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Youtube and others want their users to disable adblockers to increase their revenue from advertisements, but will forcing the users to so do be effective in the long-term?
What unexpected consequences could occur? Why do people use adblockers in the first place? Why aren't more users buying Youtube Premium as a solution? Do adblock users still contribute value to websites? Can websites effectively enforce such policies? Are there ways to naturally encourage more users to disable their adblockers instead?
Enjoy my informal and assorted ramblings as I learn basic video editing skills.
For more examples of the Cobra Effect, here is a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lUrH4Sbgh8&list=PLBuns9Evn1w9XhnH7vVh_7C65wJbaBECK
Be aware: The publisher of this series, Reason TV, hit the nail on the head with exploring this concept, but they do have a HEAVY libertarian bias, and I do not agree with everything that they publish. Be aware before you watch a series that could alter your recommendations.
Supplemental links and sources will (slowly) be updated here. I should have done so in the first place, but future videos won't have this issue.
Adblocker legality in Germany: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/11/adblock-plus-wins-its-6th-court-case-brought-by-der-spiegel/
FBI on Adblockers: https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA221221?=8324278624
NSA, CIA, and others on adblockers: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21068028-wyden-letter-to-omb-on-ad-blocking
Interesting article from Australia not in video: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3455730/government-agencies-ordered-to-block-online-ads-flash.html
Good info on adblock detection and GDPR compliance: https://iabeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/20160516-IABEU_Guidance_AdBlockerDetection.pdf
Insight on undisclosed ads: https://www.vox.com/recode/23197348/tiktok-ad-sponcon-influencers
Several cases where a website agreement was not enforceable (not the same as legal precedence):
https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-specht-v-netscape-commc-ns-corp
https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-nguyen-v-barnes-noble-inc
https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/casebrief/p/casebrief-meyer-v-uber-techs-inc
I’d be fine with ads, but Google’s policy is only superficially about ads. They want surveillance and user profiling, not ads. Ads are just a way to deliver these. Over my dead body.
I know I can’t escape Google’s Orwellian surveillance entirely but I limit what I can, and adblockers/ trackerblockrers play a huge part in this.
I have to play devil’s advocate here. Are you really fine with the current level of ads? Fine with some past/historical level less than now? What level is ok exactly?
To me the current level of youtube ads is unhinged. Even minus the privacy issues it’s not usable. And it got that way (to me, at least) as soon as skip wait timers (remember when that was all we had to deal with?) became a thing.
Now? With unskippable ads, huge wait timers, and ads injected into the middle of 8-minute videos? Nope nope nooope. Not a chance in hell would I watch unblocked or non-premium youtube.
Fair enough, let me rephrase. I’m willing to negotiate about ads, the exact boundaries yet to be discussed. My privacy and my data are absolutely off limits, especially if they’re gonna pretend it’s not even about these.