# Adblocking

For my assignment, I chose to use AdGuard for Safari. The following are the results for a few of the websites that I found.

**Citation Machine**

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After:

**The New York Times**

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Our online interactions within our society's umbrella of capitalism caused us to engage in a cat and mouse game, where advertisers seek to reach, while consumers do not want to be reached. In "Targeted Advertising Considered Helpful," the author claims that "66% of adult Americans said they do not want marketers to tailor advertisements to their interests, and when the researchers explained how ad targeting works, the percentage went up." The increase in the number of Americans who did not want targeted advertisements after being informed proves that many people are not fully aware of the extent to which their information is shared. While websites have fine print that provides more information, users inevitably give up information to advertisers without intending to do so. Even if consumers had legally agreed to the targeted advertisement by clicking a button, their lack of knowledge and context of the situation makes their consent meaningless. The ability of advertisers to target consumers and the ability of consumers to block advertisements emphasize the contrasting interests of both sides and the manipulation through technology in order to satisfy their interests.

Taylor's ideas in "Advertisers Are Paying Off Ad Blockers to Show 200 Million Users “Acceptable Ads” is further evidence of the constant deception between the advertisers and service providers for ways to target consumers more effectively. Taylor's claim that "it isn’t obvious that ads from certain advertisers will not be blocked" can be seen through the AdBlock result for *The New York Times*, where only the top banner advertisement was blocked by the adblocker. While not fully within the image embedded, a simple scroll through the website showed that there were still advertisements on the homepage even after installing the adblocker. Furthermore, the adblocker was not able to filter sponsored posts. Sponsored posts were marked as such and were equally distracting from other traditional advertisements, but were technically considered separate posts. Knowing that The New York Times is meant to be a reliable news source, it was interesting to see that the majority of the page was swamped with advertisements and discrete sponsored posts.
Before the internet, consumers and advertisers had an expectation of advertisers' interests and marketing methods. However, through technological developments, advertisers have taken advantage of the ignorant public to target advertisements toward consumer interests to maximize revenue. Through the violation of privacy, the promise between the advertiser and the consumer has already been broken. Therefore, the ability of individuals to block advertisers is justifiable in the sense that users should be in control of what they see in the media. The free content and services we consume can still be paid for through advertising, where websites can promise exposure to individuals without adblockers. However, for ethical advertising, the websites must take accountability to limit advertisement for them to be in expected forms. This can be done through clear labeling of paid content as well as using a consistent format throughout all advertisements. Ultimately, consumers must be protected from advertising through their choice to consume, or not to consume advertisements.