[Klaus]

Is this so?

 

And if, are viruses and other malware distributed via the so beloved ad-channel

also part of the payment the "customers" must be willing to pay?

 

Which responsibility do you as a content-provider take?

Are you liable for the damage your ad-content does on the 

computers of your readers?

 

Honestly Klaus, you have a very very biased view. A view that I do not share.

A view that will likely force me to end my time in PZ sooner or later.

 

If ad-blockers are a lose-lose technology ... so are ads!

 

Rainer

 

If ads were a serious security problem then big enterprises would have been among the very first to have ad blockers in place. Enterprises have A LOT more to lose than any private person. 

Yet I have never experienced nor heard that this is common practice. In my other life I'm working for a company that is nothing short of mad about internal IT security and ads are not blocked. So you really think that you know more about web security than the combined security departments of the Fortune 500? 

I've surfed the internet since the dawn of time and never caught a single problem from web browsing (emails are a different topic).
 
Even if we assumed that ads were a major security threat these days, then any site could inject them. Ads are javascript or flash-based and these technologies aren't exclusive to ads. So if I had the criminal energy to do it (assuming that this is still easily possible), I could implement an exploit and, most likely, hide any traces. So following your hypothesis all websites impose a security risk and should not be visited. But obviously ad-blocker users have no issues surfing the web.

 

The real threat in the web are not viruses or trojans anyway. These are very obvious big bombs that are easily detected these days (on OS level) and as such barely worth an effort. The real threat is mass surveillance and mass data accumulation - this is where the money is.

 

Now I give you one thing - disable flash. Flash is outdated and not well maintained. Software (including browsers) is never bug free. Bugs can result in security threats. Browsers and their built-in Javascript engines are extremely well maintained and updated (except on Android). Flash is not. The ad companies have to learn that flash in no longer a viable option in the year 2016 (the use of flash in ads is already rapidly decreasing anyway). And yes, even I have a flash blocker in place that lets me choose whether the flash content should be executed.

 

If you are paranoid, disable cookies (which, curiously, is also something that ad blocker users rarely care about) in order to limit the ability of Google & Co to generate a profile about you (they already got it anyway ...).

 

Regarding your statement that you'd to never visit PZ again - we welcome all readers that help us to keep the site up and running. Now if you don't allow ads nor donate nor pay a future subscription (with ad-free option), what remains exactly ? If nothing whatsoever remains then ad blockers are a lose-lose technology.