Ian Betteridgeianbetteridge@vivaldi.net
Jul 12, 2026, 9:53 AMCurious person: "Hey Ian, you're a journalist! Your living has long been paid for by advertising. Why do you use an ad blocker?"
Me:
Replies
Rpsu (326 ppm)rpsu@mas.toJul 12, 2026, 9:55 AM@ianbetteridge There is advertising and .. data mining, profiling, and privacy intrusion disguised as advertising.
Benjamin Geerbenjamingeer@piaille.frJul 12, 2026, 1:26 PM@rpsu @christinkallama @ianbetteridge The other day something very unusual happened to me: I actually responded positively to an advert. It was a poster, so it couldn’t track me. I had been planning to buy a suitcase, and the advert was for a nearby suitcase shop and just had a few simple photos of suitcases and their prices. It wasn’t lying to me or selling me any kind of fantasy. I was amazed, and thought: if only all adverts were like that. And I went to the shop and bought a suitcase.
Superball ☀️superball@norcal.socialJul 12, 2026, 2:47 PM@benjamingeer LOL, I was literally braced for, “. . . And here’s how it was even worse than what we’ve been discussing.” What a wonderful surprise!
europlus :autisminf:europlus@europlus.zoneJul 12, 2026, 9:57 AM@ianbetteridge it’s such a perverted system of associations and value 😞
- Ian Betteridgeianbetteridge@vivaldi.netJul 12, 2026, 10:00 AM
@europlus I mean, somewhere in the back of my head I knew there were a lot of data brokers. But being faced with a number like that...
- europlus :autisminf:europlus@europlus.zoneJul 12, 2026, 10:05 AM
@ianbetteridge when the number gets over 1,000 it is unreal…in a bad way.
GerardGerardThornley@hachyderm.ioJul 12, 2026, 11:56 AM@europlus @ianbetteridge although also, sadly, all too real.
- europlus :autisminf:europlus@europlus.zoneJul 12, 2026, 12:16 PM
@GerardThornley @ianbetteridge oh, I absolutely wasn’t being ironic or hyperbolic!
John Deterstargetdrone@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 5:52 PM@europlus @ianbetteridge When the number went over "1", I was livid. I didn't mind the shop knowing who their customer was, because I needed them to send the product to me.
But it's always been zero business of anyone else.
Mr Tootsblabberlicious@toot.communityJul 12, 2026, 10:16 AM@ianbetteridge
Polycurious flirtation while shopping for socks is exhausting.- lucaluc0x61@mastodon.unoJul 12, 2026, 10:17 AM
@ianbetteridge 501! They're beginners. The popups I see usually go over 1700, and that's usually just a fraction of the real personal data scrapers in action.
Jul 12, 2026, 11:12 AM@ianbetteridge I keep imagining how the owner throws big christmas parties with these 501 partners, and in the late evening, they are dancing and having a great time.
This is what they mean with partners, right?
ëRiCewerybody@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 11:19 AM@ianbetteridge since pihole on our network ublocks numbers are not so high anymore ;)
So 1 ad blocker is also rookie numbers! When you can have at least 2 ;D
bhtooefrbhtooefr@snack.socialJul 12, 2026, 11:29 AM@ianbetteridge “We and our 501 partners” is one hell of a polycule
- europlus :autisminf:europlus@europlus.zoneJul 12, 2026, 12:23 PM
Website: We and our 501 partners…
btooefr: that’s one hell of a polycule.
Website: no, not like that!
🤣
millennial fulcrumfalcennial@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 11:31 AM@ianbetteridge to the curious person:
Ad Blockers are a necessity.
the internet is a pull mechanism, not a push mechanism.
people have the right to pull what they want.
nobody has the right to force content on others without their consent.
the same is true for companies.
Ad Blockers enable that consent.I say all this as an advertiser.
we only ever want ads in front of people who are, by their own decision, open to it.
consider this: people who do not want to see an ad won't buy from it.
Christo. London, England.Christo_459@mastodon.me.ukJul 12, 2026, 1:24 PM@falcennial @ianbetteridge
I regularly am asked to turn off my ad blocker
I just leave that site- millennial fulcrumfalcennial@mastodon.socialJul 13, 2026, 12:25 AM
@Christo_459 perfect form.
in the same way that if a shopkeeper asked for my credit card pin number before allowing me into the shop I would not enter – and I'd make sure nobody else I know ever went there either.
Nazonazokiyoubinbou@urusai.socialJul 12, 2026, 11:49 AM@ianbetteridge It's literally an actual self defense at this point. Places that require us to turn off our ad blockers to use them are like someone holding a gun demanding we take off our bullet proof vest that we put on because they have a gun and are pointing it at us. Yeah, that's a no.
David Gerarddavidgerard@circumstances.runJul 12, 2026, 11:57 AM@ianbetteridge heh. I get youtube ad money and i actively promote the blockers on channel. (uBO on Firefox deals with yt ads handily.)
Jul 12, 2026, 12:19 PM@ianbetteridge I’m always astounded if I see the number of “partners” a site claims to work with. Firstly, how much partnering can there be at that scale and secondly, how is there space in the market for so many companies scraping, aggregating and reselling data? Surely there must be massive overlap in the datasets.
- S38sab38@infosec.exchangeJul 13, 2026, 7:01 AM
@gadgetgav
And how can they possibly count the number of partners?
@ianbetteridge 
Jul 12, 2026, 12:19 PM@ianbetteridge having 501 partners in a polycule sounds difficult
mhoyemhoye@cosocial.caJul 12, 2026, 12:29 PM@lumi @ianbetteridge Skill issue.
- Jul 12, 2026, 12:36 PM
@mhoye @ianbetteridge yeah.. clearly the advertising industry has succeeded in it
lukasm :yes:lukasm@aus.socialJul 12, 2026, 12:43 PM@lumi @ianbetteridge we don’t have the calendar technology to manage this
Jul 12, 2026, 1:05 PM@lumi you just need proper enterprise tools for ass[et] management!
this post may be sponsored by atlassian, if they decide to reach me (I doubt)
Samuel Nihoulsamuelnihoul@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 12:33 PM@ianbetteridge it's illegal
Stephen Darlingtonsdarlington@mas.toJul 12, 2026, 12:39 PM@ianbetteridge The thing that I don’t understand is that most people don’t seem to care. The whole point of the cookie dialog is to expose this kind of awfulness. Yet publishers keep adding more trackers and people just blindly click “accept.” Unclear how we break the cycle.
- Stefan Monniermonnier@oldbytes.spaceJul 12, 2026, 2:45 PM
@sdarlington @ianbetteridge AFAIK, the whole point of those cookie dialogs is to get people to ban those dialogs by reverting the European law that tries to ever so slightly protect privacy
Braths_d_brath@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 3:58 PM@sdarlington @ianbetteridge probably because a lot of people don't really care if everyone knows that they just visited earpickers.com or whatever. Most days it doesn't bother me that much, except for the fact that I don't like people making too much money out of my habits. I don't even care that much about seeing adds, so it is only recently I started using an ad blocker (and only because it is built in to my browser).
Matty Rosesmattyroses@librarysocialism.socialJul 12, 2026, 1:54 PM@ianbetteridge lots of it I don't always love, but the BAT project's idea of an attention economy backed by tokens is better than the current ad economy
- SelSelvari21106@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 2:21 PM
@ianbetteridge I've seen that number in quadruple digits more than once
kasperdkasperd@westergaard.socialJul 12, 2026, 2:32 PMI have seen higher numbers than that. I don’t recall which site I took this screenshot from though.
Chewiechewie@mammut.gogreenit.netJul 12, 2026, 2:53 PM
AutistiCriticbenjamincox@writing.exchangeJul 12, 2026, 2:40 PM@ianbetteridge I think my personal record was somewhere in the 1700s and I never closed a window so fast.
boinkboink@chaos.socialJul 12, 2026, 2:47 PM@ianbetteridge Isn’t the default phrase „We and our xxx partners take your privacy very seriously…“?
Danny Boling ☮️IAmDannyBolingJul 12, 2026, 5:16 PM- ëRiCewerybody@mastodon.socialJul 12, 2026, 5:39 PM
@ianbetteridge the name "ad blocker" is already kind of false advertising ;) If it would "just" be ads ...
I actually never saw a counter like that! But I assume it's pretty similar to what we can see on sites where you can't just reject and "can" review each of these partners. This is just not made for humans. You'd scroll forever ... 
Jul 13, 2026, 11:29 PM"Me, and these other 501 sweaty, naked data-perverts want to molest your personal information. Together. All at once."
beasombeasom@mastodon.socialJul 14, 2026, 2:20 AM@ianbetteridge Something related from 9 years ago http://www.shindoisshin.com/blog/dickbars-and-other-readability-excrement So it has only gotten worse in the intervening time
