Is Blocking Ads Unethical?
Let me say outright that I can see how you might want to protect your computer from pop-ups that can never be closed or any other form of pop-up hell. That said, should you really be blocking all kinds of ads? even regular banners and text links that are no more visually obtrusive than any other web page element?
Why Do People Use Ad Blockers?
I have recently come across a post titled “Why You Shouldn’t Feel Bad About Blocking Ads“. In this post, fellow blogger Raygen brought forward several arguments to justify blocking ads on content websites.
I did leave Raygen a comment, but I’d like to further develop the argument here and reply to some of his claims.
According to the post, using an ad blocker -
Prevents the most common … virus and spyware infections
I don’t use an ad blocker and yet the only time I got infected by a virus was when I accidentally opened an email attachment with a keylogger. Using an up-to-date browser and a good anti-virus protects you from viruses – and ads isn’t where you get them from.
Prevent 3rd party ad networks from harvesting marketing and user preference information from the user.
Hey, cookies are your friends 
Seriously, cookies aren’t these malicious spies and they are anything but restricted to ads. As mentioned in the post itself, most sites “collect your data” for statistics – nothing to do with ads. Ad blockers are not the answer (to something that isn’t a problem to begin with, IMO).
Prevents Flash Player from grinding your browser to a halt.
If Flash is bringing your browser to a halt, you may want to upgrade/change your browser. Many websites use flash, so again, this isn’t about ads necessarily. Instead of blocking flash ads, just make sure you have the right browser and plug-ins.
Prevents you from seeing and helping those annoying MFA’s (Made for Adsense Sites) and helping their spam causes with clickthroughs.
You kinda lost me here, really. Ad blockers would, at most, block the adsense units on these sites. You would still be visiting junk sites all the same. They don’t get paid for your adviews, just for clicks. My advice is: try and stay away from MFA’s and if you land on one, don’t click on the ads. Fairly simple and doesn’t require an adblocker.
Blocking those truly annoying video ads that pop up on the middle of the page that get in the way of stuff.
I agree that some ads can be obtrusive. Here’s what I do when I come across such a website – I stay away from it and go elsewhere. It is their site and they have the right to put advertisement on it as they see fit. I have the right to not visit the site and that’s what I do.
As a web publisher, let me tell you this action is meaningful. Several years ago, I tried introducing pop-up ads on one of my main sites. Guess what? Traffic went down and I switched those ads off and found a balance of ads which my users don’t find too obtrusive.
Why I Think Using Ad Blockers is Unethical
A web page is managed by someone – more often than not, a self-employed webmaster/blogger. We work hard at creating the content and we monetize it (read this as “earn our salary”) by using various forms of advertising. It’s a fairly simple deal: we provide you with “free” content and in return you get exposed to the ads on the pages. You don’t have to buy anything, you don’t even have to click on anything, just let the ads be there. Personally, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for, in exchange for quality content.
As a web publisher, I try to serve my users with a fair balance of quality content, along with ads which are not obtrusive. No pop-ups, definitely no malware, no flashing banners. I make a large chunk of my revenue from CPM advertising – so I get paid for you to view the ads. Turn on the ad blocker and you’re taking away from my invested resources, without allowing me to create a stream of revenue.
