In the first decade of the open web, ad-blocking software gained in popular adoption by promising people a more pleasant experience on the internet, filtering publishers’ intrusive ads and gaining the enmity of the advertising industry in the process.
But in the last three years, the controversial technology has benefited from a boost in adoption prompted by another industry gadfly—the growing consumer concern over digital privacy.
Legislative initiatives across the European Union, as well as burgeoning efforts in the U.S., have brought discussion over digital data into the mainstream and, in doing so, have served incidentally as a tailwind for the ad-blocking industry.
