- Forbes, Friday, May 13, 2016 8:41 AM
Forbes has been experimenting with ways to combat ad blocking, according to a report in the
Wall Street Journal, including asking ad-blocking users to provide personal information to
access its site. "In December,
Forbes began blocking access to its site to users with ad-blocking software. Ad-blocking users were greeted with a message prompting them to disable their
blockers in return for an “ad-light” experience with fewer ads, and ads that typically load faster." According to Lewis DVorkin, Forbes Media chief product officer, around 40% of users
were turning off their ad-blockers. More recently, users with ad blockers turned on have received another option: "they can still access Forbes.com so long as they register for a Forbes account,
providing personal information, or log in via Facebook or Google. Forbes might not be able to deliver ads to those users, but obtaining that information instead might be a valuable alternative. Users
who sign in via Facebook agree to share information with Forbes including their email address, name, profile picture, age range, gender and other information that’s “public” from
their Facebook profiles. Users who sign in via Google give Forbes access to their email address, full name and any publicly available information from their Google+ profiles. Forbes is also granted
permission to manage users’ Google contacts."
Read the whole story at Forbes »
