by Users of Adblock Plus Encounter 14% More Troublesome Ads Compared to Others
In a Nutshell
- 13.6% more problematic ads:Adblock Plus's "Acceptable Ads" feature displayed more misleading or poor-quality advertisements to users compared to using no ad blocker.
- Kids hit hardest:Users under 18 experienced a 21.8% rise in advertisements that breach age-related policies.
- Hidden costs:Ad networks on the approved list may display different — and frequently inferior — content to users who prioritize privacy.
- New fingerprinting risks:The occurrence of poor advertisements might indicate who employs ad blockers, leading to potential privacy risks.
NEW YORK —Individuals who download ad-blocking tools to avoid intrusive ads might end up encountering more harmful material compared to those who surf the web without any such safeguards.
A team from New York University found that individuals using Adblock Plus — one of the most widely used ad-blocking tools — see 13.6% more harmful ads on average than those who don't use an ad blocker. This contradicts the main claim of ad-blocking software: that it inherently provides a safer, more streamlined browsing experience.online experience.
The research looked into Adblock Plus's "Acceptable Ads" function, which lets some advertisements go through the blocker if they follow particular design guidelines. As this feature is turned on by default, millions of users think they are experiencing safer ads when in reality they might be encountering more misleading, irritating, orinappropriate content.
How Scientists Examined 'Reasonable' Digital Advertisements
The group of researchers gathered more than 18,000 advertisements from 4,710 websites, utilizing automated bots that mimicked actual users in the United States and Germany, encompassing both adult and younger individuals. They created a classification framework with seven categories to detect harmful content, including misleading statements, persuasive interfaces, user interference, unsuitable content, political issues, legal breaches, and additional areas.
Seven qualified researchers examined and labeled 1,200 distinct advertisements to create a reference dataset. An artificial intelligence system subsequently evaluated thousands of additional ads using the same classification framework to identify trends.
The Disturbing Statistics Behind 'Improved' Advertisements
The rise in harmful advertisements was significant. For U.S. users, the amount of problematic content increased by 17.6%. More alarming was the fact that users under 18 experienced a 21.8% surge in unwanted content while using Adblock Plus. The research revealed that approximately 9.6% of ads displayed to children promoted items unsuitable for their age, such as alcohol, gambling, or dating services — this percentage climbed to 10.7% when Acceptable Ads were activated.
Users who have Adblock Plus experienced more ads withfalse health claims, manipulative design techniques, political advertisements, and content that interfered with their browsing experience. Although Adblock Plus did lower the overall number of ads displayed — keeping its promise to reduce "ad clutter" — the ads that remained after the filter were more prone to be troublesome.
Certain advertising networks seem to provide different — and more harmful — content to users they identify as using ad blockers, indicating potential varied treatment instead of clear intentional targeting. The researchers observed that this behavior might facilitate new methods of fingerprinting and monitoring.
Why ‘"Acceptable" Online Advertising Standards Are Inadequate
The core issue stems from the way the Acceptable Ads initiative functions. Businesses pay charges to get their advertisements added to Adblock Plus's approved list, yet the guidelines primarily concentrate on appearance instead of the actual content. This leads to a scenario where genuine advertisers might opt out of the additional costs.while questionable advertisersidentify a chance to connect with users who intentionally sought to escape poor advertisements.
Some individual ad exchanges on the allowlist displayed up to 34% more harmful content when delivering ads to users of Adblock Plus, in comparison to those using regular browsers — sparking doubts about whether these networks handle privacy-focused users differently.
The Larger Issue With Ad Blockers
These findings reveal a concerning trend: tools created to safeguard users frequently have the opposite effect. Earlier research indicates that individuals who refuse cookie tracking experience increased efforts to track them, and those who opt out of data sharing often facesteep paywallsor even worse user experiences. The paper also points out how the presence of unique, low-quality advertisements might be utilized to identify privacy-conscious users, indicating if an individual is using Adblock Plus.
Significantly, German users experienced just a 5.3% rise in problematic advertisements — a change that is statistically insignificant — indicating that more rigorous privacy regulations such as the GDPR could potentially reduce certain issues.
Millions of individuals who downloaded ad-blocking software to enhance their web browsing have discovered an unexpected downside: the very tools promoted as safeguards could be worsening the internet experience for those seeking to escape its issues.
Disclaimer:This synopsis is derived fromCovering in sheep's attire, a wolf's effect: Automated identification and assessment of harmful 'permitted' adsby Roongta et al. The research examined Adblock Plus's Acceptable Ads function as of October 2024 in the United States and Germany. Results might not be applicable to other tools or later versions. Alwaysread the full paperfor comprehensive approaches and constraints
Paper Summary
Methodology
Scientists gathered ads from 4,710 websites by using automated web scrapers that mimicked various user situations in the United States and Germany, covering both adult and younger age groups. They operated two groups of crawlers at the same time—one with Adblock Plus activated and another without any ad-blocking tools. The researchers created a seven-tier classification system for concerning ads based on advertising platform rules and legal standards. Seven trained individuals manually examined 1,200 advertisements, while OpenAI’s GPT-4o-mini AI tool assisted in automating the identification of harmful content.
Results
Users of Adblock Plus saw an average of 13.6% more problematic advertisements than those who did not use any ad blocker. The highest rise was observed among US users (17.6%) and individuals under 18 (21.8%). Almost 10% of ads displayed to children breached age-related rules. Examination of specific advertising networks showed a 34% surge in undesirable content when targeting Adblock Plus users. Although Adblock Plus decreased the total number of ads, the quality of the remaining ads was lower.
Limitations
The investigation centered on the United States and Germany, and might not represent worldwide advertising methods. The study looked exclusively at display ads from October 2024 and did not include an analysis of fraud or scam detection because of the complexity involved. Findings may not indicate long-term trends or changes in advertising content throughout different seasons.
Funding and Disclosures
The document does not specify any particular financial backers. The study was carried out by faculty and students from the computer science department at New York University. The researchers made their full dataset and analytical code available to the public.
Publication Information
"Covering a wolf in sheep's skin: Automated identification and assessment of harmful 'permitted' ads" by Ritik Roongta, Julia Jose, Hussam Habib, and Rachel Greenstadt.Publishedonline under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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