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Comment by jonawesomegreen | Hacker News Reader

It makes sense. I install ublock on my parents computers, because without ads to send them off course when they are browsing, they are much less likely to get malware. And it works. I've often wondered how they ended up with so much malware on their computer and I'm now convinced that ads are a big cause.

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I did this for my parents, but mostly to save bandwidth. They live far enough out of town that they can only use Verizon LTE. It saves them over $100/yr.

My parents live rurally where the only options are satellite or a rooftop 3G antenna with flakey and expensive 3G data. Adblocking has been a huge deal for them. Saves money and speeds up page loading dramatically.

Holy crap. Assuming no other change in behaviour - I wonder what they're yearly value is to ad networks? Maybe a couple dollars in comparison?

I came here to write this. I would have the same problem with my parents computer obtaining malware which I had no clue to how. Since I have installed ad blockers on their computers I haven't had issues with malware on their computers.

> I install ublock on my parents computers

I hesitate to install ad-blockers for non-technical users who would need support every time a website doesn't work. Many wouldn't be able to pin down the problem to the ad-blocker; they'd just think something was broken (seemingly randomly attributed to web browser, website, Internet connection, computer, something they clicked, etc.).

How do people here deal with that? I don't want support calls daily, and even if I did it wouldn't be a good experience for the users.

Subscribe to a subset of the lists you would normally use.

uBlock Origin very rarely breaks a site. They're more likely to encounter malware without it than a broken site with it.

This. I installed ublock on my grandpa's computer because he called a day after I sent him a new one to tell me it wasn't working right. In just one day he had loaded it up with malware. I installed ublock, installed a bunch of additional filters, and there's been no problem since.

uBlock is more useful than full-blown antivirus software, and the fact that my parents too have not had viruses since forcing them to use Chrome/uBlockOrigin just proves that point. Antivirus is good once you've already been screwed. The point to me, though, is to not get screwed in the first place. uBlock is amazing.

Interestingly, I think this is why Google is now cracking down hard on bad websites. They're trying to justify people not using adblockers. It's a losing game.

I'm not sure why you've been downvoted, and I largely agree with the position that in most cases an adblocker will stop most malware from reaching the user.

I suspect the remaining cases mostly come from email and social engineering, where most antivirus aren't likely to be meaningfully better than MSE/Defender/whatever the OS has built in.

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