• AdAge, Wednesday, April 27, 2016 6:50 AM

"Ad blocking at the network level undercuts consumers' ability to control the content they see and don't see, which is a bedrock principle of the world wide web," writes Dave Grimaldi, executive VP-public policy at the Interactive Advertising Bureau, in Ad Age. Grimaldi notes that Shine Technologies, backed by Horizons Ventures, offers ad-blocking technology that allows companies to block ads at the network level. Last September, Jamaica-based mobile carrier Digicel said it would begin to implement Shine's technology on its network, blocking ads across all mobile display, apps and mobile video. While there's an opt-out mechanism, by using Shine, "Digicel is indiscriminately blocking ads for all customers by default, without offering a real choice or any transparency into their actions. This type of ad blocking raises a host of issues that should worry casual internet users, American businesses and proponents of an open internet," Grimaldi writes. He argues that these companies are stealing from publishers, subverting freedom of the press, operating a business model predicated on censorship of content, and ultimately forcing consumers to pay more money for less and less diverse information. So what's the solution? New operating standards are needed to regulate how sites are operating as well as their advertising delivery of that advertising.

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