annakie:

alteiriaa:

askspeedy:

annakie:

The problem with writing a quick post that you don’t intend to go far and didn’t want to super-over-explain things in, is that once it starts getting several thousand reblogs then people start adding their own replies on it and some of them are great, and some of them are real super snotty and rude.  Sometimes you even get an anon or two in your inbox.

So, yes, I could have done a better job of explaining what the acceptable ads on AdBlock plus are, and I probably should have linked a news article so people had an easy way to research it on their own.  The post wasn’t meant to be an in-depth analysis of the benefits of the Acceptable Ads program.  I realize that that’s how many websites get their revenue, and I think it sucks that we can’t trust advertisers to be responsible.  The purpose of the post was a quick primer on how for my followers to protect themselves quickly and easily.  I post things like this on occasion.

I understand what the point of “Acceptable Ads” is, but the thing is, I’m still not going to put my computer’s security at risk in HOPE that AdBlock Plus does its job correctly 100% of the time and malware code doesn’t get injected.  Vulnerabilities still happen. If people who look for ways to get around security features find a vulnerability, they’re going to exploit it.  There’s no way to be 100% safe from Malware / Spyware / Virisus, but I’m sure as hell going to do whatever I can to keep myself safe.  

I say that as a person who runs a website which displays ads from Google Analytics.  I don’t depend on it to keep afloat or anything – at this point I might make about $100 a year of profit after costs of keeping the thing going – but I definitely do understand the conundrum. And I’m sympathetic.

I still pay for cable, I pay for Netflix, and Amazon Prime, I donate to my favorite podcast network and try not to skip through ads on the ones that have ‘em. I subscribe the MMOs rather than do Free to Play.  If I enjoy a “Free” app I’ll upgrade to the premium version or throw a couple of bucks to the developer to get that starter pack.  

I get that things cost money. I support what I can when I can.

I would love it if there was a way to make a small donation to sites that I heavily use to keep it ad-free.  I’d love it if I could pay a dime to the Washington Post to read their article anytime I saw something interesting, or a day-pass for a buck.  If Tumblr gave me the option to give them like, five bucks a month and I wouldn’t need to block ads, I’d happily do it.  Give me the option to fairly pay a reasonable amount and don’t exploit it, and I’ll do it.  There are several websites I frequent that give this option that I do support.

If that plan’s not feasible, still, give me a way to help contribute to your revenue without risk and annoyance, and I’m in.  

But I’m not willing to put my time and my data at risk in the hopes that your ads don’t contain malware.  As an IT person who would be the one having to wipe and rebuild any computers here that got hit by Cyptowall or other malware, I’m not willing to put my company’s time and data on the line.  I’m going to do everything I can to stay safe, and even if no one is ever 100% safe, 99% is still better than 98%.

THIS. This is a follow up straight from the OP. It’s a matter of opinion at this point whether you trust AdBlock or not to do the right thing, but THIS is what it’s all about.

Though their original post is still wrong about ‘AdBlock will let advertisers pay them to show their ads’ (I’ve seen nothing to back this statement up, ergo, I’m inclined to believe it’s false.) this follow up explains what it is about.

I personally trust in AdBlock and won’t uninstall their extension over this matter. I don’t see it as 99% safe vs 98% safe, I see it as 99% safe vs a different way of 99% safe. And if you’re doing it ‘cause they sold you out’, you’re doing it over a mistake.

Thanks OP for putting this follow up post out!

I’d happily pay for a way to get my favorite websites to get rid of ads too, especially the annoying ones. But I mean, if letting them put a small text ad off to one side of my screen helps them keep it up then it isn’t a super big deal for me.

And if you are the type of person to click on every ad or link you see anyway, a adblocker isn’t going to help you over much. Practice basic internet safety and it’s hardly a problem.

Six months ago, a malicious strain of Ransomware was spread on major sites such as

MSN, bbc.com, the New York Times, AOL and Newsweek.   The links inside that blog post explain in more detail.

These aren’t ads you click on.  These are ads that did a pop-under and installed the exploit kit from viewing the ads.  On sites that hundreds of thousands of people view every day.  This is just one example of many showing how you aren’t safe by just “practicing basic internet safety.”

Yes, the exploit was found and mostly nullified fairly quickly, but personally, I’d rather not be one of the thousands of people who had to report the issue because I got hit with it.

Make browsing the Security section of Bleeping Computer a habit.  You can see that every day, new exploits are being found.  New strains of Ransomware (Cryptowall / Cryptolocker etc.) and other malware are being released, getting around the protections that your anti-malware put in place, getting around the newest patch vulnerabilities, finding new ways to infect your computer.  Computer security is mostly reactive, not proactive.  And what is proactive usually quickly gets reacted to.

Yes, definitely you’re way more protected by browsing safely and not clicking on things, and by not going to suspicious websites and just plain common sense, but it honestly doesn’t make you completely safe.  And again, as someone who deals with the laptops when things go wrong at work, I’m going to do everything I can to protect my users.  Since we made everyone switch to uBlock Origin and install Flash Control, combined with our Enterprise-strength virus/malware protection, and overly-stringent email spam filtering, we’ve had 0 incidents of malware infections in a year and a half.

If you’re unfamiliar with Ransomware, I put up a basic guide here, and Bleeping Computer has a good FAQ here, though it’s about 2 years out of date now.

*edit* And here is an article that DOES spell out exactly what the “Ads Marketplace” is.