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Turn your internet browsing into a force for good with Tab for a Cause

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Campaign Spotlight: Water.org

For more than twenty years, Water.org has pioneered safe water and sanitation solutions that give women hope, children health, and communities a future.

It’s because of their amazing work that from August 22 through August 26, we’re donating $0.25 to Water.org for every new user who joins Tab for a Cause.

Through its WaterCredit program, Water.org allows people in need to access small loans for water connections or toilets. Instead of paying 125 percent in interest from loan sharks, WaterCredit borrowers pay between 10 to 24 percent in interest. Because of this, WaterCredit microloans are repaid at a rate of 99 percent and, as of March 2016, they’ve empowered more than 3.6 million people in nine countries with access to safe water and sanitation. Once families are able to address their water needs, they can focus on what matters most.

E is for Education

For kids in India, access to safe water at home means they have time to go to school. Whether they become a doctor or nurse, teacher or writer, Water.org believes safe water is the way to getting the education needed for a bright future.

Thanks to the impact Water.org has made to families in Mysore, India, children don’t have to forgo a day’s worth of education to find and collect water. Instead, they can focus on a bright future — one full of clean water, good health, and life.

Thanks to your support, Water.org is able to provide lifesaving solutions to those in need. You can learn more how water is the way to an education here.

Happy Tabbing, Giovanni

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Gladly has now raised over $250k for charity!

While in college five years ago, Kevin and Alex set to create giving to charity accessible to anyone, regardless of their financial situation. After months of brainstorming and learning how to code, Tab for a Cause was born. In those five years, we’ve seen the Gladly community grow from 0 to nearly 200,000.

We’re thrilled to announce that Gladly has now raised over a quarter of a million dollars for charity through Tab for a Cause and Goodblock! It is truly amazing to see the collective impact of the tiny everyday actions Gladly users dedicate toward charity. We started Gladly with the goal of making giving accessible to anyone, and this $250K-raised milestone shows that our goal is shared by a growing and dedicated community.

We’re making long-lasting, positive social impact by simply surfing the Web.

This is an amazing milestone, and in celebration, we will be giving $1,000 for every 2 million Hearts donated to Room to Read during the next week. We have long been avid supporters of Room to Read’s mission of improving access to education around the world, and last year, worked with them to build a library in Vietnam. This is a great time to donate all those stored up Hearts, and recruit your friends to start using Goodblock and Tab for a Cause!

We also want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for your amazing support over the years. We simply would not exist without your constant feedback, interaction, and help spreading the word. Fun fact, over half of our current Gladly users have come through invites from current users posting on social media, telling their friends, and making amazing YouTube videos.  

Through the online community, we’ve been able to support vlogbrothers Hank and John Green’s annual fundraiser, the Project for Awesome.  

“We have been fans since Tab for a Cause was a very small project and the amazing team have been indispensable to the Project for Awesome,” said best-selling author John Green. “I know that this is just the beginning and they will continue to do great work for years to come. I look forward to seeing them grow from this landmark moment.”

It’s through the support of the Gladly community that we’ve been able to make such a lasting impact, and we look forward to the future of Gladly.

Cheers to the next milestone!

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Room to Read Installs Plaque Dedicated to Back to School Challenge Winner

Last October, Gladly collaborated with Room to Read to promote their #ThanksToEducation initiative through our Back to School Charity Challenge.

On Tab for a Cause, over 500 middle and high schools around the world competed to see who could open the most tabs for charity. After weeks of fierce competition, the Raffles Girls’ School of Singapore coming out on top.

Construction of the library and the delivery of over 900 books were completed months ago, and we’re thrilled to announce that the plaque dedicated to the Raffles Girls’ School has been installed at the Long Thuan Primary School in Vietnam!

Thanks to Tabbers, school children now have access, not only to books, but to a brighter future. Through Room to Read, you’re transforming the lives of children in developing countries through the organization’s literacy programs. We’re excited to see the long-term impact this library will have on the community.

So whether it’s by opening tabs on Tab for a Cause or viewing an ad on Goodblock, you’re making a difference – by simply surfing the Web.

– Giovanni

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Since launching the Goodlock adblocker, we’ve been working on fun ways for our community to interact with our app and with each other.

We’re thrilled to introduce Badges and Trophies!

Badges are awarded to all users once they reach a personal achievement. Trophies are awarded in a king-of-the-hill style; meaning, only one user can be the owner of a trophy at some stated time.

The more you interact with Goodblock, the more opportunity you’ll have of earning badges and trophies. For example, if you invite more friends to Goodblock or donate to a specific charity, you just might earn a badge.

To access your achievement case, navigate to your Goodblock dashboard and select the certificate icon in the upper-right corner. Earned badges will appear in full color; hover over them to see how you got them. Badges you’re close to attaining will appear as silhouettes; hover over them to see how to secure them! All other badges will be locked; you’ll need to explore Goodblock to unlock them.

We’ll be rolling out new badges and trophies in coming weeks, so leave us some feedback in the comments below on what you’d like to see!

– Giovanni

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Adblockers can save you 24 hours a year in loading times

Here’s something to think about next time you’re watching the slow spinning wheel of death: the average American spends 60 hours per year (two and a half full days!) waiting for webpages to load. Thankfully, there is something you can do about it. Turns out the right adblocker can get you a whole day back.

That’s right. With a lightweight adblocker you can sleep-in an extra 30 minutes once a week, or watch the entire first season of 24, or you could curl up and listen to the top 500 songs of all time…

Do we really spend 60 hours a year waiting for pages to load?!

According to research conducted by the computer science department at Princeton, the average person visits 120 different web pages per day. A fairly fast internet connection loads the average page in 5 seconds, which adds up to 10 minutes a day. Multiply it out and you get 70 minutes a week, 5 hours a month, and eventually 2.5 days per year.

It’s tempting to assume that page loading times increase over time, as internet connections get faster and faster. What most people don’t realize is that websites are getting bigger at an even faster pace. According to a 2015 CNN article, “The average site is now 2.1 MB in size — two times larger than the average site from three years ago.”

So what’s with all the added bulk? In short, it’s due to the ads and complicated data tracking that comes along with them. We wrote a whole separate post explaining how cookies work, and how to protect yourself from the ones you don’t want.

Adblockers block the ads, and also the host of tracking events that have to happen before they can load. That makes your internet faster, potentially a lot faster. We compared loading times on Chrome with no adblocker, with Goodblock, or with Adblock Plus. Over the 100 different URLs and 10 different domains we tested, we found that pages loaded 60% faster with Goodblock.  Multiply that by 60 hours of wait time and you have your free day!

Somes sites are 4 times faster with an adblocker, while others are no different

A 2015 New York Times study on mobile ads on the top 50 news sites found that, on average, “more than half of all the data came from ads.” A big publisher like The Daily Beast, for example, is working with many different ad networks and companies, simultaneously firing data back and forth before your article can load. The ads on their pages take around 70% of the total bandwidth.

The difference in page load speed with and without an adblocker basically depends on how many requests are blocked. For a site like Wikipedia where there are no ads, the difference is negligible. Sometimes the page load times are actually a fraction slower with an adblocker, due to the added computation that the adblocker introduces to figure out if something is an ad or not.

Generally, on slower sites with lots of ads and trackers (Mashable, for example), both Goodblock and Adblock Plus increased page load speeds. For others that are already fairly lightweight, page load times were faster with Goodblock but comparable to no adblocker with Adblock Plus. On sites that are already lightning fast (Google and Wikipedia), the adblockers had no effect.

Why doesn’t Adblock Plus significantly increase browsing speeds?

The added computation time of Adblock Plus is apparent when you look at loading times compared to a more lightweight adblocker. Due to their “acceptable ads” program, they are essentially an ad-filterer more than an ad-blocker. That means when you visit the New York Times, they have to survey all of the ads on the page, determine which ones they are going to allow and which they aren’t. Then they give the OK to the data tracking ad networks and everyone else that is involved with figuring out who you are and what ads to serve you. That all takes time, and bandwidth.

In a best case scenario, Adblock Plus runs their processes, blocks the ads, and delivers the page in less time than it would have taken without an adblocker. In a worst case, they run all of those computations but don’t end up blocking enough ads or tracking scripts to make up that time (take Wikipedia for example), in which case the page actually loads slower than if there was no adblocker at all.

This is why we think that “acceptable ads” is unacceptable. Adblockers developed 10 years ago as a reaction to increased loading times and ugly, pervasive banner ads. Allowing them, even selectively, is more of a step backwards than a potentially viable business model for the web. The future of advertising will come when we build a business model that doesn’t make sacrifices or shortcuts on the things that people have clearly and consistently called for: fast loading times, data privacy, and ads that don’t live within and disrupt the content they are trying to enjoy. That’s what we’re building with Goodblock, and we believe more strongly than ever that opt-in ads can fuel the web.

Don’t just take our word for it. Run the test yourself! Here’s how:

Pick a list of websites (we encourage you to pick from a variety of different domains to see how much of a difference it makes on some sites vs. others)

Download the page load time extension (it will allow you to measure the time it takes a page to load)

Download Goodblock and Adblock Plus

Disable both adblockers, open an incognito browsing window, and start visiting the URLs in your list. Record the time it takes for each page to load.

Clear your browsing history, enable Adblock Plus in incognito mode and repeat the test. Then clear again, disable Adblock Plus, enable Goodblock in incognito mode, and repeat.

Working in batches (to control for variability in internet speed over time) go through all of the URLs on your list.

See the results! We’d love to see them so feel free to share!

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Tab for a Cause, the Goodblock adblocker and our #MarchGladness competition was highlighted in The Huffington Post!

Check it out! :) 

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#MarchGladness Final Four round has started and it’s Tumblr vs. Reddit. Who will come out on top? Be sure to recruit your friends to Tab for a Cause and our Goodblock adblocker to earn more Hearts for charity!

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With 4 days left in round one of #MarchGladness, Tumblr is killin’ it (err should we say “savin’ it”) with 89K Hearts!

Be sure to tell your friends about Tab for a Cause and the Goodblock adblocker. 

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The qualifying stage for #MarchGladness is still happening! UC Berkeley is leading the rest of the UC schools with 100 active members. With five days left in the round, things can change!

Are you a student at these schools? Be sure to sign up for it on Tab for a Cause or our charitable Goodblock adblocker!

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Current standings of the top four online communities for the qualifying rounds of #MarchGladness! There’s still 9 days left, so be sure to share Tab for a Cause and Goodblock adblocker with your friends!

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#MarchGladness 2016 is here! Last year’s tournament was really amazing, and this one’s going to be even bigger. This year there will be two separate brackets, one for college groups and one for online communities. Together we can raise tens of thousands for charity all in the name of friendly competition!

What’s March Gladness?

March Gladness is our charitable homage to March Madness, the famous NCAA basketball tournament where 64 teams compete in a round-by-round bracket to decide the NCAA’s yearly champion. Our version pits the biggest groups on Tab for a Cause against one another in a competition to see who can earn the most Hearts for charity (and win some great prizes along the way!).

How can my group get into the tournament?

The selection process will last from now until March 13. There are two separate 64-team brackets. Here’s how your group can participate:

The 64 school groups on Tab for a Cause with the most active members by March 13 at 11:59pm PST will get spots in the college tournament.

The 64 groups for online communities on Tab for a Cause with the most active members by March 13 at 11:59pm PST will get spots in the online communities tournament.

You can see a list of the biggest existing school and online community groups here. If it isn’t a group yet, you can create it by going to “create a group” in your Tab for a Cause dashboard. Then start recruiting your friends to get your group into the top 64 by March 13!

How does my group win?

Just like March Madness, there will be 6 rounds, each one cutting the number of teams in half. In each round groups will be competing in a head to head matchup with another group to see who can earn the most hearts on Tab for a Cause and Goodblock, our charitable adblocker. You can earn extra hearts for referring your friends to Goodblock orTab for a Cause!

Prizes

The winner of the college group tournament will get a scavenger hunt on their campus with over $1,500 in cash prizes. Last year’s scavenger hunt on Brigham Young University’s campus was a huge success, so we knew we had to bring back the prize for another year!

The winning group in the online communities bracket will get to choose which charity will receive ALL of the money raised in the tournament! We pledge to donate at least $5,000 but our guess is it will be a lot higher than that!

Let the race to get into the tournament begin!

Join your school group on Tab for a Cause or promote any kind of group on Tumblr and make sure you’re in the top 64 come March 13! Please post any questions or comments in the comments section below and we will get back to you as soon as possible!

Dates to Remember:

March 1 – 13: Selection Process

March 15 – March 19: First Round

March 19 – March 23 : Second Round

March 23 – March 26: Sweet 16

March 26 – March 29: Elite Eight

March 29 – April 1: Final Four

April 1 – April 4: Championship

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Why Opt-In Will Save Online Advertising

The IAB drew a very clear line in the sand concerning adblocking technology recently when it decided to ban Adblock Plus from attending its annual leadership summit, yet extended a speaking invitation to the Web browsing extension Ghostery. While the feverish debate over adblocking rages on, the real conversation that we should be having is starting to surface.

The rise of adblockers is symptomatic of an industry in trouble; consumers have signaled that they want more control over their online experience so now is the time for advertisers to find a better solution, instead of workarounds like forcing users to pay for content.

With the industry finally getting real about how ugly the online experience has become, I’m confident change is on the horizon. But what does that change look like?

Opt-In Advertising

Advertising has garnered a bad reputation in recent years, but with a refocus on the user, ads can be aspired again. I wholly believe that the Opt-In model is the seismic shift the industry desperately needs. It’s a relatively new paradigm so my aim is to begin an open discussion that helps bring it to the forefront.

In an attempt to define the scope of opt-in advertising, I believe that it can only exist when users make the fully conscious decision to participate in the ad experience where they might otherwise not have the choice. From a publisher and ad network perspective, opt-in is an unspoken promise to the user that their needs will be met, including but not limited to:

Complete Transparency – Every ad experiences should be crystal clear, zero misunderstanding that they are choosing to engage;

Great UX – Consumers want a better digital experience and that means ads that are minimally invasive. In fact, the IAB recently introduced a new set of guiding principles dubbed L.E.A.N., which calls for design that is "light, encrypted, ad-choice supported and non-invasive.

Data Security – Consumers should have complete power over how their data is collected and used.

Engaging & Relevant Ads – Ads should be enjoyable and impactful for consumers, and they should be from brands that they know and love.

Of course, opt-in is not a flawless solution. There are tradeoffs and it will be an unwelcomed change for many. For starters, there will be a drop in top-level ad impressions – something that publishers are sure to fight against but that advertisers should ultimately embrace. Because consumers are actively engaged and receptive, each impression becomes that much more valuable. In reality, it presents a great opportunity for advertisers to create fewer, better ads.

Another obstacle will be targeting, or lack thereof. However, we’ve found that when users have a clearer understanding where their data is going and how it’s being used, they typically want to participate. In fact, 65% of our users have opted to share targeting data in order to receive more relevant ads on Goodblock and Tab for a Cause. By introducing a more transparent approach, the consumer-advertiser relationship can become a mutually beneficial one.

What’s Working Now

Forbes.com recently made headlines by directly asking readers to turn off their adblocker in exchange for an “ad-light” experience. Instead of a workaround to the blocker or forcing the users to pay for the content, the publisher was transparent in its request and offered a new experience as a tradeoff. And the experiment worked – Forbes was able to monetize 63 million ad impressions that would otherwise have been blocked. Of course, what constitutes an "ad light" experience is debatable, and should ultimately be decided by users.

The model is already gaining momentum with a number of 100% opt-in technologies on the market including TrueX, where consumers initiate the brand experience so they only see an ad if they want to, and Ghostery as mentioned above, and Goodblock.

Looking Ahead

In my estimate, the opt-in model has the greatest potential to remove the pain points that consumers are feeling, and the friction it’s causing with publishers and advertisers.  

It will be particularly powerful on mobile where user attention and real-estate is more limited, and users demand a cleaner and faster UX above all else.

Although this approach is likely to neutralize total conversions as we know them today today -- only serving 100th of the total impressions -- the net gain will be greater efficiencies for the online industry as a whole. With user feedback an active component of the system, advertisers will gain deeper insight into the consumer mindset to build a level of brand affinity that has yet to be achieved.

And through an acceptance of the experience, aversion to the current state of intrusive advertising that has created the adblocking surge will naturally disappear.

An abridged version of this post originally appeared on MediaPost

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We knew 2016 was going to be a great year for the Gladly community, and we’re thrilled to announce that Tabbers have raised over $200,000 for charity! This is an amazing milestone, but what really excites us is the enthusiasm and passion the community has in making a better impact.

Through Tab for a Cause and our adblocker Goodblock, we’ve been able to support charities doing outstanding work, including Water.org, Room to Read and Action Against Hunger.

As we continue to grow, our hope is to keep you all engaged with each other, with us and our charities through new features, contests and current events. And speaking of contests, our 2nd annual March Gladness tournament is around the corner! Last year, thousands of tabbers competed to see which college was the most charitable; the month-long competition ended with Brigham Young University being crowned victors. We’ll be finalizing details in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

We started Tab for a Cause with the goal of making giving more accessible and this $200K raised milestone attests that we’re doing something right. As a thank you, we’ve made this mosaic out of banner ads seen on your Tab for a Cause homepage:

Cheers to the next milestone!

Happy Tabbing, Giovanni

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How to speed up internet connection with an adblocker

The last few years has seen an explosion in the usage of adblockers, as internet users seek an alternative to YouTube ads and pop ups that demand our attention at the worst possible times. While blocking annoying ads is far and away the biggest reason people cite for downloading an adblocker, there are many benefits. One of the most notable is that adblockers can really speed up your internet connection. But how does it work?

How does an ad slow down internet speeds?

Let’s say you are browsing the internet and see a BuzzFeed article about the 10 cutest puppies of all time. Inside the human brain is a small person who, after seeing BuzzFeed articles, hijacks the controls and drives the ship. We, powerless to stop him, must view all 10 of the puppies. Often this rogue pirate controls our judgement as well, forcing us against our wills to post the article on all of our social media accounts. Then we proceed to view that other article on the bottom about the way to lose fat that involves eating tubs of cookie dough.

The point is that we click on the article and wait patiently for the puppies to load. Before they do, however, BuzzFeed loads up all of the ads and tracking scripts that are packaged into the page. Why don’t they load the ads last? Because if they did you would simply see the puppy and click to the next slide before you have a chance to view the ad or be tracked by all of the people that want access to your data.

Ads are getting slower and scripts are getting longer

There are two forces at war when it comes to internet speeds. One (we won’t go as far as calling it “the force of good”) is the continual effort to speed up internet connections. We’ve come a long way from dial-up aka “mree-ahhh-eer-ooh-murnee-wwahhh” to the lightning fast fiber optic cables that now provide most homes with internet.

The other trend is toward bigger, slower ads and more tracking scripts. According to a CNN article in June of 2015, “The average site is now 2.1 MB in size — two times larger than the average site from three years ago.” The video ads that load on the side of your screen take just as much bandwidth to load as the videos you see on YouTube. And even before the ad loads there is a massive transfer of data between ad companies and publishers to exchange data, identify who you are or might be, and give you the ad that will generate the most revenue. It’s often the more involved ads that pay out the highest per view, so after the back and forth you’re often going to be given a large file to load.

How do adblockers increase browsing speed?

Adblockers address the above issues in a variety of ways. For one, they listen for incoming and outgoing scripts and block the ones that don’t seem necessary. These include the data tracking requests and cookies that can add up to take lots of bandwidth (we wrote a whole separate article about data privacy and cookies here). According to Farjad Manjoo of the New York Times “when you see a web page stuck loading, you can usually blame one of these trackers.”

The other, more obvious thing that adblockers do is block ads. Different adblockers do this to different degrees. Adblock Plus blocks some ads but lets others through, while Goodblock and uBlock prevent every ad from loading. The result is that the large, bandwidth-expensive ads never load, and the only thing you have to wait for is that picture of the puppy.

Sure it’s faster, but how much?

Well, it depends on the website.. Some websites really go HAM with the ads and tracking, and these aren’t just the spammy sites that you would expect. According to an article by the New York Times, loading some popular sites like Boston.com or the LA Times takes about 3 times more data and 3 times as long without adblockers than with them.

For other sites (New York Times included, unsurprisingly), the difference is much more subtle (just under twice as much data without an adblocker than with). The article tested mobile phones, where that kind of data usage can quickly lead to overage charges, but it gives a rough estimate as to the relative amount of data usage and load time on pages on desktop as well.

The bottom line

Adblocking makes your internet faster, potentially a lot faster depending on which sites you’re visiting. It also keeps your data private, and prevents unnecessary third-party scripts. These things are great, but unfortunately it comes at the cost of lost revenue and slimmer margins for the publishers that make the internet great.

At their core, adblockers are simply allowing people to take back control, and say that it is unacceptable for two-thirds of their data be spent on behind the scenes data tracking and ad serving, especially when data isn’t cheap. It’s no secret that publishers and adblockers are butting heads, but there is every reason to believe that when the dust settles it will be because a compromise is reached. People won’t tolerate the current system of advertising, but it seems fairly unlikely they would tolerate a paid internet, which publishers could fairly easily institute if they wanted to.

Blocking all ads is not the answer, and ads themselves are not evil. We believe that ads can be beautiful, funny, clever, and even charitable (just check out this compilation of amazing ads on Tumblr); and when they come at the right time they can actually be enjoyable. It’s our opinion that if users are allowed some control in their online advertising experience, a sustainable ad model can and will be found that supports publishers while respecting the users they depend on.

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Can banner ads be beautiful? On their own, maybe not. But what happens if you smush 15,000 of them together…

If you use the internet (seems likely if you’re reading this) you probably fall into one of a few camps:

you hate online ads and have escaped their constant barrage by downloading an adblocker

you tolerate their unpleasantness because you want to support the web you depend on

you don’t realize you have a say in the matter

you don’t realize that most of what you see online is actually an ad.

(If the latter, please know that when ad execs daydream, it is mainly of you.)

The one commonality among the aforementioned groups is that they can agree that the brightly colored, bold texted, shrunken billboard looking-things that live on the side of the BuzzFeed article you’re reading seem to be made with a lot less care than the article itself (which at times doesn’t even seem like that much). Given the beauty and richness of the internet in so many other respects, the ugliness of the average ad is, well….

It’s time for internet ads to focus on quality, not quantity

Look no further than your television to understand why beautiful ads are not only possible but inevitable. Advertisers on TV spend the money and time to make ads that are widely enjoyable, funny, and beautiful (we have a whole blog dedicated to the most beautiful, clever, funny ads out there). The fact that the internet hasn’t gone through the same transformation has nothing to do with the potential return on an investment in a beautiful ad (hint: there are 3B internet users) and everything to do with an antiquated revenue model that rewards impressions over positive interactions.

We’re going to fix that, and we’re going to do it in a way that satisfies everyone, no matter how they feel about ads right now (we’ll get to that in a second). But first we are going to take the wealth of ugly banner ads we block and turn them into something beautiful.

Ads can be beautiful. Here’s 15,000 blocked banner ads made into something stunning.

Ads can be funny. Here’s 15,000 blocked banner ads made into something amusing.

Ads can be cute. Here’s 15,000 blocked banner ads made into a heart melter.

Ads can be impactful. Here’s 15,000 banner ads to all of you who’ve helped make donating to charity as easy as surfing the web.

Adblockers allow users to take back control

Does turning banner ads into beautiful images really solve the problem with online ads? Of course not. Doing that will take cooperation between publishers, advertisers, and users. The problem in the past has been that the latter group is targeted, mined, but never heard. Adblockers have risen as a reaction to the privileged conversation that happens between publishers and advertisers concerned only with revenue and not with experience.

We’re giving users control over their online experience not because we want to deplete the internet of money or rob the publishers that fill it with amazing things. Our goal is exactly the opposite. Goodblock allows people to choose when they see an ad, when and if they share data to get more targeted ads, and where the revenue from that ad is directed.

Advertising doesn’t have to feel like a necessary evil

What happens when you choose to see an ad that is beautiful and allows you to donate money to a charity you care about? We’ve seen through Tab for a Cause and now Goodblock that the answer is that you actually enjoy seeing it. You’re part of the conversation that is online advertising, which makes sense because the conversation is and always has been about you.

For years, advertisers and publishers have been standing awkwardly in the corner of the party, looking at you, listening in, and guessing what you might like. Occasionally they throw something your way, mostly while you are in the middle of doing something else. Adblockers aren’t the long-term solution, but they offer the opportunity to walk over to these two well intentioned parties and say:

“I don’t hate you for wanting to show me things I might like, and I understand that ads fund this whole wonderful party. I’d simply like to tell you what I want, because your eavesdropping gives me the heebie jeebies and because I’m tired of what you’re offering. I want beautiful ads that are relevant to me, make me laugh or smile or wonder, and I want them on my terms. Otherwise I will continue to block, ignore, minimize and avoid whatever you throw my way.”

We’re not saying there is an easy solution, or that Goodblock is the magic bullet the internet needs (yet). We’re asking you to join us and share your thoughts, experiences, and criticism. We want to empower people to control their online experience because we believe it is the only way. The people across the room failed at making ads enjoyable precisely because they didn’t involve you, and they’ll fail at solving the problem for the same reason. You, the users, must have a voice, and Gladly’s goal is to make it the loudest in the room.

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Data privacy and adblocking: the death of cookies?

One of the true joys of growing older is that you can start whining about new technology that didn’t exist when you were a child. Take the humble “cookie.” How simple were the times when “cookie” was just a way to refer to diet-destroying disks of dough. Today, cookies also serve as the carriers of nearly infinite amounts of identifying information across the internet.

But what really is an internet cookie? Are they agents of good or, like the cookies of old, are they only good in moderation? Can adblockers really keep you and your data safe from unwanted cookies, while letting useful ones pass? Lots of people write into our Goodblock adblocker FAQ with these questions, so we decided to take a second to give you the scoop on cookies in terms that anyone can understand.

What is an online cookie?

In simple terms, cookies are just strings of text that are stored on your web browser. Let’s say you visit Amazon.com, type in your account information, and order one pound of Lucky Charms marshmallows (thank you, Amazon). Amazon’s server then sends your browser a text string along the lines of “ID=123456” — a cookie! When you visit Amazon a day later to purchase Tums, Amazon’s server requests the cookie from your browser and knows that you are user “123456” who bought a pound of marshmallows yesterday. Their servers then send a personalized page with your account info, plus some recommended items based on your browsing/purchasing history (probably Tums).

Hopefully that’s an easy example to understand, but cookies can actually provide a nearly endless amount of information. They have many properties, like how long they should last in your browser, which URLs can access them, and so on. For example, let’s say you log onto your YouTube account with your email address (and you don’t know how to block YouTube ads yet). YouTube may store this information as a cookie like “email=you@place.com” with additional parameters to say that it is only available on Youtube.com URLs and will last for 4 weeks.

If another site wants to know your email address, you will have to enter it there as well, because they will be denied access to YouTube’s cookie. Furthermore, after 4 weeks you will have to re-enter your email on YouTube. All of these things help ensure that cookie information is used appropriately and with consent (and actually most good sites like YouTube will encrypt the information for an additional layer of security).

With this simple structure, websites can collect an extraordinary amount of data on who you are and what you like. The things you click on, the sites you visit, the data you enter– all of these things are packaged up into cookies, stored on your browser and sent off to databases all over the world.

When cookies get out of hand

The above description may make it seem like cookies are purely wonderful things that allow Amazon and YouTube to save you time on login pages. The reality, however, is a bit more complicated.

Cookie data is can be collected and distributed in ways that might make some people uncomfortable. Each site may only have access to a limited amount of information, but the real power comes when all of that data is sold to, say, an advertising company that then aggregates it all into a profile. Now they not only know every site you visited in the last month, but also your age, occupation, marital status and so on. For some people that’s just too much information for any advertising company to know without asking for it. That’s where adblockers can help.

Adblockers allow you to choose your comfort level with data sharing

Most people download an adblocker because they are tired of seeing banner ads or want to block YouTube prerolls, or because they want faster internet speeds. What they may not realize is that the right adblocker also keeps a tight watch on cookie traffic. By default,adblockers like Goodblock allow most harmless first-party cookies that do things like log you into your Amazon account or keep you from having to re-input your Facebook password every time you want to distract yourself from work.

After those helpful cookies, almost any incoming or outgoing cookie request would be blocked. This is actually one of the pieces that makes your browser so much faster: there are so many data requests being made on most websites that it slows down page loading speeds. But what if you want to see an ad on a particular website, or you want them to be able to log data about you for whatever reason? Most good adblockers have a whitelistfeature that disables the adblocking for any particular website (on Goodblock the whitelisting is just a simple button on the dropdown menu). So if you want you can allow sites you trust like Amazon and The New York Times to access all the data they normally would, while browsing worry free when you’re on sites without the same reputation.

Okay, so what’s the verdict? Are cookies good or bad?

Like most things with this new fangled internet of ours, it’s complicated. Cookies were built with good intentions as ways to transmit data between websites and browsing sessions so that your life is easier and better. Nonetheless, they are now used indiscriminately to collect and aggregate massive amounts of data on people, without anything resembling consent. For some, that’s totally fine; they assume that Facebook already knows what they had for breakfast and they don’t care. For others, they’d rather set a limit on how much of their data is collected and shared. With the rise of adblockers, people are now able to insert themselves into this invisible dialogue and dictate who gets to access their information and who doesn’t. Still not as friendly as a batch of chocolate chip diet-destroying disks of dough, but it’s a start.