NYT: ‘Enabling of Ad Blocking in Apple’s iOS 9 Prompts Backlash’

Katie Benner and Sydney Ember, reporting for the NYT:

The potential toll of ad blocking has become particularly apparent over the last few days, when several website publishers got caught in the dragnet after Apple enabled ad-blocking apps. John Gruber, a technology blogger who publishes on his site Daring Fireball, posted on Twitter that “it’s wrong” if an ad blocker stops all types of ads.

“The ad network I’m a part of, The Deck, only serves ads that are fast to load and don’t track you,” Mr. Gruber said. “In my opinion, they’re good-looking ads for high-quality products and services. Why block that?”

If you want to block all advertising, I don’t understand you, but I won’t argue with you either. No one’s going to stop you. But most people just want to block garbage — privacy-invasive trackers, JavaScript that slows our devices and drains our batteries, obtrusive ads that cover the content we’re trying to read.

Are we fighting ads, or are we fighting garbage?

★ Saturday, 19 September 2015