It’s scary how ads today are so personalized. Forbes politely asking to turn off ad blockers while uBlock Origin proceeds to block 19 unknown scripts Targeted ads track your browsing history in order to serve up customized ads, and they’ve regrettably become the status quo. We venture to argue one of the main reasons why more people are installing ad blockers is because they’re becoming increasingly sensitive to how their information is being shared. It’s changed from something only a handful of tech-savvy people used to an everyday household tool. In 2015 alone, ad blocking software rose a whopping 41 percent, with an estimated 200 million active users worldwide. There are many irrefutable benefits to using an ad blocker -they help protect you from malware, speed up load times, and offer an all-around better site experience-but there’s also a valid counter argument: How can domain owners make money without ads? The rise of ad blockers The Washington Post, Slate, and more recently Wired have also dabbled in blocking ad blockers. (In other news, Forbes is serving malware with its mandatory ads.)īut Forbes isn’t the only company taking ads into its own hands.

Visitors with any type of ad blocker installed on their web browser were immediately met with an obtrusive white wall asking them to politely disable their settings in order to view the site. Last December, Forbes started blocking access to visitors who used ad-blocking software. This post was originally published on March 9, 2016.

Turning off ad blocker