# ad-blocking

### reading response:

“Nothing is so creepy as ads for a product you looked into earlier following you from site to site, then from app to app, as you are tracked and re-targeted by a desperate vendor’s algorithm.” –Cory Doctorow, July 2019. I feel like this is the very universal feeling when it comes to ads. However, many people install ad blockers to prevent this. But what is the point of installing an Ad Blocker if there are initiatives like an “acceptable ad program?”.

The Acceptable Ad Program is a set of standards for non-intrusive and respectful advertising that allows some users of ad-blocking software to still see certain ads while blocking disruptive ones. The advertisers that receive more than 10 million additional ad impressions per month due to this program pay a licensing fee of 30% of the additional revenue created by the whitelisting promotions. This is a problem because softwares like Ad Block Plus do inform users that certain ads will not be blocked but it is very easy to miss.

Fortunately, in 2020, someone finally had enough. On January 14, 2020 Senator Ron Wyden wrote to the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) urging an investigation into, ““unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive practices in the ad blocking software industry.” (Lekander, 2020). From the term, “Acceptable Ads” you probably think it can’t do that much harm right? Wrong. The article states that, “The Acceptable Ads requirements only specify certain visible characteristics of ads that are acceptable. They do not prevent program participants from placing trackers on a user’s device.” (Lekander, 2020). This means that even if you have an ad-blocker on, you are still at risk of being tracked. Still, there are ways you can protect yourself from this by choosing an ad blocker that doesn’t participate in this program and learning how to opt out of seeing the acceptable ads.