# Online Ads and Ad Blockers
## Installing an Ad Blocker
Online targeted ads have become increasingly popular in recent decades and have become more and more personalized to each individual. But at the same time, people have begun to recognize the increasing amount of online targeted ads and have resorted to ad blockers to filter out these unwanted ads. Today, there is a large variety of ad blockers such as UBlock Origin, Adguard, and Poperblocker.

Before I downloaded the ad blocker UBlock Origin, I went onto some of my favorite or most visited websites and screenshotted what the sites looked like before I installed the ad blocker and what they looked like after the installation.

### Allrecipes Before Ad Blocker

### Allrecipes After Ad Blocker
As displayed in the before and after photos, the main Best Buy banner app was successfully blocked by the ad blocker Ublock Origin, but the trending videos pop-up ad within the Allrecipes site was not blocked.

### EasyBib Before Ad Blocker

### EasyBib After Ad Blocker
The ad blocker was incredibly effective in blocking ads on Easybib as the banner ads and ads on the side of the page are completely eliminated, including Easybib's own ad video.

### Youtube Before Ad Blocker

### Youtube After Ad Blocker
The ad blocker was able to block all the ads on the right side of the video, as well as the ad embedded within the youtube video.

## Reading Connections
As demonstrated from the before and after photos, ad blockers are incredibly effective in stopping any form of advertisement from showing up on the website you are visiting. After installing the ad blocker and visiting multiple different websites, I have realized how much ads clutter and disrupt your online experience. Not only do they distract you from the website's content, but they often get in the way when scrolling through the site. As ads become increasingly specific to my interest I begin to question the level of privacy that I have on the internet. According to the article [“Targeted Advertising Considered Harmful”](https://zgp.org/targeted-advertising-considered-harmful/) I am not the only one who has become increasingly skeptical of targeted ads as most people in the US are not supportive of the use of targeted ads. According to a survey cited in the article, 66 percent of Americans said that they “‘do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests.” This phenomenon is defined as “the ad blocking paradox” as the more specifically targeted ads are, the more viewers are inclined to install an ad blocker. In effect, web ads have become less valuable and effective than older ad mediums such as print.

Although ad blockers have become increasingly popular because of the abundance of targeted ads on the internet, some ad-blocking companies are not as effective as they are supposed to be. As Sven Taylor explains in his article [“Advertisers Are Paying Off Ad Blockers to Show 200 Million Users ‘Acceptable Ads,’”](https://restoreprivacy.com/report-ad-blockers-allowing-acceptable-ads/) many ad-blocking companies are being paid to let ads through for brands such as Linkedin and Amazon. Ad blocking companies have “Acceptable Ad programs” that allow advertisers to enroll to let their ads through even when the ad blocker is installed. The article explains how this is a problem as every ad blocker displays Acceptable Ads by default without the user knowing.

As discussed previously in class and mentioned in the article “Targeted Advertising Considered Harmful,” information asymmetry is all around us on the internet. The article explains how asymmetric information has the potential to ruin any market as advertisers can trick viewers into buying something that is completely faulty. This issue was demonstrated in the article [“Google ad for GIMP.org served info-stealing malware via lookalike site”](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/google-ad-for-gimporg-served-info-stealing-malware-via-lookalike-site/) as it displayed how information asymmetry was used to trick viewers into clicking on malware disguised as an ad for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The article describes how this “malvertising” has abused google ads by deceiving viewers into thinking that the faulty ad was the official site page for GIMP. This illustrates how internet users are not only being targeted by advertisers but are also being misled by deceptive, malicious ads.