The Internet and Ads

Advertisements. Drive down a highway, and you will inevitably come across a billboard promoting some product or service. Take a train, and stare at the interior, peppered with more ads. Turn on the tv? Ads. No matter where you go or what you do in life, you will be bombarded with ads. Even browsing the internet, you will run into popups, flashing banners, and other means of grabbing your attention. But how much is too much? While it can be argued that websites use ads as a minor form of revenue, many tend to go overboard, not only to the point of annoyance, but also to the detriment of users.

Pictured above is a screenshot of local news website nj.com. As you can see, the page is covered in ads. Annoying, yes, but tolerable. Below, however, is the same site with an ad blocking add-on, µBlock Origin, applied.

Without ads, it makes for quite a different browsing experience. The top and side of the page are free to save space, allowing more website-relevant information to be displayed. The background is a blank white, letting one focus on the important things and not a massive picture. More subtle is the Shoprite icon on the top bar, which is mysteriously absent with the application of the ad blocker. This being a local news site, the ads are not as bad as they could be. Other websites have popup ads galore, advertising activities such as online gambling and various forms of adult entertainment. Click past those to try and grab a simple file off of the site, and you’ll end up looking at three or four download buttons, with it being a dice roll to determine which is the real one.

Yet unlike the normal ads you see on tv or out in public, ads online can be more than just an eyesore. Through social engineering or even just loading on a webpage, the malicious advertisements can lead to any number and type of viruses. For example, the flashing banner stating that you (as the lucky 500^th visitor to a website) have won a million dollars? It links to some form of malware. The scary ad on the sidebar informing you that your computer is compromised and to click for a free virus scan (just install this program!)? Most definitely a virus.

If you think you can avoid this by simply not clicking on ads, you’re out of luck. Through exploits in browsers and plugins, these ads can infect your computer by simply loading with the webpage. Even restricting your browsing to a select few trusted sites will not prevent malvertising. By inserting these harmful ads into an otherwise trusted advertising network, these malicious ads have tricked their way onto legitimate websites.

Problems with ads, however, are not merely limited to desktops and laptops. Mobile devices, such as phones and tablets, do not have the same easy solutions of installing an ad blocker. Often a user of these devices must either jailbreak or root them in order to block ads, which isn’t always possible. Additionally, ads on mobile devices take up precious data from user’s data plans, which can lead to increased costs on cell phone bills.

Given these facts and security risks, it is hard to justify not running an ad blocker. Yes, there is the issue of websites not making money off of ads, but these same sites also collect data on users (which is a whole new can of worms). Ads are just a small part of the revenue stream. With the downsides of allowing any ads through, it is far better to use an ad blocker and avoid the entire issue.