advertising | Infinite DiariesInfinite Diaries

Safari’s Privacy Feature Costs Ad Companies Millions →

January 10, 2018 · 16:02

Alex Hern, writing for The Guardian:

Advertising technology firm Criteo, one of the largest in the industry, says that the Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) feature for Safari, which holds 15% of the global browser market, is likely to cut its 2018 revenue by more than a fifth compared to projections made before ITP was announced […]

In response, Apple noted that: “Ad tracking technology has become so pervasive that it is possible for ad tracking companies to recreate the majority of a person’s web browsing history. This information is collected without permission and is used for ad re-targeting, which is how ads follow people around the internet.”

This is great news (!) and means that Apple is on point with the implementation details of their new feature. The practices of the ad industry are horrific and should have been addressed years ago. I strongly believe their shady practices have basically killed their own business — people basically hate most web ads — which is in stark contrast to podcast ads.

Forbes Wants Your Contacts if You Use an Adblocker →

May 4, 2016 · 00:46

Rob Leathern noticed an absurd contradiction in Forbes’ TOS:

So I’ve basically agreed now to not block their ads, after signing up for the express purpose of being able to see their content while blocking their ads.

Logical, indeed.

Dear Forbes, I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: ads are not the problem; your trackers are. And now, you want all my contacts? Thanks, but no. I will now go out of my way not to visit your site and waste my time staring at that obnoxious quote-of-the-day page.

Shine Partnering With Three to Block Ads for Mobile Web →

February 20, 2016 · 03:13

Maureen Morrison:

Israeli ad blocking company Shine is partnering with European carrier Three Group to offer blocking of display ads on the mobile web and in apps. Shine’s technology works by blocking ads at the network level.

The effort will begin with Three’s service in Italy and the U.K., then be rolled out across all of Three Group in Europe, which includes Austria, Denmark and Sweden. In total, Shine said that 30 million subscribers will be able to use the technology to block ads.

As a user I think this is great. As a publisher, not so much. I do however realise that news sites need readers more than readers need news sites. Some online publications are already blocking users using ad-blockers, and while I understand their point of view, I use an ad-blocker myself, but for security reasons. And if I hit a message denying me access to that particular site, I’ll go elsewhere.