The creator of the popular Adblock Extension made a shocking revelation, the company has been sold to an unknown buyer. Who is and which are the risks?
The popular Adblock Extension has been sold to an unknown buyer, Michael Gundlach its creator made the shocking revelation.
Michael Gundlach doesn’t provide further details on the sale, he kept secret the identity of the Buyer of its company and the selling price.
Michael Gundlach will no longer be in the Adblock company neither the company of the mysterious buyer.
Adblock Extension is the most popular Extension used to block annoying ads, it has more than 40 million users.
Which is the impact on end-users?
The popup message displayed in users’ browsers this week is eloquent, the Adblock is turning on Acceptable Ads.
“I am selling my company, and the buyer is turning on Acceptable Ads,” Gundlach said.
The fact that the buyer desire to hide its identity is raising a number of questions among the users of the AdBlock Extension. Who is managing the AdBlock Extension now and is it possible to trust it in the future.
Someone fears the possible involvement of a company controlled by an intelligence Agency.
What does it mean AdBlock will Turn on “Acceptable Ads”?
Basically, the AdBlock Extension application will maintain a whitelist of ads that will not be blocked by default.
“Acceptable Ads feature will now let some advertisements through on by selected websites or by selected companies by default, if those companies pay for showing their ads.” reported the HackerNews.
Many fear the AdBlock Extension will no more work as in the past, others speculate that it could be used as an attack vector in order to transfer on the 40 million devices a sort of spyware… others simply believe that it is a marketing action of an IT giant.
… and as sais by the friends at TheHAckerNews, there are also valid alternative to Adblock, such as uBlock.
(Security Affairs – Adblock Extension, advertising)
