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Google, Amazon, Microsoft Reportedly Paid AdBlock Plus To Unblock

Posted by timothy on from the backdoor-access dept.

RoccamOccam writes with the following news from The Register: Internet giants Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Taboola have reportedly paid AdBlock Plus to allow their ads to pass through its filter software. The confidential deals were confirmed by the Financial Times, the paper reported today [Paywalled]. From the Register's article: Eyeo GmbH, the German startup behind Adblock Plus, said it did not wish to comment. So far more than 300 million users have downloaded its software, it said. The add-on is free to download, with Eyeo generating revenue through its "whitelisting" programme. Companies can request their ads to be unblocked as long as they comply with AdBlock's "acceptable ads" policy. Large companies pay a fee for the service.

6 of 619 comments (clear)

  1. Adblock Edge by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    'nough said.

    1. Re:Adblock Edge by TuringTest · · Score: 4, Informative

      ÂBlock (read as "micro-block") has smaller memory footprint than AdBlock (and therefore Adblock Edge), and can use the same major privacy lists (EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe's Ad Server).

      --
      Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
  2. Opt-out by pr0nbot · · Score: 5, Informative

    I'd assume (without further info) that this is about the "allow some non-intrusive advertising" checkbox you get in the filter options. It's on by default, but when you install adblock (as I did a few days ago) it one of the things you go through when the configuration dialog pops up.

    It links to: https://adblockplus.org/en/acc...

    It's not perfect in that it's on by default, but it's easy enough to disable. Perhaps they could improve it by tying this checkbox to your "do not track" preference?

  3. Re:No facebook? by pmontra · · Score: 4, Informative

    I'm also a Firefox user, with AdBlock. I disabled the acceptable ads checkbox so I don't see any ad (I would have noticed). If AdBlock makes any money out of the ads companies, good for them. If they force acceptable ads to everybody, I'll move to something else. uBlock seems to be as good. There will always be something to block all ads. At worst the hosts file.

  4. Re:Company does exactly what it says it does... by the_other_chewey · · Score: 5, Informative

    In the past the end user can still opt to not see any ads, even if they comply with the "acceptable ads" policy. This would be news if they are making a change so that the end user is forced to see a given ad that the advertiser pays extra for, regardless of their extension settings.

    They are not.

  5. Re:Company does exactly what it says it does... by flappinbooger · · Score: 4, Informative

    So... this isn't news?

    I can click a 'switch' and turn off 'acceptable ads' and it's been that way for a long time now.

    So maybe it IS news because I didn't know/realize/take the time to think about the fact that they make money off this.

    Good for them. They deserve to eat too. Adblock Plus is reliable and makes the internet tolerable and safer. Letting through some 'GRAS' ads for cash is fine with me. As long as there is a switch where I can turn them off too...

    (Generally Regarded as Safe)

    --
    Flappinbooger isn't my real name