen, classifies visual elements as ads, and draws a rectangle over anything that looks like an ad. That isn't enough for me. I don't just want to not see the ads, I want to stop them being fetched entirely. There are two big problems with ads. * The ad network can build up a very complete profile of what you like, dislike, and general…

> less common to have an ad that will auto-download malware without you clicking it Less common but we just saw a week ago that malware-via-ads is definitely still happening today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49170001 This one replaced users clipboard contents with a particular bitcoin wallet address. So a few people who happened to be on their way to send some crypto pasted the malicious wallet address inst…

Wow that’s super smart. Obviously I don’t have any sympathy for crypto bros losing money, but it’s easy to see how something like this could be applied to typing account numbers into something else. More safeguards on the latter, but essentially the crypto one is a proof of concept of something that could affect real people.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#722

Post by godwinson__4-8 »

okamiueru wrote: post #694
mrngld wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, steal from everyone (taxation) whether they want to support or use government-run Facebook, give the money to government-run Facebook, and everything will be great because Government? What incentive does that mechanism have to spur innovation for government-run Facebook? Does the government fund two Facebooks and scale funding based on market share? Or, like what virtually always happens in government, does it me…

Not sure to what extend, if at all, I should engage here, as you do have some strong preconceptions that probably makes it less likely productive. > Steal from everyone (taxation) [...] give the money to government-run Facebook, and everything will be great because Government Not touching this. As an exercise, take it upon yourself to figure out how much it cost per meter (or, I assume more familiar to you -- footbal…

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Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#724

Post by okamiueru »

godwinson__4-8 wrote: post #722
okamiueru wrote: post #694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure to what extend, if at all, I should engage here, as you do have some strong preconceptions that probably makes it less likely productive. > Steal from everyone (taxation) [...] give the money to government-run Facebook, and everything will be great because Government Not touching this. As an exercise, take it upon yourself to figure out how much it cost per meter (or, I assume more familiar to you -- footbal…

[flagged]

Cool. Aside from all that. Roads are neat, right?

PS: It is pretty darn cozy in the cradle.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#725

Post by spaqin »

mrngld wrote: post #689
okamiueru wrote: post #665

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah. We should normalize public services and resources to develop knowledge and tools, that are made freely available. Provide incentive programs and reward those that take on such initiatives. There are many such services where I'm from. And the feeling when using them is refreshing. You're not looking for an ulterior motive to be misinformed. They're responsive as they don't load a 10 MiB JavaScript blob to track y…

So, steal from everyone (taxation) whether they want to support or use government-run Facebook, give the money to government-run Facebook, and everything will be great because Government? What incentive does that mechanism have to spur innovation for government-run Facebook? Does the government fund two Facebooks and scale funding based on market share? Or, like what virtually always happens in government, does it me…

I'll grab onto the very first thing you've said as it seems to be a basis for the rest - taxation isn't fun, but low taxes don't guarantee anything. Look at Hong Kong - one of the lowest tax rates in the world, but it doesn't really mean the citizens have more free income. The government still needs money to function, and the main source is land sales instead. The landlords have taken over instead and insane rent for smallest places is now the actual tax. And then it's reflected further in the price of the food or products, where rent is the biggest business expense.

The money just goes into private hands instead. Is that really the better option here? Innovation isn't necessary if you have a de facto monopoly - and frankly, Facebook is a good example; nothing it has done in 10 years was actually an improvement to the service or humanity.

It would be alright to socialize the good parts and get rid of the bad ones.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#726

Post by Gormo »

alex1138 wrote: post #476
gfrecvh wrote: post #348

If you're on Facebook, you deserve the ads

Yeah because how dare people actually connect with family and friends and "just get phone numbers/emails" or "just build their own" Stop. Blaming. Users.

Moral arguments about "blaming users" do not overcome the fact that the incentive structures driving these problems absolutely do emerge from the choices and behaviors of low-information users.

Viable solutions can only come from informing and persuading users to use alternative options, which relies in part on demonstrating the actual risks and consequences of the choices they've previously made (i.e. "blaming users") and simultaneously developing an ecosystem of alternative options that's sufficiently accessible to them (which already proliferate).

Lots of "normal" users have already migrated away from Twitter to e.g. Mastodon, so it's not clear why this isn't reasonable for Facebook.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#727

Post by c7b »

snickerer wrote: post #549

Ads are an attack, aimed at your brain. They try to inject malware into your thinking, manipulating your worldview and your actions. That's horrible, worse than attacking a machine with malware, damaging persons and societies. Decades of ad propaganda have tricked people into seeing them as something 'normal'. But we shouldn't accept being under constant attack of brain worms. I propose a sane rule for all humans: if…

There is some utility to ads. Knowing that my favorite shop has a promotion, that a movie, game or book I've been waiting for is out, or something other that might interest me has some usefulness. The problem isn't the ad per se, it's optimization through A/B-tests and the like, mass psychological experiments with all the rigor of scientific studies and none of the academic ethical safeguards for human subject experimentation.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#728

Post by BiteCode_dev »

snickerer wrote: post #549

Ads are an attack, aimed at your brain. They try to inject malware into your thinking, manipulating your worldview and your actions. That's horrible, worse than attacking a machine with malware, damaging persons and societies. Decades of ad propaganda have tricked people into seeing them as something 'normal'. But we shouldn't accept being under constant attack of brain worms. I propose a sane rule for all humans: if…

It's way worse than that, it's an attack to the entire society.

The vast majority of ads lie; therefore, they are actively harmful. They create a situation where being surrounded by false things is normal. They promote the improvement of tools to make deception and tracking better and better.

On top of that, they install evil incentives for the medias, the news, and business models, influencing consumption, public options and opinions.

Finally, they concentrate power in those who already have enough money to pay for ads. You may have the better product, but a big player with better PR will win.

Ads are one of our most destructive creations. It's much, much more dangerous than it looks.

Re: uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook

#729

Post by weavie »

wkjagt wrote: post #164

I know this is probably a very naive question, but what is the end goal putting so much effort into getting past ad blockers? Surely, someone with an ad blocker installed is not going to click on their ads and buy the advertised products anyway. I don't really know what I am talking about, but I guess it's all about ad impressions that generate money, but doesn't this strategy end up making less money, because the mo…

I have ad blockers everywhere apart from the instagram app. I have bought a ton of stuff off the ads on there. I'm not proud, but have to admit I am powerless against them. Underwear, t-shirts, soap, online courses I have never used, I am a sucker, which is why I need these ad blockers.
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