The Ethics Of Ad-Blocking Essay

In an age where advertisements permeate the Internet, many people have discovered ways to counter invasive ads. Adblock is used for a variety of reasons, from blocking a mere annoyance to avoiding an epileptic seizure. By using Adblock, content on websites can load faster, use less bandwidth, and even get rid of native advertisements. However, there is more to the eye than just evading an annoying ad; some people may not realize how it affects site hosts, as much of their money is gained by ads. While blocking ads may seem to violate the “implied contract” theory, ad-blocking is completely ethical. There has also been a rise of “malvertising”, a malicious form of advertising that can infect someone’s PC with malware through advertisements. Collecting data without consent as well as the possibility of catching a case of malware from advertisements is enough reason to use Adblock.
In “The Ethics of Modern Web Ad-Blocking”, Marco Arment explains that ad-blocking is not unethical, it is a more of a moral obligation. The “implied contract” theory states that readers can view the contents of a website for free in exchange for seeing ads that sponsor the site …show more content…
Not even legitimate, trusted websites are protected from being affected by malvertising. According to Rohan Patil’s article, “Weeding Out Malvertising”, the news site Daily Mail was a victim of malvertising and infected users’ computers with “ransomware that took control of users’ computers and forced them to pay to get access to their device again” (Patil). The most effective way to avoid malicious advertisements is to use Adblock; these malicious advertisements do not require clicks to be activated, they simply need to be viewed to infect a visitor with malware (Patil). This gives people more incentive to use ad-block, although “the lost of trust could translate into serious damage to revenues”