Idea to avoid anti-adblock script detection

Various discussions related to Adblock Plus development
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Guybrush
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:00 am

Idea to avoid anti-adblock script detection

Post by Guybrush »

Hi everyone,
I find Adblock Plus is becoming far less useful as is used to be due to scripts that detect adblockers and block the actual page content from loading.
As I understand and it was mentioned here the detection is based on the fact that the ads are not loaded by the browser anymore.
Wouldn't it be possible to add a functionality to AdblockPlus that makes the browser still download the ads, but no longer displays them?
The waste of bandwith would not hurt most users with broadband internet access.

Any thoughts on this idea?
Kind regards,
Guybrush
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mapx
Posts: 21940
Joined: Thu Jan 06, 2011 2:01 pm

Re: Idea to avoid anti-adblock script detection

Post by mapx »

It was already proposed and treated as some type of fraud.
see similar request / answer
forum/viewtopic.php?p=154075#p154075
Guybrush
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:00 am

Re: Idea to avoid anti-adblock script detection

Post by Guybrush »

I cannot follow what is said in that other thread.
Letting content load only to hide it later is known as view-fraud, and advertisers will penalize sites for it; also, it disables the main reason most people should seriously consider an ad-blocker: Removing a vector for malware transmission.
From the perspective of the "sites" it cannot (easily) be tracked. The client loads the content of the ads. If it is actually displayed to the user or not is hard to find out.
Also why/how should a website be penalized for something its users do?

The malware transmission aspect also does not hold when the client/adblock downloads the content, but sends it to dev/null (so to speak).
Guybrush
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Oct 20, 2017 9:00 am

Re: Idea to avoid anti-adblock script detection

Post by Guybrush »

Thanks for the links! I understand the fraud argument better now and how it could reflect back on the site owners.
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