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0 pointshoppla5y ago0 comments

You might show me ads, but not track me, privacy badger stops you from doing that. But if your ads are trying to track me, then privacy badger stops that too.

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6 comments · 3 top-level

eli5y ago· 2 in thread

Unfortunately the ad blockers are not usually able to tell the difference between first-party ads and network ads. In practice both from an ad server.

I think there's actually a great opportunity for someone to create an ad server that only serves first-party ads with no tracking.

yoz-y5y ago

The Deck was such a thing. It was sort of invite only because once you go first party you have no way to validate the user base so you need to trust the partner. For ads that result in direct sales this can be easy to do though.

eli5y ago

It was more of an ad network, no? Also I think it shut down.

I'm talking about something even simpler than that. I have my own website and I have my own advertisers who want to put ads on it. I need a way to serve them and do contextual targeting (e.g. stories about a certain topic) and frequency capping and forecasting and the other sort of basic stuff I expect from Google Ad Manager.

_nalply5y ago· 1 in thread

You are generous.

However I don't want any content which could be distracting or plain unsafe for mental wellbeing. One example are the ads for violent games on BlueStacks when I was using the emulator for Android education software for my children.

No thank you. Any content I can't control will be kicked.

Either by using adblockers or by just not using the service.

BitwiseFool5y ago

Advertising is mental pollution.

I dated a woman who experienced trauma in the past and she would routinely get horror movie trailers in YouTube. Even I found them disturbing. Neither of us had any interest in getting intrusive thoughts from watching assault and body horror. Putting in uBlock Origin did wonders for her well being.

handrous5y ago

I'm not likely to bother blocking first-party images or other content so-delivered. Odds are I won't be bothered enough by those to block them, or if I am I'm more likely to abandon the site than to start blocking that kind of ad on every site.

The problems are the tracking and the ad networks that kinda treat both the viewer and their site-hosts as consumable resources, but that sites can't realistically avoid if they want/need ad support, because that's where all the money is. Break the ad networks, break tracking (and I mean legally, in both cases—tech means for blocking are doomed, IMO) and ad money won't go away, it'll be redirected to less-awful ways of delivering ads.

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