<div class="header-image"></div> <table class="table-header"> <thead> <tr> <th colspan="2"></th> </tr> </thead> <tbody> <tr> <td>2024-04-26</td> <td style="text-align: right;"><a href="About.md" class="internal-link">About</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> # I Block Trackers, Not Ads  I can't stand sites insisting that I "disable my adblocker" before continuing. It's presumptive bullshit. I don't use an adblocker. I never have. I used to use Firefox with a couple of extensions to block trackers, and now I use LibreWolf, which does a good job of blocking trackers for me (via pre-installed extensions plus other tweaks). In my mind, this is fair game. I did not give any consent to have websites, or the ads contained within them, follow me wherever I go on the internet, keeping tabs on what sites I visit, my posts, my emails, my searches, or what I buy. You want to show me ads? Fine. I understand that. I've been looking at ads since I was a kid, in the form of radio and television commercials, ad space in newspapers and magazines, on billboards and bus stops, in every saleable inch of public space. And while the amount of ads we all see on a daily basis has been fucking ridiculous since even the 70s, *never before* did they build a profile on me and sell that information to the highest bidder. Or share it with the government. Whenever I try to talk to people about this, eyes glaze over and the subject hurriedly gets changed. I find the apathy surrounding this creepy behaviour utterly disturbing. If a complete stranger was to ask you what route you take to work in the morning, what shows you watch on television, how many bottles of wine you buy each month, what books you like to read and how long does it take to finish them, what do messages and emails to your loved ones look like, how many friends do you have and what do you like to do with them, are you cheating on your spouse... If some stranger followed you around asking you these things and kept notes about it, wouldn't you be creeped out? I would be. Why do we not have the same reaction when the people populating the offices of Google or Facebook demand to know these things? A common response I get when bringing up objections to companies like Google or Facebook is "it doesn't really matter to me; I've got nothing to hide." Okay, I don't have anything to hide either, but that doesn't also mean that I'm perfectly okay with complete strangers keeping notes on me, scrutinising my every move. It *is* creepy, and it feels like stalking. How did we get to a point where this behaviour is just accepted as the price to be online? Why are more people not asking if there is a way to be online while avoiding creepy stalkers? If it was the government that was profiling us in this way (and there is **no** reason to believe that they don't share in this information), we could rightfully call it fascism. It's the complete apathy of the general public surrounding this issue that I find the most frustrating. The Snowden revelations were now close to *eleven* years ago, and the wiretapping scandal of the Bush administration was close to ten years before that. *We **all** know what's going on*. But hardly anyone cares. It's admittedly difficult to take the steps necessary to avoid it all. But if there was more demand for privacy, the market would step up. It's difficult, and risky, to flash a de-Googled version of android onto your phone, and it's understandable to avoid the risk of bricking an $800 phone. But if there was demand for it, these phones would just be sold, or services would be set up to assist people in doing it for a fee. But demand isn't high enough to make a venture like that profitable. There really isn't even enough of a demand for Linux PCs and laptops. I don't think I've *ever* seen a computer sold, in a brick-and-mortar store, with Linux as the OS. At the very least, why aren't people asking about the egregious ads online, and why blocking trackers also blocks ads at the same time? I think the answer is that most people don't care about the tracking; they care about ads getting in the way of what they're looking at, and slowing down their computers. I do wonder, if the popup that websites insert asking to disable ad blockers works. Does anyone really disable their ad blocker when a site asks them to? I think it must work at least for some people, or why would they bother with the insert? If the popup instead asked to allow their sponsors access to all online activities, including what sites you like to browse, to what podcasts you enjoy, what accounts you have on social media (including any anonymous ones), etc., would the same people still disable their ad blocker for that site? For someone like me, who is not a developer, or even uses computers as a part of their job (any more, at least), I'm reliant on other people caring about this stuff, so that I can take proper precautions myself. It's amazing that I can freely install Linux, or Lineage, or Calyx on my devices. I'll be eternally grateful that these alternate OSes even exist, let alone be given away freely. Why more people don't care to take advantage of them, or at least enquire if devices are sold with these OSes preinstalled, is truly beyond me. I've given up trying to convince anyone in my life to use them. I can only keep up with modern information and make sure I'm protected as best I can. It feels a little bit like stepping back and watching the beginning of the end, though. But then I'm also just an old curmudgeon who likes to shake his fist at clouds. Maybe I'm just wistful of the good old days, before there was even security cameras anywhere. I do miss the idea of complete freedom, even if I'm now too old to take advantage of it. But complete freedom really is a thing of the past, and I can't help but be saddened by that.