
Websites blocking out adblock-users by detecting with a script may be illegal - david90
http://www.thedrum.com/news/2016/04/18/publishers-snooping-ad-blockers-are-breaking-law-claims-privacy-consultant
======
wccrawford
"He went on to explain that the Guardian’s social media management software
provided by Tribal Fusion enables tracking and data mining of users “without
the consent of the user to allow that tracking of data” in order to feed back
to advertisers."

Don't you have to agree to the website's terms to use that website in the
first place? If you're already breaking those terms by blocking their ads (and
thus their revenue), do you really have a legal leg to stand on here?

Isn't saying "whether or not you use an ad-blocker" is private information
like saying you should be able to stand on a street corner in a bright pink
shirt and people shouldn't look at you because it's your business what color
shirt you wear?

I can't see this as anything but a ridiculous attempt to use a legal loophole.

If you want to see their content, enable their ads. If you really don't want
to see their ads, don't use their site. It's not really that hard. You aren't
entitled to their content.

~~~
krapp
> You aren't entitled to their content.

I am entitled to whatever their server sends my browser when I make a request.
I am also entitled to alter that content in the browser in any way I see fit,
including blocking their advertising. They may _want_ to be compensated for
their content and server costs through advertising, but unfortunately for them
the web has been designed in such a way as to allow the rest of the world not
to care about what they want.

The advertising model on the web is just fundamentally flawed and doomed to
failure. It's essentially an honor system, but as long as people _can_ block
ads and still get content, they will. Trying to detect that is an
understandable reaction on the part of businesses, but the ad blockers will
only be redesigned to compensate, and people would probably much rather go
elsewhere than even be slightly annoyed by advertising.

Companies need to accept that the ability to block ads is an intrinsic part of
the web, just as the ability to turn the channel is an intrinsic part of a
television. They just can't _make_ us look at their ads if we don't want to.

------
swillis16
Seems like a lot of work to stop users who will probably simply not view the
site anyways. It would be interesting to know if having these anti-adblocker
techniques makes people turn off their adblockers to use the site.

~~~
curryst
It would be interesting, it could probably be done with browser
fingerprinting. I would wager that some of the larger companies have done
this.

Personally, it's a question of what the content is. If it's a summary of
objective facts, I'm not disabling my blocker. I can probably find the same
facts elsewhere that doesn't require me to disable my blocker. If it's an
intriguing analysis by someone respected, it's higher value content to me and
I likely won't be able to find the same content elsewhere unless it's been
stolen.

------
deepnet
I cannot read with animation & distracting colours next to text - so, for me,
adverts are equivalent to blocking a site.

Non distracting ads are fine, reddit ads for instance.

Bad ads are not acceptable.

Executives who punish fans seem shortsighted.

------
eip
[http://i.imgur.com/sNQNJNd.png](http://i.imgur.com/sNQNJNd.png)

------
sintaxi
Sniffing for ad-blockers fits the description of malware.

