Will "Do Not Track" Kill the Free Internet?

jfruh writes "Dan Tynan is a privacy blogger and longtime proponent of the use of browser plug-ins and other technologies that block advertisers from tracking your web browsing habits. He's also a professional tech writer who makes his living writing articles for free, ad-supported sites. But he doesn't feel those two facts are in conflict, and points out that users pay good money to ISPs for those 'free' sites."

Doesn't mater

[na1led]

The ISP will track your every move. The private browsing option is just in case your Wife finds out where you've been on the Internet.

Re:Ads can still be relavent

[Penguinisto]

True, and it's not like they can't get a rough geographical location from your IP address to add to the relevance. They can also add server-side data for regular/frequent visitors if the site has multiple topics, so as to fine-tune which topic is the most relevant.

Re:Slashdot censors posts

[Qzukk]

flagged comments are listed on a page for the editors to individually review. Once there, we have two options: downmodding the comment or ignoring the report.

You're welcome to try it out, if you'd like. It's basically just around for downmodding spam and things like the racist copypastas. So far, probably 95% of the reports have been for perfectly normal comments, on which we've taken no action.

-- Soulskill [slashdot.org]

Feel free to believe it or not.

Re:Did AdBlock kill the free internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

I block ads not because I want to deny webpages money.

I block them because ad rotator "services" are the primary infection vector out there. Even "top tier" sites like CNN have been bitten by ad services that either are too leniant on who they let advertise, or even "wink wink, nudge, nudge" condone blackhat activity, because in all likelihood, they won't get caught.

Want to know how I know? There were good /. articles about this, and I personally have run clean VMs on a popular site (not a pr0n site), and the VM got stung by adware.

So, until the advertisers stop allowing blackhats to send their crap, I will use Adblock and Flash blocking technologies.

Another datum, although anecdotal: I use a VM to browse, and have been for a couple years now, using AdBlock and NoScript. It has no AV protection. Just yesterday, I decided to power the VM off and mount its VHD onto another VM to run 2-3 antivirus scanners on it. All came up clean.

So, until the advertisers start cleaning up their game, I refuse them entry, just like I refuse entry to people in my house who might try to set it on fire, or pour plaster of Paris down the toilet.

Re:Did AdBlock kill the free internet?

[Ihmhi]

Yeah, and one of the features they touted when cable TV first came out was that it was completely commercial free. How did that work out for us again?

Re:Did AdBlock kill the free internet?

[Anonymous Coward]

However if you are going to go overboard and use Add Block to keep your browsing ad free you are going to be spending a fair amount of time just blocking adds in that process you will be looking at the adds before you block them.

I think perhaps you don't have a clear understanding of how adblock plus works.

It blocks ads. That's what it does. You don't have to right-click every single advertisement on every single page individually and tell it to block. It just. blocks. ads. Was there an ad on that webpage I went to? I dunno, because adblock plus BLOCKED it. It does not require action on your part. It just does it.

Re:What is the flag?

[Soulskill]

Hitting the flag icon will bring that comment to the editors' attention. Nothing is automated. (For example, several comments in this thread were flagged.) When we look at it, we'll downmod it if it's spam, or something like the racist copypastas.

It's basically just an avenue for people without mod points to get the worst comments downmodded more quickly.