Have you ever noticed an advertisement while doing internet research on your PC or smartphone browser in your daily work? While it’s fine in your private life, it can become a hindrance if there are a lot of such advertisements during work.
Such ads can be easily blocked by changing settings or installing tools. Not only advertising content but also tracking can be blocked.
This time, we will explain ad blocking and introduce recommended content blockers.
What is ad block?
Ad blocking
is
the process of hiding advertisements that are displayed while viewing websites in your browser
. It can also refer to software for blocking advertisements.
Ad blocking is used to make browsing more comfortable by hiding advertising content displayed on websites, and to prevent users from being tracked for promotional purposes.
You often hear the term content blocking, which is a type of ad blocking that means hiding content that contains ads.
However, ad blocking is not limited to just hiding ad content.
- Ad block functionality
Ad block has two main functions.
1.Hide advertising content This is a function that hides advertising content by deleting unnecessary advertising code from the source code that the browser receives from the server. In addition to hiding ads such as banner ads and article ads, there are also some that stop
pop-up
ads displayed in pop-up windows, and others that block video ads and SNS timeline ads.
2. Block tracking of cookie data In recent years, tracking advertisements have been used to deliver advertisements based on the user’s preferences and attributes based on the user’s browsing history. For example, after visiting the electronics retailer’s e-commerce site several times with the intention of purchasing home appliances, the next day, when I browse the Internet again, I see a website completely unrelated to the electronics retailer’s e-commerce site. Have you ever had the experience of only seeing advertisements for home appliances that you were looking for yesterday? The reason why we know that you have visited an electronics retailer’s e-commerce site is because we refer to the visit information that is left when you browse a website called a cookie. There are also ad blocking tools that allow you to refuse tracking of cookies.
How to set up ad blocking on iPhone and Android
Currently, there are many users who browse the Internet on smartphones, so methods of blocking ads when browsing on iPhone and Android browsers have become a hot topic of discussion. We will show you how to block ads by changing the settings of each standard browser.
- Block ad tracking
“Settings” → “Privacy” → “Advertising” → Turn on “Limit Ad Tracking”
- Block ad tracking
“Site Settings” in the “Chrome” menu → “Pop-ups and redirects” → Turn off “Pop-ups and redirects”
Recommended content blockers
There is also a way to block ads using content blockers such as software, apps, and browsers that can block ads. Here, we will introduce recommended content blockers for smartphones and PCs.
- AdFilter [iOS]
This is an application that hides advertisements displayed on websites. Compatible only with iOS and applies when using Safari. You can also hide SNS share icons.
- Brave [iOS/Android]
A browser that blocks advertising and tracking. You can change which ads are blocked for each website. It also displays the time saved by blocking ads, etc., so you can see at a glance the effectiveness of this browser.
Ad blocking tools also have security issues
Ad blocking tools may seem useful at first glance, but you should be aware that they generally
have security issues
.
It has also been pointed out that there is a risk that cybercriminals could target vulnerabilities in ad blocking tools and send malicious code for purposes such as stealing personal data.
Additionally, there have been cases of fake ad blocking tools being distributed in the past, so you need to be careful when choosing tools.
summary
◆Advertising block refers to software that hides or blocks advertisements that are displayed when viewing websites on a browser.
◆Advertising blocks have the ability to hide advertising content and block cookie data tracking.
◆Recommended content blockers include smartphone apps such as AdGuard and AdFilter, and browsers such as Firefox Focus and Brave. There’s also Adblock Plus, which can be added to your PC browser extensions.