In early 2017, Eyeo (the company that developed and published the popular browser extension Adblock Plus) named the first members to an independent board tasked with deciding which advertisements would be allowed to pass through its filter for free. This independent review board decides which ads are “acceptable.” This board is made up of people from across the advertising and publishing industries.

The fact that a developer of an adblocker is openly accepting directives from the advertising industry is alarming. The advertising industry does not have the interests of an adblocker-extension user in its mind. Advertisers simply want as many eyeballs as possible on their banners and ads. Advertisers also want to track your every move online and offline if possible. The other big story is that ads displayed to users by Adblock Plus are called “acceptable ads,” meaning Adblock Plus is in the business of displaying ads (and not completely blocking all of them.) This incredible conflict of interest should open your eyes to Adblock Plus’ overall goal which seems to now be displaying ads to users in a covert way through its “acceptable ads” program. With many alternative adblockers on the market, sticking with Adblock Plus and recommending it just got next to impossible.

Even Jason Kint, the CEO of Digital Content Next (which is a digital-focused trade association comprised of publishers such as the New York Times, Conde Nast & Vox Media) brought up his concerns with the immoral business model of Adblock Plus. Kint stated that he sees “this practice [of Adblock Plus allowing/selling ads] as benefiting their owners possibly even at the expense of consumers.” the CEO also said “At minimum, it rightly creates a lot of questions about who is really looking out for the consumers.” If even the ad industry is concerned about an adblocker defying users, then who is Adblock Plus’ business model making happy other then adblock plus? no one.

Adblockers require a certain honest and transparent relationship between extension users and the developers of the adblock browser extensions. Without transparency, you get these whitelisted ads showing up.. Downloading an adblocker should block all ads. This entire ordeal truly sets a bad precedent for the ad-blocking industry as a whole. There’s no reason for an adblocker to allow some ads to slip through its filter simply because an ad company paid a fee to Adblock Plus. This represents a broken implied agreement between an adblocker user and the company that developed the adblocker itself. Adblockers should be indiscriminate and block all ads, and shouldnt accept money from ad companies. This practice of selling ads to slip through an adblocker filter is incredibly immoral at best. With Adblock Plus signaling it wants to become an advertising corporation, the days of recommending this adblocker have been long gone since Adblock Plus ironically generates much of its revenue by displaying ads to its users.