Should  we  be  worried  about  Adblock  and  Do  Not  Track?  

3.1.2013  

We  will  go  over  the  trends  around  Adblock  and  Do  Not  Track  -­‐  the  two  most  popular  browsers  extensions  that  disable  tracking    to  better  understand  how  they  work  and  why  they  matter  to  us  

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Purpose  

over  in  the  next  2-­‐3  years  at  the  current  pace  Chrome  has  seen  the  largest  growth  overall  in  the  past  couple  years  The  top  browser  extensions  on  Chrome  and  Fire  Fox  are  adblock-­‐related  Fire  Fox  announced  it  will  block  third-­‐party  cookies  by  default  as  of  April  5th,  2013  when  version  22  rolls  out    

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Browser  Market  Share  

41%

17%

25%

14%3%

US  Only  Desktop  Browser  Share  Jan  2013

31%

21%

37%

8%3%

Global  Desktop  Browser  Share  Jan  2013

IE  

Fire  Fox  

Chrome  

Safari  IE  

Fire  Fox  

Chrome  

Safari  

Source:  StatCounter  

The  Rise  of  Adblock  

3.5%  of  all  US  Internet  users  have  Adblock  Plus  installed  according  to  NYTimes       (Jan  2012)  

Approximately  8.6MM  US  Adblock  users  Estimated  150K  downloads  each  day  worldwide  

goal of Adblock Plus is not to hurt providers of free content. By putting users in control over the ads we want to make sure that bad ads (e.g. misleading messages that sneak through or malicious apps, etc.) are eliminated and good ads that focus on a positive user experience will gain a competitive advantage. So we are not preventing e-commerce websites from making money if they use responsible and controlled types of adverts Till Faida, co-founder of Adblock

ad  used  to  be  here  

ad  used  to  be  here  

keyword  query  interest  2004  -­‐  2012  

ad  used  to  be  here  

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1) Adblock-­‐enabled  browser  scans  the  page  that  is  about  to  load        

2) Flash  files/image  files/iframes  that  come  from  ad  servers  are  filtered  out        

3) Website  loads  ad-­‐free  

How  Adblock  Works  

 X  

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  All  major  web  browsers  (Chrome,  Firefox,  IE,  Safari)  have  Adblock  available  as  an  add-­‐on  and  it  is  the  most  popular  extension  across  all  browsers  

Adblock  Accessibility  

 Adblock  is  the  most  popular  add-­‐on  for  Firefox  users  with  3,000+  reviews  and  15.2MM  users  worldwide  

Enabling/disabling  Adblock  is  as  simple  as  clicking  on  the  icon  embedded  in  the  address  bar  

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Users  are  drawn  to  Adblock  because  it  offers  an  ad-­‐free,  clean  web  experience  that  often  loads  a  lot  faster  as  well  Most  content  providers  rely  on  third-­‐party-­‐ad-­‐driven  revenue  to  keep  their  sites  running  and  are  looking  for  ways  to  counter  Adblock    

Adblock  Disabled   Adblock  Enabled  

User  Appeal  

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Some  websites  simply  black  out  content  when  users  try  to  avoid  ads  via  Adblock  Users  are  forced  to  disable  these  extensions  for  normal  web  experiences  

Websites  React  

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What  about  Do  Not  Track?  Do  Not  Track  trending  via  Google  2004  -­‐  2012  

 users  activate  the  feature,  and  8%  hunt  down  the  on  switch  for  desktop  editions.  This  might  sound  low,  but  when  you  compare  this  to  other  features  

 

Do  Not  Call  (2003)  

Do  Not  Track  (2009)  

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Once  the  add-­‐on  is  installed  on  a  browser,  the  Do  Not  Track  icon  shows  how  many  tracking  cookies  are  present  on  the  visited  site  When  the  icon  is  clicked  on,  a  window  appears  and  displays  tracking  you  while  also  presenting  the  option  to  allow/block  tracking  

How  Do  Not  Track  works  Once  Do  Not  Track  is  enabled  in  browsers,  the  browser  sends  a  signal  to  websites  that  

 this  does  NOT  disable  ads,  but  simply  disables  tracking  so  behavioral  ads  do  not  work  properly  

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The  whole  process  behind  the  Do  Not  Track  method  is  not  entirely  transparent  and  it  is  difficult  to  tell  whether  the  request  is  being  accepted  or  not  since  ads  will  still  trigger  

How  Real  is  Do  Not  Track?  

Do  Not  Track  Supporters  

The  Federal  Trade  Commission  (FTC)  is  pushing  to  sign  Do  Not  Track  into  law,  but  there  has  been  numerous  setbacks  due  to  disagreements  between  advertisers,  browsers,  and  privacy  advocates   11  

Not  yet.  These  two  options  are  still  far  from  being  adopted  by  the  mass,  especially  when  browser  extensions  are  still  not  widely  spread  within  the  internet  community    

Should  We  Be  Concerned?  

However,  Mobile  security  is  the  hottest  topic  as  its  rapid  growth  has  also  been  accompanied  by  ever-­‐growing  malwares  The  FTC  will  likely  turn  their  attention  to  mobile  security  before  addressing  desktops    

It  will  be  difficult  for  the  FTC  to  force  anything  into  law  as  online  advertising  is  what  makes  most  online  content  widely  accessible  and  free  KBS+  will  continue  to  closely  monitor  progress  and  provide  updates  along  the  way     12  

Thank  you!  Questions?  

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