Ask Lemmy

I don’t block anything. I work in accessibility, so it’s important to me to know what the experiences are like for my fellow users with disabilities. I also don’t want to recommend sites or apps that are riddled with inaccessible ads. I’d rather not give them traffic at all. Though even though I let them track me, I still get ads in a language I don’t speak for cars I can’t drive. What’re they doing with all that data?

A lot of people. For many, it's not even something they know exist. Even setting it up for them is a bother because of the occasional site it breaks, and the complete lack of technical awareness.

I know some of family don't because they mostly rely on mobile devices and devices like Chromecasts where installing ad blockers can be a challenge. They don't use traditional computers.

They know apps like NewPipe exist but the effort to port things over or not get recommendations is too much for them.

I do use ad blockers and open source front ends/software/alternatives. Ex. AntennaPod instead of Spotify for podcasts and Linux instead of Windows because I didn't like ads in the start menu (amongst numerous other things).

I use uBlock Origin and Consent-o-Matic. Works like a charm!

The biggest thing I miss from seeing ads is knowing what movies are in theaters... And I never think about looking haha.

My mom uses Edge, told me not to block Facebook ads and clicks on most of the clickbait articles on her MSN home page. It's like she WANTS them to collect as much data to sell and spy on her as much as possible 🤦

I have AdNauseum on with the "Hide Ads" button unchecked and "leave non-tracking ads alone" option enabled. Privacy Badger is on too to detect tracking scripts.

I can safely ignore ads generally but what I want is to discourage the practice of annoying placements to farm clicks. If they want clicks then they can have as many of my fake ones as they wish.

If you do use one what other blocking do you use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?

Firefox on maximum security will get rid of all cookies when you close the window (ie exit from Firefox, not just close the tab). If there are sites that require cookies, you can use Firefox containers to stop it collecting data across other sites).

I do use adblockers but there are sites which deserve the revenue (and don't bombard you with shite) so I try to remember to whitelist them. But I'm not as diligent about this as I should be. Someone does have to pay for it and we don't have a decent system to do that without advertising (yet). I can't subscribe to the eleventy million sites I visit so advertising is a necessary evil (atm). Obviously, denying bad sites the advertising revenue is a public service, so there's that.

Lady I used to sit next to at work didn't use an ad blocker. She also would have like the "do you want to install this plugin?" thing open in her ide for weeks. I don't know how she did it. She's a software developer so she's reasonably tech literate. It just didn't bother her enough to think about doing something about it.

By default I'm using adblocker but when I notice I'm visiting a new site more frequently like wikis for games, I disable it and keep it off if the site is usable.

I haven't bothered yet because I don't really frequent the types of sites where the ads get in the way (although my occasional Youtube visits are starting to convince me to use one).

I do use a plugin made by the EFF that blocks certain tracking cookies though.

If you do use one what other blocking do you productively use to circumvent data collection, YouTube and reddit front ends and things alike?

I use an ad blocker, and in addition also use Pi-hole for network-wide domain based tracker blocking. I use tailscale to use this on my phone, but also have Tracker Control (the real version installed from F-Droid) to do something similar if for some reason I need to disable Tailscale (only one can be used at once, as they both use the VPN method).

I asked a friend of mine about this recently and she told me it was because it helps her kids learn patience.

That got me thinking about it, I personally learned a rather large amount of patience because of ads when I was growing up so it made a lot of sense to me.

People who aren't trying.

Because.

My wife, she plays mobile games where you get temporary boosts if you watch an ad.

I don't. I know they exist, and I could probably have one set up in under ten minutes, but I just don't care.

And I know what they do. I know what they collect. I used to sell online ads for the local paper, geomapping and all that shit. They still know.

I just don't usually find ads to be intrusive enough to have blocking them be worthwhile.

As others have said, I don't mind supporting small content creators by watching the ads.

Edit: imagine getting downvoted for an honest answer lol. So sorry that you don't like my opinion!