Majority of Americans now use ad blockers

boem@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 1182 points –
Study claims more than half of Americans use ad blockers
theregister.com
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I dislike the fact that "ads" can also include crapware being injected into my computer (viruses, tracking cookies, mysterious scripts, etc).

If you had nothing to hide, you wouldn't mind Trojans! /s

And there are so many scam ads that look like UI buttons and such. I can see why people get fooled sometimes. Those sort of ads should automatically be rejected by af networks and the sites that host them. But $$$

Is this still really a thing? I remember getting some viruses from ads in the very early days of the internet, like late 90s / early 2000s, but can’t remember getting anything in at least the last ten years.

It's currently late and I am on my phone, so I can't research this too well, but for example this thread and official Microsoft link discusses th Adrozek malware which injects you with unwanted ads and information directly from your browser.

Sure, it's not a virus in the older sense of the term where someone either burns your drive or takes over your computer and locks you out asking for a ransom, but it's still piloting you unsuspectingly and you don't want it.