Block All Ads!
Why everyone should use an ad blocker.
Recently I read an article by the Electronic Fronteir Foundation (EFF) about their browser extension: Privacy Badger. Their article talks about how privacy invasive this tracking data collection and distribution is.
Privacy Badger attmpts to solve this issue by blocking as many tracking methods as possible and not allowing this data to be collected. I believe everyone would benifit from the use of this when they browse the web.
What the author doesn’t state in their article is:
- Tracking data collection and distribution is a problem that exists outside of the browser.
- The only reason this tracking data is profitable is because ads exist.
Part 1 #
This tracking data, and the bigger problem of data as a whole, is being collected and sold without your knowledge outside of the browser through all the services you use. This is because, as Louis Rossmann says, ‘it is hidden on page 22 of an 80 page EULA.’
One example of this is Chase’s change to their privacy policy to be allowed to sell your private financial and transaction data to third parties (talked about and documented by Louis Rossmann). Many companies include this by default and may not even give you an option to opt out depending on your state or country. Even when they are not legally allowed to sell your data, it happens anyway.
Part 2 #
The only reason this data is profitable is because of advertisements. What the author of this article states, and the purpose of the Privacy Badger extension itself, is that a user solution is to block this data collection so it can’t be sold in the first place. As stated in Part 1, this data is being collected through all aspects of your life, such as your financial records, and in some cases can not be prevented by a simple browser extension.
Another solution to remove the incentive for Big Tech and data brokers to profit off of this data is to block all ads in your life. Most ads that are served to people are through the browser. This attacks the very center of this privacy invasive industry and, I believe, is the best user solution to solving this issue.
If ads don’t exist, their is no incentive for data collection.
In conclusion, using an ad blocker such as uBlock Origin (or both this and Privacy Badger at the same time) is the best user solution to stopping the privacy invasive collecting of users data. As EFF states, “While strong federal privacy legislation is the ideal solution,” user intervention is the next best solution.