Blocking Adblockers is Illegal in the EU

[mapx]

Blocking Adblockers is Illegal in the EU

In formal opinion @EU_Commission reference #adblock detection as #spyware under Recital 24 & 65 of Citizens' Rights Directive

https://medium.com/@profcarroll/blockin ... .ftllk9l23

from https://twitter.com/alexanderhanff/stat ... wsrc%5Etfw

[mapx]

Websites that reject ad-blocker readers don't deserve your clicks
http://www.zdnet.com/article/websites-t ... ur-clicks/

Websites that detect your ad blocker could be breaking EU law
http://uk.businessinsider.com/ad-blocke ... ope-2016-4

Ad-blocker blocking websites face legal peril at hands of privacy bods
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/23 ... 1603225670

[imadblockersfather]

Trying to wrap my head around this. If ad-blockers are indeed legal why would an anti-adblocker be considered illegal?
Please elaborate on how an anti-adblock is illegal vs an advblocker being totally legit.

[lewisje]

The specific issue is "storage of scripts" to determine whether users have ad-blockers, because apparently determining whether users have ad-blockers is a violation of EU privacy rights.

[Hydranix]

The specific issue is "storage of scripts" to determine whether users have ad-blockers, because apparently determining whether users have ad-blockers is a violation of EU privacy rights.

If I interpreted that document correctly, it only makes illegal the act of storing of scripts and such on a users computer without their consent. Most sites already have a notification of some kind that links to their privacy policy. By viewing the notification and continuing to use the site, they've consented to being tracked.

There are also ways to detect ad blockers without the need to use a script. Ad blockers leave behind query signatures (unique lack of specific server queries, for example: not downloading an ad banners, but still downloading the page's main content). These signatures occur completely server side, and ad blockers would have to be very clever and sacrifice one of their main features to hide it.

[lewisje]

The query signatures you're referring to sound like they rely on the site having blocked ad content residing on URLs that it controls; it is possible to get a broad sense of a site's ad-blocking readership by comparing server-side traffic stats with analytics from an often-blocked provider, but said provider wouldn't allow you to connect individual visitors with the individual visitor data in your server-side stats.

[dmarti]

Hydranix has a good point. There are specific techniques for blocking ad blockers that look like a problem in the EU: sending a script that maintains state. However, there are other techniques that would not involve "storing information" or "gaining information" that was previously "stored in the terminal equipment." For example, looking for image requests server-side, or just obfuscating classes and ids in the HTML.

If a script that does simple client-side checking without maintaining state is illegal, then half of the "responsive" web design techniques are too -- maybe they are.