| Blocking ads in your browser is responsible behavior. It is the same as putting a lock on the door to your house. There are people in the world who will think nothing of taking advantage of you if it means they can put money in their pocket. That said, the OP is referencing malicious ads, which are not designed to sell a product or service. Instead, they are designed to infect your device. From which they can collect/extract data about you. The current ad-tech model needs to change and is due for disruption. Advertising is everywhere and it’s out of control. There seem to be more ads than ever, in every medium and in every square inch of surface area. In most cases, the ads are unwanted and not even relevant. Our attention is being stolen and massive amounts of money are being wasted by companies with a legitimate interest to make sales. The bottom-line is that consumers are being victimized by the constant bombardment of advertising. And the companies that sell products/services, who need to build awareness and grow sales, are being taken advantage of by the ad-tech giants. A new model is needed and we are actively working on a solution called Sellff Offers. This solution allows sellers and buyers to connect directly, without the middleman. Sellff Offers inverts the current ad-tech model in three significant ways: [1] Opt-in, [2] Privacy friendly, and [3] Pays cash rewards. Here is an example Offer [ https://sellff.com/$/ron.michel/offer/ewVkr ]. You choose whether to view the Offer. Your data and activity is not collected/shared/sold if you view the Offer. And, you are compensated for your time if you decide to participate in the Offer. Complaining about the current broken ad-tech model does not help to fix it. You need to take action to bring about the change you want to see. If you have an interest in building a new digital marketing/promotions solution, we would like to speak with you. Regardless, we are very excited to see the growing consumer awareness of the dangers of ad-tech and the interest in alternatives ways to connect buyers and sellers. |
At this point we can only assume that every ad is malicious. It doesn't matter if they are designed to sell a product or service. They'll still collect/extract data about you at every opportunity.
At best, they're attempts to manipulate us. That might mean making us feel insecure about ourselves or our lifestyle so that they can trick is into giving them money. It might mean outright lying to us and feeding our fears to push us to support a certain politician or law. It might be promoting outright scams.
Surveillance advertising needs to die. Paying people to view ads alone won't remove the harms advertising can cause, but at least it's a "pull" vs "push" model which I approve of since it can be safely ignored by anyone unwilling to subject themselves to manipulation and exploitation.
You should consider a strict code of conduct for what types of ads you will/won't allow on your platform to keep the worst of it away. Fact-checking and vetting takes time and money, but it would keep your service from being used to spread disinformation and scams and could help prevent some of the harms.