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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

Facebook's plans to circumvent adblockers is illegal (in EU):

https://www.privacy-news.net/news_article/57ab2d7184f6fd5f5a...

http://news.softpedia.com/news/blocking-ad-blockers-may-be-i...

It depends on how it is implemented. Those articles are about invading the privacy of the user by detecting what software is on the machine. However, you don't need to detect that someone has an ad-blocker to circumvent it.

First, you can simply disguise your ads. You can disguise them for everyone. That doesn't require you to peek into what software is on the machine. You've simply made it difficult for an ad-blocker to detect the ads.

Second, you don't have to peek into the software on a machine to determine that content isn't loading. Let's say that someone is blocking my ad server via /etc/hosts. I shouldn't be able to write code that tries to read a user's /etc/hosts, but I can load content via AJAX, see that the content isn't loading, and then take action based on that (maybe loading from a secondary source, maybe not displaying the page if not all content can be loaded).

I'm not saying that Facebook is circumventing ad-blocking in this way, but you certainly can attempt ad-block circumvention without reading a user's local configuration. Facebook can install the ad-blockers like anyone else on their own machines and see how they can disguise the ads as content so that the ad-blockers don't detect them.

If you disguise it so that a constantly updating piece of software can't recognise it that means you've disguised it enough that the ad blocker creators can no longer tell it's an ad - Which is illegal in at least the UK, EU and US.

While I hate ads as much as anyone, and use an ad-blocker myself, surely there could be some measure of illegality in the other direction also? Or put another way, surely consumers don't have a legal right to access Facebook without ads?

Edit: To anyone who downvoted this: you're perfectly welcome to disagree or even adamantly disagree with me - but it's much more productive to explain why you disagree than downvote. I'm genuinely curious to hear an argument that consumers should have a legal right to view FB without ads.

It amazes me how far ahead the EU is in terms of tech legislation. Even as a "white" upper-middle class citizen in the US, I would be terrified if I got into any sort of legal trouble with authorities regarding technology.

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