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It's being reported on HackerNews that the Pale Moon Browser is blocking the AdNauseum extension, an ad blocking extension designed to obfuscate browsing data and protect users from tracking by advertising networks.
The main story link is to the Pale Moon Forum which summarises the issue as follows:
After investigating the AdNauseam extension's behavior and the results for web publishers, the extension has been added to the Pale Moon blocklist with a severity level of 2 (meaning you won't be able to enable it unless you increase the blocking level in about:config to 3). For those unfamiliar with this extension: it generates false ad "clicks" to ad servers in an attempt to generate "noise" for the ad networks in a protest against the advertising network system as a whole.
While the premise behind this is similar to poisoning trackers with false fingerprints (which we are proponents of, ourselves), and we normally let users decide for themselves what they want to do with their browser, we are strictly against allowing extensions that cause direct damage (including damage to third parties). There is a subtle but important difference between blocking content and generating fake user interaction.
[...] Because this extension causes direct and indirect economic damage to website owners, it is classified as malware, and as such blocked.
From the forum threads this decision has been slightly controversial with some users.
If you're not familiar with Pale Moon, it is an Open Source web browser, forked from a mature Mozilla code release, and has been covered on SN before.
[Update: Added text re: blocking level; bolded text that was bold in the original posting. --martyb]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @09:35PM (3 children)
I think we'll probably stick with subscriptions for now. I haven't really seen a good use case for micropayments proposed that'd work for us yet.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 28 2017, @10:29PM (2 children)
Funny thing is, I wouldn't object to sane advertisements on Soylent. Meaning, no adfarms, 3rd party JS bullshit, etc. Just a simple agreement directly with the manufacturer. I know of a site, soma.fm, that encourages people to buy from Amazon using their code which gives them a small percentage. If I was going to purchase a bunch of hardware off Amazon, I would love if a small amount made it here.
Maybe not traditional ads, but limited promotions and that sort of thing. Where it's in our benefit to keep checking Soylent for any new deals coming up.
It's either that or you, a webcam, some candles, and a gallon of thousand island dressing.....
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Monday August 28 2017, @11:24PM
Worth keeping in mind if the subscription model starts running too tight.
Think I'll stick with ranch though. Better contrast with my coloring.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:39PM
Agreed. And personally I might even go a bit further?
I subscribe to a number of "vlogs" and other video channels that have advertising baked into the video. Companies like Jupiter Broadcasting do this very well -- they've got their news video, and periodically they'll take thirty seconds and the hosts themselves will sit there reading an ad for Digital Ocean or System76 or whatever. The hosts -- the people I already trust if I'm regularly watching those videos -- are personally screening those ads. As far as I know, they only advertise stuff they use themselves. They're the ones reciting it. If they think it's bullshit, hopefully they'll refuse the offer. And if they obviously sell out, I'll stop watching their videos. If one day I see them sitting there screaming about how great WalMart is, I'm out, and so are half their viewers, and I'm sure they know it. Otherwise, it's not that annoying. I understand that it supports the show, they tend to make it funny or entertaining to fit their style, and they pick companies they know their audience might be interested in. I've used Digital Ocean because of them (although I didn't even fully use the free credit...I'll stick with Gandi). My parents are using Ting because of them (they might switch away though as the service isn't ideal out there in the middle of nowhere...but they love the pricing). I bought a System76 laptop because of them (and couldn't be happier with it!) But that's a vastly different situation than having some Google algorithm trying to automatically match my preferences with the site I'm reading with the advertisers buying ad space. And it's also vastly different from having the ads served by some random third party that's doing everything they can to siphon additional data from my machine. THOSE assholes get blocked at the router.
There certainly are good reasons for advertising supported content, and I can recognize that...but what's absolutely inexcusable is when sites refuse to take any responsibility for the ads they serve. I block ads by IP address, so if they're coming from your own servers, I either trust the ads because I trust you or I block the whole damn thing.