It is OK that my company blocks ads?

[GodAtum]

On my company's laptop, it blocks ads using ublock and I assume they also run an ad blocker on their firewall. Do you think I should raise it with the IT team that it could be considered harmful to creators?

[AbydosOne]

1 minute ago, GodAtum said:

Do you think I should raise it with the IT team that it could be considered harmful to creators?

Why are you "supporting creators" on company time?  

[GodAtum]

4 minutes ago, AbydosOne said:

Why are you "supporting creators" on company time?  

Only during my lunch break 

[whispous]

Do as you wish but get ready to get laughed out of the office.

 

Ad blocking has benefits beyond the obvious, like a vast reduction in clickbait and malware chances.

[Agall]

6 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

On my company's laptop, it blocks ads using ublock and I assume they also run an ad blocker on their firewall. Do you think I should raise it with the IT team that it could be considered harmful to creators?

Company laptops usually don't lock things down enough to prevent you from installing extensions on your browser. Those won't prompt a UAC that would stop an unprivileged user from 'installing' it. 

 

Corporate firewalls are complex, some even intercept HTTPS traffic using a custom SSL certificate to allow for decryption of HTTPS traffic, so if its all setup properly, they'll see any malicious packets that might otherwise be trojaned through a legitimate SSL connection. 

 

Ads are a security risk, but so is clicking on anything really. Firewall level adblockers are a grey area, and I imagine there's legalities against doing so. As much as I'd love to do it, I don't think its reasonable.

[WereCat]

Boss makes a dollar you make a dime. Having an adblock ain't really crime. 

[Levent]

Their laptop their rules.

[thevictor390]

If you want to support something, whitelist it in your adblock. Ads are a security risk. I work in IT and they have resulted in phishing.

[Shimejii]

17 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

On my company's laptop, it blocks ads using ublock and I assume they also run an ad blocker on their firewall. Do you think I should raise it with the IT team that it could be considered harmful to creators?

Its not harmful to creators. Your lunch break isnt worth the risk to the company for the thousandth of a cent you would make a creator. Dont waste your companies time, your IT departments time. It is simply not worth it. Ad block exists for a reason, and if you prevent the stupidity of most people from themselves and clicking on bad ads and links the better.

[starsmine]

5 minutes ago, WereCat said:

Boss makes a dollar you make a dime. Having an adblock ain't really crime. 

I would argue its bad mojo for a company to break the TOS of another company (this is a company computer on company WIFI)

[Kilrah]

At many places there are also technically rules where you are not supposed to access anything non-work related on company equipment in the first place, break or not...

[dilpickle]

You should praise your company for doing that.

[Agall]

2 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

At many places there are also technically rules where you are not supposed to access anything non-work related on company equipment in the first place, break or not...

When even Microsoft Edge's New Tab doom scroll page has malicious ads, its hard to argue against an adblocker for less savvy employees.

[BoomerDutch]

Oh god if companies is adblocking then companies fighting against itself.

 

Poor poor advertisers even companies block their own ads.

 

Oh dear if this keeps up then advertising something cost literally nothing.

 

why does advertising even exist?

[TetraSky]

Use your phone and your data to use on your breaks.

I would never use company laptop and wifi to access anything that isn't work related. They can see EVERYTHING you check.

You're unlikely to get repercussions unless you check adult stuff, but they could still use it against you if you ever access it outside of your break time and they want to get rid of you.

[NumLock21]

So you want to help the creators by harming your company, by opening up their network to ads which may lead to malware and other security risk. What kind of logic is that?

Want to support the creators by watching ADs, then do that at home on your on own personal computer. A company's computer, isn't for you to support the creators you've cared about.

[Kisai]

49 minutes ago, GodAtum said:

On my company's laptop, it blocks ads using ublock and I assume they also run an ad blocker on their firewall. Do you think I should raise it with the IT team that it could be considered harmful to creators?

Yes. Because employees accidently leak things.

[Avocado Diaboli]

42 minutes ago, Agall said:

Company laptops usually don't lock things down enough to prevent you from installing extensions on your browser. Those won't prompt a UAC that would stop an unprivileged user from 'installing' it. 

Nonsense, you can easily manage browsers in corporate environments, thus blocking the installation of extensions and even disabling built-in features.

[Agall]

Just now, Avocado Diaboli said:

Nonsense, you can easily manage browsers in corporate environments, thus blocking the installation of extensions and even disabling built-in features.

That doesn't mean people actually do it. I find it more common than not.

[undergroundbeef]

29 minutes ago, Agall said:

That doesn't mean people actually do it. I find it more common than not.

My company won't even let me change my browser's home page. Some browser extensions are installed out of the box and cannot be removed. 

[Agall]

14 minutes ago, undergroundbeef said:

My company won't even let me change my browser's home page. Some browser extensions are installed out of the box and cannot be removed. 

The other solution is to just block all WAN access  

[aggie113]

I feel no guilt about the blocking that happens at work due to the Bluecoat filtering and other things that may be in place to protect the network and limit what folks can do online.

[Dedayog]

4 hours ago, starsmine said:

I would argue its bad mojo for a company to break the TOS of another company (this is a company computer on company WIFI)

The company doesn't allow their laptops for personal use, even on lunch.

 

Read the employment agreement.

 

They're not breaking a TOS.  

 

Yes, I've written employment contracts and agreements for companies.  Standard wording.

[Erioch]

3 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Nonsense, you can easily manage browsers in corporate environments, thus blocking the installation of extensions and even disabling built-in features.

Yep.  My work does that.  

 

Moral of the story?  Don't F around on company equipment.

[starsmine]

1 hour ago, Dedayog said:

The company doesn't allow their laptops for personal use, even on lunch.

 

Read the employment agreement.

 

They're not breaking a TOS.  

 

Yes, I've written employment contracts and agreements for companies.  Standard wording.

I was not talking about personal use here, that is between OP and the company. I'm saying any company using ad block in such a way does not sound right to me.