Why Using an Ad Blocker Is Stealing

Source: Avram Piltch
Affiliation: Tom's Guide

In this article, the author discusses why using an ad blocker is stealing. The author argues that using an ad blocker both prevents those who work for small independent free websites from being paid a fair wage, and, if these small websites go down from not enough ad revenue, limits the readers choice to only content from a small pool large establishments with subscription fees (e.g. The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal). While the author admits that receiving ads can be frustrating, he argues that instead of blocking ads, users should interact with good ads and ignore annoying as so that the ad companies will learn to deprioritize frustrating ads.

Keywords: Advertising , Big Data , Computer Science , Tech Ethics , Tech Industry