
Ask HN: Will ad blockers kill your startup? - markyc
Does your product use js tracking?<p>Many products using js includes are currently being blocked by ghostery, privacy badger, etc (such as mixpanel, optimizely, qualaroo, store mapper, etc)<p>With trackers just growing in popularity, what is your long term plan to stay relevant in this space?
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dieulot
I just posted an article detailing how to circumvent iOS 9 content blockers
here: [http://dieulot.net/bypass-ios-content-
blockers](http://dieulot.net/bypass-ios-content-blockers)

(It’s on “new”, if anyone is feeling like upvoting it.)

~~~
Nadya
_> Of course, the subdomain can’t be the same for every domain, otherwise
content blockers will be able to block them as easily as today, with just one
rule. It needs to be a random string of character for each site. Something
like
[http://qngosjscn.mysite.com/analytics.js](http://qngosjscn.mysite.com/analytics.js).
_

Once a pattern is used a Regex would defeat the subdomain idea easily. That or
they could whitelist known subdomains that are "useful" and blacklist anything
else. Random 8 characters won't help you against a better-written version of
^([http://)\w{8}\](http://\)\\w{8}\\).

Making it look "legitimate" doesn't help. The moment people see the contents
of your analytics.js (regardless if you called it "easter_egg_kittens.js" or
not) they'd simply block that javascript. People aren't reading the name of
the .js, they're reading _all the js you serve_ and adding any analytics to a
blocklist. It's human-curated, not machine-made. If your code can be read by
humans it can be blocked by humans.

You need to include the javascript with other important functionality - and at
that point, if people _really_ wanted to circumvent it, they would use
Greasemonkey to load javascript they _do_ need and block your version of the
file to avoid the analytics/ads.

E:

I could blacklist *.js from the example.com and whitelist only the necessary
.js for the site to function. None of your randomizing URL's or bullshit would
work.

It's a losing battle. If someone wants to block your ads - they will. The
power dynamic is in their favor.

~~~
cm2012
You just have to make it hard enough for the majority of people to not bother
with adblockers. If you can force even a single step beyond getting an
extension, most people won't do it.

~~~
Nadya
The casual user wouldn't have to configure anything, the add-on would take
care of it all by syncing to a curated blocklist which is doing all the heavy
lifting. This is how it already works.

