Facebook is in an Arms Race with Adblockers

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

[H]ard|Gawd
Staff member
Joined
Mar 3, 2018
Messages
1,713
While Facebook is reportedly "at war" with itself and the public, the BBC reports that Facebook is also fighting another kind of war. The social media giant is allegedly using a number of tricks to fool popular ad blocking plugins, including "breaking up the word 'sponsored,'" inserting hidden letters, and inserting hidden ad tags into regular posts. On top of that, Facebook developers are constantly shifting tactics to stay ahead of adblock software. Some sites point out that these tactics can bog down the Facebook website, or make the status of sponsored content less apparent to regular users.

This is nothing new, as Facebook announced their intention to thwart adblockers over 2 years ago. But a number of Github issues discussion pages, including one for uBlock Orgin, show that Facebook is rapidly reacting to developers' changes these days. While the BBC reached out to Facebook, the company hasn't responded to the article yet.
 
Time to stop processing html, and have adblockers implement some AI, and block things by understanding the pixels on the final rendered page.
 
oldmanbal said:
Stop using Facebook.
Click to expand...

b5fa2310c88b7c3d389e25a4bc2567a9.jpg
 
This is why more sites like that force .js now.
 
About the only thing I use Facebook for these days is Facebook Messenger but even that I rarely use. I keep Messenger around for communicating with some people but I've been tempted to tell these people that I'm deleting my Facebook account.
 
Deleted my Facebook account a few weeks ago, mainly due to what Im reading and hearing in the news. They are going downhill. I still use messenger though to keep up with coworkers and friends.
 
I only use Facebook for my Oculus Rift needs and the few local boardgame related things. Otherwise Facebook can go screw a pooch for all I care.
 
I have a Pi-Hole on my local network, so things that aren't FB don't resolve. FB.net is blocked from running scripts via NoScript. Oh and the FB container for FireFox to make sure they aren't snooping outside the box so to speak.

It's not perfect, but the only 100% effective option would be to just drop FB altogether.
 
I use marketplace under a false name. No friends. No location. I've lost sales because people think I'm a scammer, which I can understand.

Made a decent amount otherwise.
 
webdev511 said:
I have a Pi-Hole on my local network, so things that aren't FB don't resolve. FB.net is blocked from running scripts via NoScript. Oh and the FB container for FireFox to make sure they aren't snooping outside the box so to speak.

It's not perfect, but the only 100% effective option would be to just drop FB altogether.
Click to expand...
I have a pi-hole too. It's on my face & prefers apple!
 
From the Article:
Another, posting as okiehsch, suggested development would never stop.
"I doubt very much that Facebook will stop trying to push their ads, so this issue will never be 'fixed'," they wrote.
​


I've fixed the issue. I don't go to their site, and you can't beat me if I don't play.
 
Not a FB user so I don't know. But I wonder if FB offered an ad free version for a price (like say $3-5/mo) would anyone switch?

That_Sound_Guy said:
FB has measureless benefits to others if you choose to use as such. The humane society I volunteer at uses it extensively and greatly increased throughput of getting animals into adoptive/foster homes. Limit what you put on it personally, ignore the people who use it as a soap box and its fine.
Click to expand...
My local animal shelter has their own web site. I've also found other places to find adoptable pets on the web (though I admit some could use improved software). FB is not the only way.
 
It pans out easy when you stop using android devices or anything google related
 
WhoMe said:
My local animal shelter has their own web site. I've also found other places to find adoptable pets on the web (though I admit some could use improved software). FB is not the only way.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but FB is free and requires zero technological knowledge to use effectively.

68 year old Linda can post all kinds of cat and dog pictures, and remove them easily enough, too.
 
Facebook is in a death spiral. Unfortunately, when they started to take heat last year, I noticed Instagram, which I use a lot, doubled the amount of ads they show.

Facebook's fallback platform is Instagram.
 
We need an adblocker that works by white-listing the non-ad content heh.
 
WhoMe said:
My local animal shelter has their own web site. I've also found other places to find adoptable pets on the web (though I admit some could use improved software). FB is not the only way.
Click to expand...

Ours does to. A website requires the visitor to make the effort to look at the animals and overhead of an IT admin to update. FB allows people to join the group and see all posts and updates, generating a lot more looks as they share and so on. I never said FB was the only way, just a good option.
 
dgz said:
Funny, FB is the reason I don't have a Rift.
Click to expand...

I do not like the Facebook connection either but Rift + touch was a much better deal and touch controllers are superior to Vive wands.
 
Ad blockers are the most amazing thing ever. If only television had it, I (still probably wouldn't) may consider getting it!
 
Westwood Arrakis said:
Curious how that pans out.
Click to expand...

My friend has been using metacrawler forever, never got the note that google was cool to search with. Uses some cheap pay email that he believes is secure, and is also an IT officer for a large Financial Institution. People go their lives without using google, you just have to pick and choose your options.
 
oldmanbal said:
My friend has been using metacrawler forever, never got the note that google was cool to search with. Uses some cheap pay email that he believes is secure, and is also an IT officer for a large Financial Institution. People go their lives without using google, you just have to pick and choose your options.
Click to expand...
This topic is so far beyond my understanding, but I went to use MetaCrawler and I see this:

W2q3634.png
 
Put in some normal image advertisements, nobody cares.

Put in 40000 of them and ones with video, sound and all sorts of irritants, misleaing "sponsored" bullshit - people will go to lengths to block them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top