Perceptual Ad Blocking Study paints grim picture

[harlan4096]

Advertisement blockers address a growing number of issues related to online advertisement: from online tracking to sell higher paying ads over saving bandwidth and improving page load time, to blocking malware that is distributed through advertising channels.

One downside to ad blocking is that some publishers cannot sustain their business any longer; means, they either go out of business or use other means of earning revenue which may be even more problematic than ads. Some publishers implement anti ad blocking mechanics on their sites to block ad blockers from working correctly or running at all.

Princeton researchers created a software last year that used a different approach to detect and block advertisement. Instead of relying on hostnames or code snippets, the solution of the Princeton researchers mimiced how Internet users identify advertisement on websites.

A perceptual ad blocker is not that interested in code that ads use. It uses visual cues to identify advertisement instead; this includes subtle cues that sites are often required to show to users when page elements are sponsored -- e.g. sponsored or advertisement labels -- but also close buttons or icons on ads by ad companies such as Google.

Full reading: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/11/12/percep...m-picture/