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German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

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Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#91

Post by dotBen »

chii wrote: post #45
kefka wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a big difference between: 1. Here is a lawful search warrant signed affidavit and approved by a judge _or_ 2. Here you go, the data on kefka. Thanks for asking.

> 2. Here you go, the data on kefka. Thanks for asking. is this really happening? can you give some evidence that google is willy nilly giving private data away like that?

Actually, the Snowden files show that is happening for non-US Citizens/US-persons.

The NSA only has the legal obligation to obtain warrents for US Citizens not for anyone else. The NSA is unlikely to get involved in civil legal disputes but yes, it can go in and ask for Kafka's data from Google if he is living in, say, Germany.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#92

Post by fauigerzigerk »

adrianmn wrote: post #43

As someone that has been involved in online publishing for over 10 years I have a strong opinion about ad blockers. In my opinion using ad blockers is borderline piracy. Refusing the content creator his revenue by blocking his ads is little different than downloading music, books... without rewarding the creator. On top of that most of the quality content this days is on websites that have decent ads. I am not trying…

I also want the ad funding model to be viable. I'm happy to consider ads on my screen as a form of payment and I would not block them out of convenience alone.

But if the advertising industry starts to act like one huge criminal enterprise without any limits to the kind of deceptive practices they use I'm forced to defend myself.

I see no reason to be fair to those who deceive me whenever they can.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#93

Post by username223 »

adrianmn wrote: post #52
mschuster91 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that without adblockers the web is basically useless due to too many publishers becoming too greedy and torturing their users with sometimes dozens of layer,banner,popup,popunder and scareware ads on one(!) page.

Do you see how that is in perfect connection with the reason people pirate stuff? Anti-piracy main reasoning is that if it's too expensive(too many ads in your case) just don't buy it. The 2nd main reason is lack of availability(in ad blocker case - lack of sites with less ads that give you same content).

So, just serve your "content" from a well-known ad server. That way, adblock will block it, and you get what you want.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#95

Post by iancarroll »

eik3_de wrote: post #15

This is so embarrassing and disgusting. For reference, here's a list of United Internet properties to avoid: 1&1 (aka 1and1.com) GMX WEB.DE InterNetX united-domains Sedo mail.com Fasthosts affilinet Arsys

Has anyone had bad experiences with sedo? I haven't.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#96

Post by kefka »

ahassan wrote: post #60
chii wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2. Here you go, the data on kefka. Thanks for asking. is this really happening? can you give some evidence that google is willy nilly giving private data away like that?

No, he's saying that Google is doing the first point, not this one.

Actually, I was referencing the AT&T "go ahead, it's AT&T's data and we can do whatever we want with it". That was so bad that Congress passed an ex post facto law relieving them of any criminal or civil wrongdoing.

The problem here is that Google's data on us belongs to Google. They can do anything they want to that data: take a crap on it, process it for better ad targeting, analyze social media trends and figure out who we associate with, and/or give it to people like the FBI/CIA/NSA.

Or, Google was hacked. That's also well within the realm of possibility as well. But I think governmental "persuasion techniques" like http://xkcd.com/538/ work much better.

Just look at the stories of Qwest former CEO. He said no.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#97

Post by recursive »

mschuster91 wrote: post #47
adrianmn wrote: post #43

As someone that has been involved in online publishing for over 10 years I have a strong opinion about ad blockers. In my opinion using ad blockers is borderline piracy. Refusing the content creator his revenue by blocking his ads is little different than downloading music, books... without rewarding the creator. On top of that most of the quality content this days is on websites that have decent ads. I am not trying…

The problem is that without adblockers the web is basically useless due to too many publishers becoming too greedy and torturing their users with sometimes dozens of layer,banner,popup,popunder and scareware ads on one(!) page.

I don't use ad blockers, and I disagree with your claim that the web is useless.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#98

Post by fizz_and_buzz »

userbinator wrote: post #25

What I don't get is why something like AdBlock should even be detectable... Incidentally, I remember reading before that Germany had the largest percentage of users using AdBlock, so it makes sense that the pushback is starting here.

They add a little javascript function that they call advertisment.js or something similar which just adds a div to the page (e.g.: document.write(''); ). They then check if the div exists when the document is ready and notify the server. Adblock has a filter feature where you can enable specific javascript functions on a site, which allows you to circumvent this trick.

Re: German freemail sites trick Firefox and Chrome users into removing AdBlock

#100

Post by mason240 »

mschuster91 wrote: post #47
adrianmn wrote: post #43

As someone that has been involved in online publishing for over 10 years I have a strong opinion about ad blockers. In my opinion using ad blockers is borderline piracy. Refusing the content creator his revenue by blocking his ads is little different than downloading music, books... without rewarding the creator. On top of that most of the quality content this days is on websites that have decent ads. I am not trying…

The problem is that without adblockers the web is basically useless due to too many publishers becoming too greedy and torturing their users with sometimes dozens of layer,banner,popup,popunder and scareware ads on one(!) page.

I don't use adblockers and have never had any problems.
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