I don’t really use facebook anymore so couldn’t care less; but so happened to log in today to change my password and saw this on my front page.
Ad Blocking is Cyber Security, never ever let anyone convince you differently
if ads were just static PNGs with a link you went to if you clicked I wouldn’t have ever bothered. but ads became a major malware and tracking risk so plugging that security hole became mandatory.
I tried finding that website, but I can’t remember what it is. I’ve seen it use the static image advertisement. It changed on each reload too.
But yes, that website had last update somewhere in the early 2000s.
When I last used it a few years ago ExplainXKCD used static images and had a note about how they hand picked each ad to avoid any problems.
Even static PNG ads are purpose engineered to grab your attention. People with attention disorders like ADHD and autism don’t have as much attention to give, and when it’s gone we’re debilitated. We need to start considering cognitohazards a legally prosecutable form of violence.
Could attention grabbing dark-features be considered a violation of the ADA?
Which part of it, specifically?
Edit: No, the ADA word not apply. My point was that you should understand the ADA a bit better and what it covers. Accessing a building open to the public, not facing discrimination in employment, and accommodations in education environments are examples of things it covers. I’m willing to be proven wrong, but don’t just guess or generalize. Please try and understand the topic a bit more as it’s a very important piece of legislation that makes a big difference in a lot of lives and treating it lightly dilutes that in a similar fashion to emotional support alligators vs trained service animals.
Did you really just compare accommodations for ADHD to “emotional support alligators?”
I am not a lawyer, but there is precedent for ADHD to be covered under the ADA and precedent that it (meaning the ADA) applies to websites for private businesses.
Edit: ADHD fits the definition of a disability as defined by Sec. 12102 of the ADA, specifically:
- 1a: it’s a mental impairment
- 2a1: it affects: learning, reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and working.
- 3B: it’s not transitory/lasts longer than 6 months
Edit 2: a lawyer could argue that adblocking is an assistive technology for people with ADHD. If a person is looking at a tutorial at work and is inundated with ads that effect their performance at work that they can not block using an adblocker, that is denying a person with a disability as (defined by Sec. 12102 of the ADA) the full and equal (to a person who is neurotypical and can more easily not get distracted) use of a title III entities service.
People are gonna say I’m being hyperbolic or crazy, but I swear that the internet died the day the first line of production Javascript was ever written.
The internet died in September 1994 everybody knows that
It’s true. I work in a computer shop and we see literally thousands and thousands of dollars lost from people clicking on ads that look like normal buttons (things like “Download”, “Next”, etc). And not just the elderly either. Everyone has a a combination of inputs to get scared and comply. Folks that are otherwise extremely competent and savvy can get scammed too.
The best security you can have online is adblockers, only beaten by using trusted websites.
Edit, fair points with sites being slimy these days. I meant using legitimate versions of websites rather than copy/fake websites designed to steal credentials.
But what websites can you trust these days?
YouTube? Serves up scammy bitcoin ads. Google? Places ads as “search results” Twitter?
Maybe that one website unchanged since 1998.
I can totally trust the hmpg site.
Seems like a feature to me.
I took a peek at my feed for the first time in years. It’s all junk lol, no one I care about is posting anything
The only thing worth seeing is my local Buy Nothing group, but there are other services popping up which do something similar.
Your ad blocker is blocking posts from friends
Thank fucking god
My Facebook is hardly even friends these days. It’s basically ads, suggested posts, and posts in groups. Maybe because none of my friends really post anymore, I dunno.
So all my “friends” are actually ads?
Guess I don’t need to use Facebook
Oh no! Anyway…
Reminder that Facebook hates you and pays people to develop ways to manipulate and control your behavior. Request to download your account data, delete your account, and go outside. It’s less scary than you’re making it and you’ll feel better in the end.
Ok but who the fuck uses Facebook?
Stop using Facebook.
Everyone should be using the Facebook addon “Facebook Purity” if they are still using the platform. I’ve been using it for over a decade and I can’t stand using Facebook without it…
They are always a few steps ahead of Facebook and work well with other blockers.
Not only that, you can block specific parts of Facebook, not just the adverts. You can block the shorts, people you know, groups, keywords, and even whole topics.
You can change settings, like how you see your feed and it will stay changed.
Changing the font size, type, spacing in addition a bunch of color and night mode options are just icing on the cake.
In my professional opinion, it’s the only way of working with that platform is not harmful to one’s sanity.
It would be funny if the ad blocking community just ignored this, and focused on removing FB tracking on external sites.
This will not end well. YouTube is very difficult to replace while Facebook has plenty of competitors.
Not when people starts to discover PeerTube and actually use it. The last update is mighty meat!
Great for the internet! More people will install an adblocker (hopefully ublock origin).
why would this lead to more adblocker installs? it’s a message about already having one
Like it backfired for YouTube, it will be the case for Facebook. People become aware of them through the news it generates.
How did it backfire for YouTube? According to this source, YouTube has over 2 billion monthly users. Let’s assume that a significant portion of this user base is around 10%, as a substantial loss in ad revenues would be necessary for this situation to backfire. That would amount to 200,000,000 users.
Do we have data confirming that ad-blockers gained approximately 200,000,000 new installations over the past month, or is there any other evidence to support this claim?
The argument I heard is that all of the chatter about adblockers is causing normal people who don’t realize that adblockers exist to realize that they exist and try them out. I don’t know if there’s any evidence that this is actually happening, and I don’t know how much I can believe that argument at this stage
How many of yall are still using facebook? Be honest.
Only when searching for cars on Marketplace, as there isn’t any other site or platforms with the amount of listings that fb has
I thought they discontinued selling cars there?
Certainly not where I live, not sure in the US
I looked it up. They discontinued allowing businesses to post vehicles on Facebook Marketplace.
Other than YouTube, I’m basically off all of these centralized social media platforms and it feels great.
I do need to occasionally use Facebook for market place and messenger for contacting business.
Basically every business operates over messenger where I live.
Yes same for me, whatsapp is pretty much the only “genuine” communication channel. I only keep a presence on facebook since I have to move countries frequently for work, and the “expats in $city” groups are quite helpful to find people, and then move the discussions off-platform :-)
