Internet Ads: Difference between revisions
link the new trope, add a mention of GDPR and tracking cookies
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Another area of intense research has been coming up with ways to actively ''circumvent'' a user's ad-blocking. It has long been possible to detect at least some of the methods used to block ads, and change the page contents accordingly. The usual use has been to [[Guilt Trip]] their users or even blackmail them into allowing ads by withholding content. (For example, at least one method of ad-blocking will produce this result on [[The Other Tropes Wiki]], which will then point out just [[Blatant Lies|how much they're paying their contributors]] and demand you shoulder some of the cost.) And by the middle to late 2010s methods of subverting and remotely disabling a user's ad-blocking started becoming practical for at least some ad technologies. (Again, [[The Other Tropes Wiki]] has dabbled in pro-active protection of their profit margin.)
And then there's the whole question of websites and advertisers tracking and profiling their users in various ways. Some may well be illegal, such as displaying employment opportunities or housing ads to specific demographics based on age or gender identity. Others are merely creepy or annoying, like that one ad that follows the user from website to website. You searched for "pickles and ice cream" just once, and now every site you visit from that browser or device is showing pregnancy-related advertisements? Not cool. In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 requires sites disclose their use of tracking cookies, but this only yields weasel-worded disclaimers that the tracking is "to improve your browsing experience" with no clear way to opt-out or shut the intrusive trackers down.
Add to this the problems with [[Think of the Advertisers!|sites censoring content]] that they fear may offend the advertiser, and the financial reliance on commercial sponsors becomes a [[Deal with the Devil]] at times.
[http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20041206.html This site] has some interesting pages about ads, and how we resent them or ignore them. If its author were an annoyologist, he would ''deserve'' big bucks.
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