# Ad blocking

#### New York Times homepage before downloading UBlock Origin:

#### New York Times homepage after downloading UBlock Origin:

With online advertising techniques becoming more and more advanced, it seems reasonable that people might want to consider tracking protection tools for safety purposes. Though they become more personalized and in theory, individuals should be more inclined to feel drawn to keep seeing the products/services they're interested in, blocking isn't going down. Like how it's explained in Marti's reading, people actually grow more wary of their privacy once they learn about the processes of ad targeting. Having one's activity and interests monitored feels invasive, and the concept of "retargeting" is understandably correlated with ad blocking rates. Now that advertisers have caught on, ad blockers are getting paid off to still show some promotional messages by labeling them as "acceptable ads," like how Adblock Plus operates. With regard to monetization, some organizations within this program have to pay a significant licensing fee if they receive over 10 million monthly impressions, while most of them don't have to because they don't meet this threshold. Though many entities are rejected from the program for not meeting guidelines, these so-called acceptable ads that do gain admission still pose threat to privacy. Taylor's article exposes how they are able to "frequently install trackers" and "sell the data to another ad network" (2020).

Cases like the incident highlighted by Sharma's article on BleepingComputer serve as justifiable reason for users to remain vigilant and suspicious of any promotional content online-- regardless if they meet the acceptable ads guidelines or not. Though Google enforces strict policies around URL displays, GIMP.org was still capable of posing as a different site to steal information. Other extreme [phishing cases](https://www.itgovernance.eu/blog/en/the-5-biggest-phishing-scams-of-all-time) like with Sony Pictures in 2015, Colonial Pipeline in 2021, and Crelan Bank in 2016, further prove the dangers of people's agendas online. Although displayed on a much larger scale and causing far more detrimental consequences, the underlying cyber security threats are consistent with general threats on the internet. Understanding that there are almost always loopholes and ways around imposed restrictions on the internet, users should *always* easily be able to take preventative measures, including ad blocking.