Future Trends in Plugins

We know how ad-blockers and privacy trackers are working right now, but this could all change at any moment. Advertisers could change how they send users their advertisements, or blockers and trackers could find a new approach to block advertisements and tracking cookies. But sources weighing in on the future help to give some glance at the possibilities.

Mobile
Mobile technology has grown substantially in the past few years. According to AdWeek, profit advertisers reeived from mobile ads went up 66% in 2015, while profit from desktop advertisements barely increased. The mobile market (and ways to profit from it) is still expanding, and it's an important part to look at in the future of data privacy. (Johnson, 2016)

The future looks bright for mobile ad blockers, as well. Mobile ad blockers were practically unheard of before Apple's release of iOS9, but they'll soon take a bigger spotlight as well. (Kelion, 2015) Data suggests that in 2016, twice as many Internet users were using mobile ad-blockers than desktop ad-blockers. The popularity of desktop ad-blockers combined with the popularity of mobile suggests that mobile ad-blockers will only grow and become more commonplace. (Johnson, 2016)

Ad-Blockers
Most ad-blockers currently allows themselves to operate however users want. Depending on the ad-blocker, users frequently have the choice of what websites they block ads on, what types of ads are blocked, and other customization options. If Shine Technologies is any indication of the future, however, this may not last. Shine, along with others such as Digicel, has created ad-blocking technology that blocks ads at the network level, rather than using cookies and filter lists. This completely cuts off users and advertisers. Advertisers have no options for getting their ads to users, and users have no choice in the ads they do or don't see. Allowing advertisements on certain websites or certain types of advertisements is not an option given by Shine. This iteration of ad-blocking technology is disadvantageous to everyone except the ad-blocker itself. (Grimaldi, 2016)

In addition, while ad-blockers seem harmless to users and usually don't require payment for their services, the producers behind ad-blockers are making money off of them, and could easily make a lot more in the future. Rather than making money off their users, ad-blockers make money off of advertisers. Through "acceptable ads" options, ad-blockers will block most ads for users, but show ads that have been deemed to be "acceptable". These ads come from advertisers that have either paid the ad-blocker to allow their ads, or have agreed to share ad revenue. This has become more common in ad-blockers, and likely will continue in the future as ad-blockers look to make money with their product. (Greenburg, 2016)

Trackers
Most Internet plugins seem harmless enough to users for now, but they could definitely be looking to profit off of users in the future. At least in the present, plugins are definitely tracking their users. When downloading any extension, users have to give those extensions certain permissions. Usually, these permissions give ad-blockers access to certain information about the user. Plugin creators can track just about anything a user does on the internet. (Heddings, 2014) Once they've gathered that information, it doesn't just go away. It's stored in a database, and in some cases, sold to other companies to allow them to try to gauge users' interests without having to gather the data themselves. Plugins such as Ghostery are guilty of this, though Ghostery allows users to opt out of this. (Greenberg, 2016)

The way websites track users could very well change in the future as well. Currently, websites use cookies to follow users page to page, seeing what they look at and advertise similar products to them. However, future trends suggest that rather than tracking with cookies, websites will track user's "fingerprints" instead. This term doesn't refer to the user's actual fingerprints, but rather to characteristics unique to the user: the dimensions of their web browser, how fast their battery depletes, the number of fonts saved on their computer, and so on. These characteristics are ones that, if changed between sessions, would change only slightly and still could be used to identify the user. This switch would certainly change the advertising field, but also have other impacts such as affecting users' freedoms. (Avirgan, 2016)