A survey of 2,000 Americans found that 52% of users use ad blockers in their browser. The most popular reason for installing an ad blocker is concern for your privacy (20%), and unwillingness to watch ads is in second place (18%). 9% mentioned the ability to speed up page loading as a reason. The survey was conducted among US residents by Censuswide, a company specializing in independent market research, commissioned by the developers of the Ghostery blocker. In a similar study conducted in 2022, the number of users of blockers was estimated at 34%.
Ad blockers are most popular among people whose professional activities are related to information security (76%), programming (72%), and advertising (66%). It is noteworthy that the total percentage of people who use the blocker because they don't want to watch ads for these categories remained at about 20%, while the number of people who indicated privacy protection as a reason increased to about 30%. Programmers and security professionals are also noticeably more likely to use an ad blocker to speed up page loading.
49% of respondents believe that large companies impose advertising and user tracking tools, for example, Google does this through the promotion of the third version of the Chrome manifesto and the fight against ad blockers on YouTube. 38% believe that they should be able to choose when to watch ads and when not to. 33% believe that the right to use ad blockers should be protected at the legislative level. 26% believe that the Internet should be ad-free by default.
When asked about what sensitive data leaks they are concerned about, 38% mentioned online navigation and search data, 37% - location information, 33% - shopping data, 33% - health-related information, 26% - information about political views, and 22% - information about viewing content for adults.
When asked which companies abuse the collection of personal data and tracking of visitors, 59% mentioned TikTok, 56% - Meta, 49% - Twitter, 48% - OpenAI, 44% - Google, 41% - Apple, 40% - Amazon and 38% - Microsoft.
Ad blockers are most popular among people whose professional activities are related to information security (76%), programming (72%), and advertising (66%). It is noteworthy that the total percentage of people who use the blocker because they don't want to watch ads for these categories remained at about 20%, while the number of people who indicated privacy protection as a reason increased to about 30%. Programmers and security professionals are also noticeably more likely to use an ad blocker to speed up page loading.
49% of respondents believe that large companies impose advertising and user tracking tools, for example, Google does this through the promotion of the third version of the Chrome manifesto and the fight against ad blockers on YouTube. 38% believe that they should be able to choose when to watch ads and when not to. 33% believe that the right to use ad blockers should be protected at the legislative level. 26% believe that the Internet should be ad-free by default.
When asked about what sensitive data leaks they are concerned about, 38% mentioned online navigation and search data, 37% - location information, 33% - shopping data, 33% - health-related information, 26% - information about political views, and 22% - information about viewing content for adults.
When asked which companies abuse the collection of personal data and tracking of visitors, 59% mentioned TikTok, 56% - Meta, 49% - Twitter, 48% - OpenAI, 44% - Google, 41% - Apple, 40% - Amazon and 38% - Microsoft.
