[Avodah] ad blockers

Zev Sero via Avodah avodah at lists.aishdas.org
Fri Feb 26 08:56:57 PST 2016


On 02/26/2016 07:53 AM, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
>
> But when a consumer uses an ad-blocker, he changes the formula
> without the advertiser's consent. The website provides free content,
> but it isn't really totally free. One could argue that the consumer
> has to be willing to give the advertiser at least an *opportunity* to
> grab his attention and purchase the product. When the consumer uses
> an ad-blocker, he is not merely ignoring the ad, he won't even let
> the advertiser have a chance.
>
> I suspect that in the final analysis, the halachic permissibility of
> ad-blockers will depend on one simple question: When the pricing for
> the ads is decided, does it consider the likelihood that the target
> audience will be using the ad-blockers? If it does, then the
> ad-blockers would be allowed, just as I am allowed to walk out of the
> room when the ads appear.

It's not at all the same.  What you're missing is that web ads are paid
for per view, so when you block them it's not the advertiser who's losing
out, but the site owner.  On the contrary, advertisers *love* ad-blockers,
because people who block ads are the same ones who would ignore them if
they weren't blocked, and this way the advertiser doesn't have to pay for
them.  It's the site owner who objects to your blocking the ads.  He's
providing all this content so that you will visit the site and load the
ads.  He doesn't care if you actually look at them; he gets paid the same
even if you ignore them completely, but not if you block them.

On the other hand, though, and this is something too many site owners
don't take into account, the main reason people block ads is not visual
clutter but load time.  Some pages take so long to load that if not for
ad blockers many people would never visit them at all.   Even worse,
some ad servers are so unsafe that if you don't block their ads your
browser could crash, or you could even get infected with something nasty.
If you would not choose to visit a site with your ad blocker off,
then you don't deprive the owner of anything by visiting with it on.

-- 
Zev Sero               All around myself I will wave the green willow
zev at sero.name          The myrtle and the palm and the citron for a week
                And if anyone should ask me the reason why I'm doing that
                I'll say "It's a Jewish thing; if you have a few minutes
                I'll explain it to you".



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