More than half a billion people may be inadvertently mining cryptocurrencies from their computers, smartphones and other devices, according to research conducted earlier this year by
ad blocking firm AdGuard.
Not exact matches
Ads in apps aren't
blocked: The brokerage
firm points out that iOS
ad -
blocking apps only
block advertising that comes via Apple's mobile Safari browser, but the vast majority of mobile users spend most of their time inside apps, which also generate the bulk of advertising revenue.
Most users won't do it: The brokerage
firm points out that while iOS 9 supports
ad blocking, users who want to implement it have to do some setup — they have to download an
ad blocker and then go into their device's settings panel to let that app communicate with Safari.
Next up: Chinese advertising
firm Focus Media, which
Block claims overstated the size of its network of
ad - bearing LCD panels by 50 %.
Last month, Adobe and Pagefair — a
firm that offers software to help publishers detect and evade
ad - blockers — came out with a report on the impact of
ad -
blocking.
It's also not lost on observers that Education Reform Now, the group that has been running an
ad campaign accusing the UFT of
blocking a measure to lift the charter school cap and causing the state to lose out in the first round of «Race to the Top» cash, is being repped by KnickerbockerSKD — a
firm that also works for Bloomberg.
But when you talk to actual ethicists, as Ricardo Bilton of Digiday did, you'll learn that «questioning the ethics of
ad blocking ignores that neither publishers nor their digital advertising partners are exactly on
firm ethical ground either.»