Google’s ad-blocking crackdown underway

Google has gotten a bad reputation as of late for being a bit overzealous when it comes to fighting ad blockers. Most recently, it’s been spotted automatically turning off popular ad blocking extension uBlock Origin for some Google Chrome users. To a degree, that makes sense—Google makes its money off ads. But with malicious ads and data trackers all over the internet these days, users have legitimate reasons to want to block them. The uBlock Origin controversy is just one facet of a debate that goes back years, and it’s not isolated: your favorite ad blocker will likely be affected next. Here are the best ways to keep blocking ads now that Google is cracking down on ad blockers.
↫ Michelle Ehrhardt at LifeHacker

Here’s the cold and harsh reality: ad blocking will become ever more difficult as time goes on. Not only is Google obviously fighting it, other browser makers will most likely follow suit. Microsoft is an advertising company, so Edge will follow suit in dropping Manifest v2 support. Apple is an advertising company, and will do whatever they can to make at least their own ads appear. Mozilla is an advertising company, too, now, and will continue to erode their users’ trust in favour of nebulous nonsense like privacy-respecting advertising in cooperation with Facebook.

The best way to block ads is to move to blocking at the network level. Get a cheap computer or Raspberry Pi, set up Pi-Hole, and enjoy some of the best adblocking you’re ever going to get. It’s definitely more involved than just installing a browser extension, but it also happens to be much harder for advertising companies to combat. If you’re feeling generous, set up Pi-Holes for your parents, friends, and relatives. It’s worth it to make their browsing experience faster, safer, and more pleasant.

And once again I’d like to reiterate that I have zero issues with anyone blocking the ads on OSNews. Your computer, your rules. It’s not like display ads are particularly profitable anyway, so I’d much rather you support us through Patreon or a one-time donation through Ko-Fi, which is a more direct way of ensuring OSNews continues to exist. Also note that the OSNews Matrix room – think IRC, but more modern, and fully end-to-end encrypted – is now up and running and accessible to all OSNews Patreons as well.