Advertisements stink. Popular websites are littered with intrusive banners, automatic-playing, unmuted videos and pop-up messages with impossible-to-click Xs. As content providers naturally try to increase their profits, Internet users have employed ad blockers to remove increasingly annoying and disruptive advertisements. However, for the Internet to remain a beautiful habitat of free expression and privacy, consumers must continue to use ad blockers and fight to preserve their legality while recognizing the benefits of a compromise that addresses consumers’ desire for unfettered access and advertisers’ desire for revenue.
Ad blocking itself isn’t a new concept. In fact, it’s been around since the early 2000s. While many laptop users have been using various ad block applications for years, the rise of mobile advertising and Apple’s recent decisions to allow (and then remove some) ad blocking on iOS 9 has sparked a heated debate over the legality of ad blocking.
Besides separating ravenous corporations from hunting their precious millennial prey, ad blockers have many wonderful benefits for consumers. First, these applications load web pages much faster, allowing consumers more time to follow the latest Vine trends and less time berating a roommate for hogging the bandwidth. According to a New York Times study, ad blockers on the iPhone improved website load times tremendously by decreasing web page data sizes. For instance, loading the Los Angeles Times went from 11 to four seconds while Boston.com went from 39 to just eight seconds.
Secondly, websites will look cleaner and more organized. Those pesky Facebook banner ads? Gone. How about those ads at the top of Google searches? History. Even the most aggravating of ads, the notorious 30-second unskippable YouTube advertisement, will never plague one’s device anymore.
Thirdly, ad blockers improve device battery life. If you spend a lot of your battery browsing web pages or watching online videos, then an ad blocker can lead to increased battery life improvements of almost 21 percent.
Fourth, with a growing number of wireless companies like Verizon and AT&T placing caps on data usage, it’s in a consumer’s best interest to minimize data use from unnecessary ads.
Lastly, ad blocking can strengthen security on mobile and desktop devices by removing predatory popups and disabling companies’ ability to track your online activity. Cisco’s 2013 Annual Security Report exposed advertising vulnerabilities when it concluded that online advertising is more likely to spread malware than porn.
Advertisers have only themselves to blame for the rise of ad blocking. Consumers who felt they were being unfairly targeted by intrusive and disruptive ad content logically turned to stem the barrage of pop-ups offering pre-paid gift cards and hot local singles. With 41 percent of millennials using ad blockers, opponents are starting to fear the sudden drain in advertising revenue. As a result of the expected $22 billion loss due to ad blocking in 2015, large corporations who glean a significant chunk of their revenue from advertising have joined the opposition. Two German publishers recently lost a heavily watched lawsuit against Eyeo, the maker of Adblock Plus, with the court concluding “users are legally allowed to control what happens on their screens.” I can only pray our courts similarly value consumers’ privacy. Recently, advertisers (full disclosure: including The Cavalier Daily) have turned to “native advertising,” or sponsored content dressed as normal articles, to target Internet users. The dangers of native advertising have already been illuminated, but what hasn’t been discussed is ad blocking as one of the root causes.
Regardless of whether you side with the profit-maximizing corporations or the privacy-minded consumers, fear not, for there is a compromise: the acceptable ads manifesto. At its core, the idea acknowledges consumers want to continue absorbing the Internet’s free, enjoyable content without flashy and irritating advertisements. However, it also recognizes that corporations and creators have to earn revenue from ads in order to continue providing free content while also limiting their need to engage in dangerous advertising practices. Thus, the acceptable ads manifesto calls for ad blockers to allow advertisements that follow five core rules. An ad must be not annoying, non-disruptive to content, transparent about being an ad, effective without “shouting” at users, and appropriate in context.
Many ad blockers like Adblock, Google Chrome’s most downloaded, have accepted this compromise permitting advertisers to make their revenue. Independent review boards are already being created to address critics of the guideline’s vaguity and potential bias. Adding more Adblock users will increase pressure on advertisers to follow these guidelines and create a more civilized, profitable Internet for all.
Reconciling the grievances of both sides, acceptable ads are the future of the Internet. Users by and large are more than willing to allow ads if it keeps content awesome and free. If you’re tired of countless ads slowing you down, try downloading a free ad blocker extension for whichever browser you use. Just remember that the vast world of ad-free articles, videos and movies doesn’t come without its costs.
Ben Yahnian is a Viewpoint writer.
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