Ad blocking

The first ad blocker was Internet Fast Forward, a plugin for the Netscape Navigator browser, developed by PrivNet and released in 1996.

Use of mobile and desktop ad blocking software designed to remove traditional advertising grew by 41% worldwide and by 48% in the U.S. between Q2 2014 and Q2 2015.

[9] For users, benefits of ad blocking software include quicker loading and cleaner looking web pages with fewer distractions,[10][11][12] protection from malvertising,[13][14][15] stopping intrusive actions from ads,[16][17] reducing the amount of data downloaded by the user,[18][19] lower power consumption,[20][21] privacy benefits gained through the exclusion of web tracking,[22] and preventing undesirable websites from making ad revenue out of the user's visit.

Publishers state that the prevalent use of ad blocking software and devices could adversely affect website owner revenue.

[23] Ad blocking software may have other benefits to users' quality of life, as it decreases Internet users' exposure to advertising and marketing industries, which promote the purchase of numerous consumer products and services that are potentially harmful or unhealthy[24][25] and on creating the urge to buy immediately.

[30] Another important aspect is improving security; online advertising subjects users to a higher risk of infecting their devices with computer viruses than surfing pornography websites.

[31] In a high-profile case, the malware was distributed through advertisements provided to YouTube by a malicious customer of Google's Doubleclick.

[35] The Australian Signals Directorate recommends individuals and organizations block advertisements to improve their information security posture and mitigate potential malvertising attacks and machine compromise.

[36] The information security firm Webroot also notes employing ad blockers provides effective countermeasures against malvertising campaigns for less technically sophisticated computer users.

[41] It is a known problem with most web browsers, including Firefox, that restoring sessions often plays multiple embedded ads at once.

[citation needed] One method of filtering is simply to block (or prevent auto play of) Flash animation or image loading or Microsoft Windows audio and video files.

Every web browser handles this task differently, but, in general, one alters the options, preferences or application extensions to filter specific media types.

Current versions of Konqueror,[43] Microsoft Edge,[44] and Firefox[45][46] also include content filtering support out-of-the-box.

[47] Another method for filtering advertisements uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) rules to hide specific HTML and XHTML elements.

[52] In January 2016, Brave, a free, ad-blocking browser for Mac, PC, Android, and iOS devices was launched.

Both vendors have imposed limits on the number of entries that may be included in these lists, which have led to (especially in the case of Chrome) allegations that these changes are being made to inhibit the effectiveness of ad blockers.

The main advantage of the method is freedom from implementation limitations (browser, working techniques) and centralization of control (the proxy can be used by many users).

This configuration, for historical reasons, is stored in a flat text file that by default contains very few hostnames and their associated IP addresses.

This is especially likely in countries, notably Russia, India and China, where advertisers often refuse to pay for clicks or page views.

[67] On Android, apps can run a local VPN connection with its own host filtering ability and DNS address without requiring root access.

Based on reviews of AdTrap, this device uses a Linux Kernel running a version of PrivProxy to block ads from video streaming, music streaming, and any web browser,[74] while PiHole acts as a local DNS to block advertisement servers, stopping connected devices from showing most ads.

[75] Internet providers, especially mobile operators, frequently offer proxies designed to reduce network traffic.

Many internet operators block some form of advertisements while at the same time injecting their own ads promoting their services and specials.

[87][88] It has been suggested that in the European Union, the practice of websites scanning for ad blocking software may run afoul of the E-Privacy Directive.

[89] This claim was further validated by IAB Europe's guidelines released in June 2016 stating that there indeed may be a legal issue in ad blocker detection.

A popup message appears warning the user is breaking the terms of service and may experience blocked viewing after three videos unless they whitelist the site, or purchase YouTube Premium.

Users would pay Scroll directly, and portions of the subscription fees are doled out to the websites based on proportional view count.