• floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    7 months ago

    76 percent of cybersecurity experts use ad blockers.

    I’m a bit worried about that other 24%. How expert are they if they don’t recognize the risk?

    • hexagonwin@lemmy.sdf.org
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      7 months ago

      maybe they don’t enable js at all /s

      jk, maybe they value fingerprinting over that? even tor browser doesn’t have one built in.

    • psivchaz@reddthat.com
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      7 months ago

      There’s some inherent risk in the ad blocker as well, though. If it’s an extension, you’re trusting that this thing you installed, that can read and modify every website you visit, isn’t going to do anything sneaky. Yes, maybe it’s open source, but every once in a while something sneaks into open source projects, too. It will get caught, but it could be after the damage is done.

      I mean, I use an ad blocker. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to value security and not use one.

      • kadu@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        But by that logic, absolutely everything other than standing still in a fethal position in a dark cave is a cyber security risk.

        Are you using an extremely solid version of Linux? Wellllll, sometimes bad actors can push bad code to open source projects! It’s a risk!

  • Godort@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    Good. Ad blocking is security and anyone that tells you different both doesn’t care about your computer security, and also wants to sell you something.

    That 2/3 to 3/4 of computer programmers, computer security experts and advertisers seems low. I feel like that should be closer to 90%

  • я не из калининграда@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    i always lol about people opposing ad blockers.

    oh no! my favorite unethical multinational conglomerate now has a few bucks less!

    how can anybody see this as a bad thing? ad blocking is cybersecurity.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Some people only believe what they’re told by an authority, and some people only view massive corporations, politicians, and the church as legitimate authorities. So if a corporation tells them it’s bad, they’ll believe it’s bad.

  • sweetpotato@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Good, your attention is a commodity, don’t let advertisers steal it. We’ve been assaulted with enough ads in public spaces already.

  • ProfessorYakkington@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Once I had to use the internet without and ad blocker ( shiver ). It was horrible. I still have nightmares.

    Joking aside. I couldn’t believe how crammed full and chaotic sites were without an ad blocker. I have no evidence to support this other than my experience but I think , for me , ad blockers are good for my mental health. Being constantly exposed to all those messages trying to exploit insecurities can’t be good for people.

    Anyways ad blockers are the best.

  • Einar@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    It’s almost as if companies have gone a bit overboard with advertising. Huh. Didn’t see that coming…

  • OpenStars@startrek.website
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    7 months ago

    What I wonder is… how?! A quick search shows that half of people in the USA use Chrome, another 30% Safari, 8% use Edge, and only 5% Firefox. This study was done by Ghostery so perhaps they chose a biased subset of the population? It just seems weird to me to think that more than half of average users use ad-blocking, these days.

    • viking@infosec.pub
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      7 months ago

      My mom knows nothing about adblock, and is still blocking ads. You better believe all of the kids having to fix their relative’s computers will set up some free antivirus and ad blocking right away.

      Can’t comment on the sample size though, Ghostery might indeed be somehow biased and measure devices where their software is installed vs. total number of internet users or something? But users of ghostery are more likely to be tech savvy, so there’s a higher chance of them having more devices that are equally sanitized.

      I’d have to dig through the study and see if the sampling mechanism is made public.

      • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        will set up some free antivirus and ad blocking right away.

        Those mfs have got a way to go if they’re setting up free antiviruses. Free anti-virsus will hurt your system probably more on average than actual viruses

          • min_fapper@iusearchlinux.fyi
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            7 months ago

            Just use Windows defender already. It’s been good enough for ages. All the others downplay this to justify their existence.

            • 0oWow@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Why are people recommending Microsoft spyware in a privacy thread??

              • Zerush@lemmy.ml
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                7 months ago

                Here we are spaking about that this Spyware is pretty resistant against all kind of malware, not about that it’s needed to gut it from all kind of telemetries, bloatware and not needed services before the first use, that is another thing.

  • GrappleHat@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    Surprised the rates of adblocking is so high! I thought it was a little more niche.

    Also surprised that the article didn’t mention manifest v3 rolling out later this year to Chrimium-based browsers - which will effectively end adblocking in all browsers except Firefox.

    Google isn’t stupid, they know that ad blocking undermines their business. And Google controls Chromium: the backbone of almost all browsers. So of course they’re going to engineer it to prevent ad blocking. It was only a matter of time.

  • deadcatbounce@reddthat.com
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    16 days ago

    Does anyone actually believe this garbage?

    I don’t think that that is true in any so-called developed world nation. Think of your friends; how many know what an ad-blocker is? Who don’t use the browser that came installed on the pc/phone?

  • T (they/she)@beehaw.org
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    7 months ago

    This is a census so people probability answered they use ad blockers on the computer but they didn’t ask about mobile, I assume

    Here’s where the report is.

  • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
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    7 months ago

    Data like this makes me wonder what Firefox is doing. If Nord can sell a VPN surely Mozilla could get some market share

  • shneancy@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    lmao let’s all thank YouTube for spreading the word about adblockers, best adverisment ever

    • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      The problem with YouTube is that even if you manage to block ads, you find most of the videos are ads too.

      • DeltaWhy@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        SponsorBlock is essential now. I switched from iPad to an Android tablet largely so I could use YouTube ReVanced. And on Android TV there’s SmartTube Next.

        I get that creators gotta eat, but I pay for YouTube Premium already. If they would stop accepting sponsorships from scam companies I might even stop blocking those.