I don’t really use facebook anymore so couldn’t care less; but so happened to log in today to change my password and saw this on my front page.
Ad Blocking is Cyber Security, never ever let anyone convince you differently
if ads were just static PNGs with a link you went to if you clicked I wouldn’t have ever bothered. but ads became a major malware and tracking risk so plugging that security hole became mandatory.
I tried finding that website, but I can’t remember what it is. I’ve seen it use the static image advertisement. It changed on each reload too.
But yes, that website had last update somewhere in the early 2000s.
When I last used it a few years ago ExplainXKCD used static images and had a note about how they hand picked each ad to avoid any problems.
People are gonna say I’m being hyperbolic or crazy, but I swear that the internet died the day the first line of production Javascript was ever written.
The internet died in September 1994 everybody knows that
Hey, that’s not too far away. Javascript came about in December 1995.
Even static PNG ads are purpose engineered to grab your attention. People with attention disorders like ADHD and autism don’t have as much attention to give, and when it’s gone we’re debilitated. We need to start considering cognitohazards a legally prosecutable form of violence.
Could attention grabbing dark-features be considered a violation of the ADA?
Which part of it, specifically?
Did you really just compare accommodations for ADHD to “emotional support alligators?”
I am not a lawyer, but there is precedent for ADHD to be covered under the ADA and precedent that it (meaning the ADA) applies to websites for private businesses.
Edit: ADHD fits the definition of a disability as defined by Sec. 12102 of the ADA, specifically:
- 1a: it’s a mental impairment
- 2a1: it affects: learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.
- 3B: it’s not transitory/lasts longer than 6 months
Edit 2: a lawyer could argue that adblocking is an assistive technology for people with ADHD. If a person is looking at a tutorial at work and is inundated with ads that effect their performance at work that they can not block using an adblocker, that is denying a person with a disability as (defined by Sec. 12102 of the ADA) the full and equal (to a person who is neurotypical and can more easily not get distracted) use of a title III entities service.
Thanks for taking it seriously, that’s what I was looking for.
I’m also not a lawyer, but I do have a disability covered by the ADA. I understand that ADHD is a recognized disability. That’s not the specifics I was looking for.
That being said, the ADA doesn’t define how to make a website accessible and that typically falls to the WCAG, which is not specifically mentioned in the ADA (though neither is ADHD, those cases you mentioned confirmed it is covered). The best things I can find than might cover the specifics of ads are maybe section 2.2.2 or 2.2.4 or 2.4.1 of the WCAG (the first and last are level A, the middle AAA, with the standard recommendation being AA.). How would you apply those (or others you think are more appropriate to ad blocking) given that the guidelines are for service providers and ad blocking is usually done client-side. Examples for 2.4.1 given by W3C just seem to specify a way to move past things like ads via a link.
Also, some interesting other things:
This mentions the following and cites the case on their site:
For example, a web-only service with no nexus to a physical place of public accommodation is not subject to the ADA under Ninth Circuit precedent.
I’m not sure if that’s changed since 2019 or not. California has more specific legislation that covers that, though.
I’m all for ad blocking and accessable websites, I just don’t think the ADA covers ad blocking through the WCAG.
I’m all for ad blocking and accessable websites, I just don’t think the ADA covers ad blocking through the WCAG.
How would you apply those (or others you think are more appropriate to ad blocking) given that the guidelines are for service providers and ad blocking is usually done client-side.
Probably under WCAG Principle 4: “Content must be robust enough that it can be interpreted by a wide variety of user agents, including assistive technologies.” If we’re treating ad blocking as an assistive technology, purposely attempting to break an assistive technology would run counter to that principle, much in the same way that purposefully breaking a screen reader would (although, it should go with out saying, purposefully breaking screen readability is much worse).
I’m not sure if that’s changed since 2019 or not. California has more specific legislation that covers that, though.
I’m wondering if legal action is something that could be done on a state by state basis starting with California (which conveniently is where Google is headquartered) or if the case could be made that Youtube is used to stream live events and those events should count as a physical nexus under the ADA.
I’m assuming that addictive ui designs fuck with people with ADHD disproportionally. Since ADHD is considered a disability, could things like infinite scroll that can’t be turned off (for example) be considered an ADA violation?
A violation of which part of the ADA? Can you point an a specific part of the law that would cover it?
That was the question posed, yes.
It’s true. I work in a computer shop and we see literally thousands and thousands of dollars lost from people clicking on ads that look like normal buttons (things like “Download”, “Next”, etc). And not just the elderly either. Everyone has a a combination of inputs to get scared and comply. Folks that are otherwise extremely competent and savvy can get scammed too.
The best security you can have online is adblockers, only beaten by using trusted websites.
But what websites can you trust these days?
YouTube? Serves up scammy bitcoin ads. Google? Places ads as “search results” Twitter?
Maybe that one website unchanged since 1998.
You can’t trust any website 100%
You need to continously verify and reverify the details you can.
I can totally trust the hmpg site.
Does anyone have screenshots of these buttons? I didn’t see an ad for so long that I don’t even know how they look like.
Definitely. Ads are eye cancer at best, and infiltration channels for malware at worst. Compromised ad networks pumping out executable code via javascript (or back in the days, Flash) are still a major source of trojan infections.
And just to add to your important point, Ad Blockers are really Content Blockers. They allow the user to delete annoyances that have nothing to do with advertising. We should all start calling them Content Blockers.
Have tried the zapper in ublock origin? I love it.
I use it often for sites I rarely will visit again. It keeps My Rules file from getting cluttered.
And it’s fun!!!
I have said it before, snd I will repeat it as many times as it takes.
Adblocking is security, untill website owners take legal and financial responsibillity for the harm that a hacked ad spreading malware or attenpting any kind of deception, I won’t even consider removing my adblocker.
If this changes, I will consider it, but will still not do it, the risk to my data is too large.
Ads are malware for the mind, even when they’re not malware for the machine.
Well put!
Yeah, there’s no proper screening process and companies aren’t help liable for malicious advertisements. It’s the Wild west out there, and companies take money from anyone due to there being no consequences. Internet advertising has no proper screening process like network television.
Seems like a feature to me.
Oh yeah aunt Greta, I’m still friends with you, but it’s so weird how I can’t see your anti vax “facts”
That’s the government censorship!
I took a peek at my feed for the first time in years. It’s all junk lol, no one I care about is posting anything
The only thing worth seeing is my local Buy Nothing group, but there are other services popping up which do something similar.
Yeah all my actual friends are messaging me elsewhere, facebook is more like a picture dump for old people. I only use it occasionally for joining various expat groups since I move countries frequently for my job, and they are rather resourceful.
It sure might be, but the one friend who got blocked is just casually posting stuff from his personal life, nothing spammy going on there. Either facebook is screwing with me, or they are playing out some friend’s posts in the ad-network stream so you are actually losing some genuine content. That would be evil (and totally something Meta would do), but I really couldn’t care less.
I do think that sounds more like they’re hiding it and blaming adblock than pretending something was missed. Wouldn’t be surprised if it starts small and ramps up over time, but that’s just speculation.
Your ad blocker is blocking posts from friends
Thank fucking god
My Facebook is hardly even friends these days. It’s basically ads, suggested posts, and posts in groups. Maybe because none of my friends really post anymore, I dunno.
Yeah 1 out of 10 is a friend’s post. The rest is just garbage.
I’m at the stage where I check it once a day, maybe twice, for things like birthdays and anything important that my friends post. 90% of what’s there is suggested posts, ads, or reposted shit. ‘What type of gemstone suits you best? Tap here to find out!’
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Yeah, Facebook can not know when your adblocker is blocking those posts, unless they did it themselves.
Ok but who the fuck uses Facebook?
Boom boom boomers
So people who don’t know about adblockers, generally.
There are a few countries where Facebook is still pretty popular. The Philippines, for example
Averyone who wants to have social life in my country
Oh wow, im sorry for you.
In Brazil, it is useful to contact people that you know in real life, family and friends…
Plus, it sorta works like a Craigslist here. People sell and buy things from Facebook everyday, and people advertise their business and services here (e.g: restaurants, plumbing services, gift stores, etc)
Other than YouTube, I’m basically off all of these centralized social media platforms and it feels great.
I do need to occasionally use Facebook for market place and messenger for contacting business.
Basically every business operates over messenger where I live.
Yes same for me, whatsapp is pretty much the only “genuine” communication channel. I only keep a presence on facebook since I have to move countries frequently for work, and the “expats in $city” groups are quite helpful to find people, and then move the discussions off-platform :-)
I’m trying to encourage people to move to peertube. Not much content there, but i’ll reward what intersting content I find. You should too
Yeah, also please, make some content.
Doesn’t matter that it stinks, we wont watch it till you get better anyway.
There’s just nothing there besides tech content
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So this is how it will start.
First it will be a back and forth war of Anti-adblockers vs Adblockers
Then when the Anti-Adblockers start to lose, which they will, then they’ll come crying to various governments with massic PAC campaigns among other insane garbage about how “Adblockers are Piracy!” and that they need to be banned.
This will not end well.
It’ll end well enough. People will just stop using their shitty platforms. They’ll start looking for alternatives, from which there are loads, find that there are platforms that don’t require ads, and go there.
Those that stay deserve the shit they get
You’re massively overestimating the conviction of the average internet user. They’ll do whatever they’re told is cool to do, including visiting a site that is nothing but ads.
The thing is, if they get really stupid with it I could just go ahead and install pi hole. I haven’t already because it’s a bit of a fiddle on and I don’t apparently don’t need it yet. There’s no way for the government to mandate against that, unless they actually want to ban me from owning a computer, Which obviously won’t really work.
Pihole hasn’t worked with YouTube in almost a decade. They changed their ad service to their own domain, so there isn’t any way to distinguish between an ad and a regular video on the domain level that pihole uses.
Oh no, I have to stop using Facebook too? Holy shit I might get something done
You guys should implement that shit here on Lemmy too
I left reddit for like two weeks before joining lemmy.
I felt like I wasn’t so attached to my phone anymore.
Then I downloaded Sync for lemmy knowing full well that I’d end up addicted again… The internet is the hardest habit to break.
Helps that Lemmy has orders of magnitude less content. After the third time refreshing with no new content, it gets much easier to put the phone down.
It’s pretty good though 😃😁
1% good stuff, 99% delicious horseshit
Stop using Facebook.
I’d rather have some false positives than a single unblocked ad.
It’s been for a long time but not overtly. (I’ve never used it, this is someone else’s screenshot)
Facebook splitting the word “Sponsored” to bypass adblockers – r/assholedesignThey also use all those uglified class names so you can’t easily target a class to block. They’re total bastards. The Facebook Purity plugin is hip to all these tricks though. There are some very dedicated and talented developers who have put in a lot of time and creativity to circumvent these assholes.
Yes, just like Pinterest. It’s easier to find a direct image URL using Network Analysis than Inspector.
iirc Pinterest just uses a div with a background image. Could’ve been insta though
So they’re essentially admitting that their advertisements are indistinguishable from your friend’s posts which are the actual reason you visit the site in the first place. It doesn’t matter anyway anymore. Facebook has buried friends list content among absolute bullshit you have zero desire to see. I visited a while ago and 99% of what I was shown was ridiculous groups I tried to block. But there are millions of them. You can block a thousand groups and there’s 999 thousand more that are just like it, waiting to take their place. Facebook is supposed to have this super algorithm that determines what users want to see. If that’s the case, why are they incapable of detecting that I am actively opposed to certain types of content? Maybe they think they’re going to outrage me enough to engage on this bullshit? Nah, I’ll just leave. Bye, fuck-faces.
Facebook can get fucked. They offer even less to me than YouTube.
How does one block a post from a friend with an ad-blocker? Do some of your friends type like shills? Is Facebook making numbers up for fun?
It’s probably made-up garbage. If they knew my ad-blocker had actually blocked a friend, I’m sure they would have found a way not to get anything blocked.
Or alternatively they are now displaying some friend’s posts on the same channel normally reserved for ad networks so they are indistinguishable via software? But then it should be way more than one, unless this is some early A/B testing crap.
Sounds they detect adblock and then hide friends posts.
lol what… my feed is 80% ads, 15% group posts and maybe 5% friends
That’s why they’re blocking the friend posts! So they can give you more ads!
