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Comment by nimbix | Hacker News Reader

I think it's only a matter of time before Google starts fighting back and asks ad blockers to allow AMP ads or face being kicked from the Chrome extensions store. AMP ads are relatively lightweight, built from a short list of approved components, and signed by a validation service, so all the usual arguments about why people are blocking ads go out the window. And Google certainly is in a position where they can start demanding a change like this.

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>so all the usual arguments about why people are blocking ads go out the window

The only argument you need is that you don't want to see things you don't want to see. I have control over what is shown on my browser by my computer, as I choose what software I run. So no, the usual arguments don't go out of the window. I'm not happy with any advertisements and it's strange that people assume I would be if they are "non-intrusive" or whatever. I simply do not care for them.

That could easily backfire and push people to other browsers.

One of the usual arguments about why people adblock is tracking. These people don't use Chrome anyway.

Tracking is the primary reason I use an ad blocker. The ads themselves aren't that obtrusive to me since I won't install Adobe Flash and I use NoScript and Privacy Badger with Firefox. Even using someone else's machine I can tune ads out pretty quickly and focus on the page content.

Troy uses Google Analytics on his site and has no privacy policy which means his site does not comply with the Google Analytics' Terms of Service.[0]

When I queried this on social media, he dismissed it as 'legal arse covering'[1] and indicates to me that while he's undoubtedly a bright and talented guy, he still doesn't 'get it' when it comes to privacy. Not at all.

Not everyone is wearing a tinfoil hat and worried that the big bad NSA is coming to drone them. Many of us are far more more concerned about corporate surveillance and data brokers tracking our online activity.

[0]https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html

[1]https://twitter.com/troyhunt/status/651723191144976384

(Note I have a cronjob deleting most Tweets 30+ days old so my replies in that thread are gone. Old tweets are worthless and I see no need to preserve them...)

Then we'll just go to using hosts-based ad-blockers to block it at the source, or CSS overrides to hide the crap client-side.

That's one way to kill Chrome and I wouldn't be surprised if Google pursues it. Better browsers already exist so it's irrelevant even now.

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