uBlock Origin is giving up the fight to keep ads off Facebook • Hacker News Board

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

#481

Post by Terr_ » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:08 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #408

Terr_ wrote: post #395

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is the creepy big-data-advert-ocracy might propagate that scarlet-letter in ways that are unfair an unpredictable. So a throwaway account for reading Reddit (even as it decays) might lead to an totally unrelated account you do care about getting unfairly suspended, or the MonopolyCloudFlareBot "helping" your bank starts rejecting your IP/browser-fingerprint, etc. This would worry me less if we had laws th…

Go to your bank branch and say I can't access my bank account.

We should be careful to distinguish between "everything goes back to normal" versus "they you move your money to some other bank."

Anywho, you're right that the final example is more-likely to be resolved, thanks to a formal customer relationship backed up by decades of law plus physical locations... but what about Reddit, Facebook, Amazon, Google, etc. where they sometimes don't even have any remotely responsive support system or nearby physical branch?

Basically I'm saying we have some Kafkaesque stuff out there, it isn't sensible or fair, and if someone wants to tweak the nose of the beast they should at least consider the range of what could go wrong.

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

#482

Post by ProAm » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:10 AM UTC

inigyou wrote: post #405

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…

Facebook is the ad network for Facebook. Will not fetching ads from Facebook really stop Facebook from knowing your age and location?

You have a small understanding as to how ads work and what they know.

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

#483

Post by ProAm » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:12 AM UTC

aanet wrote: post #218

Controversial opinion: This entire thread reads like a game of cat-and-mouse. People trying to block intrusive ads, and FB reaching into the depths of code and making it nearly impossible for anyone to do so en masse. I've been there. Tried to uncheck all the boxes on their ad platform; used all manners of ad blockers, etc; used incognito mode; used Tor; etc. etc. etc. At some point, you realize that the only way to…

> Delete your account, get off that blasted site,

This doesnt stop it. That what a lot of people dont understand. If you never had a FB, Insta, Whatsapp, etc... account, you STILL have a FB ad profile. It's worse than what people think.

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

#484

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:18 AM UTC

titzer wrote: post #295

jimrandomh wrote: post #282

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. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

I think my brain developed that as a defense mechanism. The web cultivated a certain kind of blindness where I literally don't look at certain parts of pages because my brain has learned that there is never anything useful there. Sometimes I just cannot see things unless I force my eyes to move across the page linearly, top to bottom. This is pathological. Like I find myself not ever looking at the top result in a se…

These days ads are woven in to content itself. It's most obvious on youtube where youtubers are paid to talk about products and disguise it as reviews or informative. Or other content creators happening to show something mixed in with the normal content.

Soon they will be woven in to LLMs where they suggest the things they are paid to suggest.

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

#485

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:20 AM UTC

TeMPOraL wrote: post #315

titzer wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think my brain developed that as a defense mechanism. The web cultivated a certain kind of blindness where I literally don't look at certain parts of pages because my brain has learned that there is never anything useful there. Sometimes I just cannot see things unless I force my eyes to move across the page linearly, top to bottom. This is pathological. Like I find myself not ever looking at the top result in a se…

> Something is seriously broken with computers and we can't seem to face it. It's not computers that are the problem, it's people. We've normalized (and even embraced) the situation where relationship between businesses and customers is adversarial. The phenomenon you're describing, known as "banner blindness", is just brain filtering out noise, but the thing is, that noise didn't get there by accident. What I can't…

The relationship was always adversarial for all history. Bakers used to mix sawdust with flour to profit more. The only counter has been regulation and oversight.

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

#486

Post by lovich » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:22 AM UTC

jimrandomh wrote: post #282

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. I am significantly less tolerant of ads than average people seem to be. (I think average people are making a horrible mistake about this, and are badly cognitively damaged by ads in ways they don't realize). If my choices are to look at ad…

> 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.

I think fandom wikis appear to have surpassed even this level of bad which I thought was the floor.

I’ll look up a character or lore and fandom has managed to SEO their way to the top of search. I’ll click on the link because I haven’t trained myself to avoid them immediately yet. I’ll then have a site load that immediately makes my pc fans take off like a vtol engine or make my phone start overheating to the point that it dims like the luminosity to protect itself as it reloads ads over and over and even reloads the page.

If I am willing to abuse myself enough to stay on the page to scroll down it then waits until I go to click on a link to immediately load an ad where I clicked and treat it like a real ad click.

At this point with the modern internet I do not know why any marketing department trusts the metrics they are getting from websites for click thrus. Every ad I’ve clicked on in the past year has been a trick on me and not a real click thru and has made me hate the company paying for the ad.

It feels like it’s nearing 100% fraud.

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

#487

Post by tredre3 » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:25 AM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #482

inigyou wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Facebook is the ad network for Facebook. Will not fetching ads from Facebook really stop Facebook from knowing your age and location?

You have a small understanding as to how ads work and what they know.

Blocking ads is intended to prevent the ad network from tracking you. But:

1. Facebook already knows everything you see and do on facebook

2. Facebook is the ad network and serves its own ads.

Therefore blocking ads on facebook won't prevent facebook from knowing everything you do.

GP seems to have a fair understanding of the situation, care to explain why you think it's wrong?

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

#488

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:25 AM UTC

joshuat wrote: post #438

ajkjk wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm hoping we can mostly ban ads in my lifetime (on the basis that companies should not be allowed to freely try to manipulate unconsenting strangers. and that it makes the world suck to live in and we don't have to put up with that). Nothing would make me happier honestly.

This would also mean a lot of currently "free" services becoming paid in some other fashion, which I think people would be equally up-in-arms about. I'm no fan of ads and I am willing to pay for services I use to avoid seeing them - but I've learned over recent years that most people simply do not agree with that premise.

I'm fine with that. The revenue per user per month from ads is so small that the fee to use services wouldn't have to be that large.

And overall society would get cheaper and more efficient since all that budget allocated to advertising would vanish with no consequences. Advertising is mostly a zero sum game where you have to advertise to get ahead of the other businesses advertisements. If companies stopped getting in to bidding wars for the top place on google, all of that money could be freed up for something useful.

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

#489

Post by aanet » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

ProAm wrote: post #483

aanet wrote: post #218

Controversial opinion: This entire thread reads like a game of cat-and-mouse. People trying to block intrusive ads, and FB reaching into the depths of code and making it nearly impossible for anyone to do so en masse. I've been there. Tried to uncheck all the boxes on their ad platform; used all manners of ad blockers, etc; used incognito mode; used Tor; etc. etc. etc. At some point, you realize that the only way to…

> Delete your account, get off that blasted site, This doesnt stop it. That what a lot of people dont understand. If you never had a FB, Insta, Whatsapp, etc... account, you STILL have a FB ad profile. It's worse than what people think.

Yes, I am very aware of FB shadow profiles and such. And believe me, it troubles me more than I can say. [This was known in 2015-2017 timeframe, afaik.] That, and the fact that one can't do much about that.

What one can control is not paying attention to the damned site. [Many more added to that list, btw]

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

#490

Post by Gigachad » Thu, Aug 13, 2026, 4:26 AM UTC

deepsun wrote: post #349

aanet wrote: post #218

Controversial opinion: This entire thread reads like a game of cat-and-mouse. People trying to block intrusive ads, and FB reaching into the depths of code and making it nearly impossible for anyone to do so en masse. I've been there. Tried to uncheck all the boxes on their ad platform; used all manners of ad blockers, etc; used incognito mode; used Tor; etc. etc. etc. At some point, you realize that the only way to…

I've migrated my fam by just refusing to use it at some point "sorry folks no facebook apps on my phone". It was kinda hard when I needed something from them, but once they needed something from me they had to install my preferred communications channel.

Your family members don't have a phone number you can call?