They call it “dark traffic” - ads that are not seen by tech-savvy users who have excellent ad blockers.

Not surprised that its growing. The web is unusable without an ad blocker and its only getting worse, and will continue to get worse every month.

  • pachrist@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The web has almost always been unusable without an adblocker. Ads today are less malicious, but more insidious. Clicking the wrong ad in 2003 would brick your computer. Clicking the wrong ad today means you’ll have to cancel a credit card after your personal data is compiled and sold on the black market.

    Nothing new. Ads don’t fuel a free internet. They fuel a business model. The free internet is fueled by the time and donations of kind, dedicated people.

    • elvis_depresley@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Ads don’t fuel a free internet. They fuel a business model. The free internet is fueled by the time and donations of kind, dedicated people.

      I believe this to be true.

    • bargu@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Ads today are less malicious

      I disagree, ads today are way more malicious than they used to be, ads are the biggest vector for malware today, they are used to stalk users to an insane level and most ads are porn, gambling, drugs or fascist propaganda.

      At least back in the day you would only get sketchy ads on sketchy websites.

    • buttnugget@lemmy.worldBanned
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      10 months ago

      My view is that if we can’t have the things we want without ads, then we need a new business model. I’m not super into the whole kindness and donations model. If we need it to be state funded, so be it.

    • x0x7@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      You store your credit card in your computer? If browser credit card management isn’t secure enough to avoid that attack you shouldn’t be using it.