The topic of ad blocking is somewhat controversial. As websites rely on ads to make money, blocking ads basically denies those websites of any revenue they might be able to make. At the same time due to the way many ads have been designed, they can be distracting and intrusive which ruins the user’s experience.
While ad blocks have existed for a while on computers, it was only recently with iOS 9 that Apple finally allowed ad blockers to make their way onto its mobile devices. However it seems that even then these ad blockers might not be fully 100% effective. A report from The Wall Street Journal has revealed that the top iOS ad blocker Crystal is apparently allowing advertisers to bypass its restrictions by paying for it.
This is thanks to Crystal’s creator, Dean Murphy, partnering up with Eyeo, the creators of Adblock Pro. Through this partnership, Crystal will now allow ads to bypass its restrictions as long as they are considered “acceptable” by paying Murphy a flat fee every month. However what is considered “acceptable” is subjective.
According to Murphy, “Given how popular Crystal has become, it doesn’t provide any way for users to support publishers. I decided that’s a good feature to provide, and from what I’ve seen the ‘acceptable ads’ policy doesn’t let through what I’d classify as bad ads.”