What is Adblock? | Avast

What is Adblock? | Avast
Sander van Hezik, 26 August 2020

Adblockers play a key role in protecting our privacy and providing a smooth browsing experience



Technically speaking, adblockers do not block ads – they block web requests that download content into the browser. In other words, adblockers stop ads from downloading on your browser, allowing web pages to load faster and offering a better browser experience.  
Further reading: Should you use an ad blocker?
How does Adblock work?
Adblock technology relies on simple lists, called filter lists, that determine what to block and hide, or what to allow to appear on the pages you visit. These lists simply consist of a list of URLs in the form of either an “allowlist” or “blocklist”.
When you visit a website, adblock quickly checks if that website is in one of these filter lists. If it is, then the request to external content is blocked and the ad is not downloaded into the webpage. In a nutshell, adblock technology is a set of rules that are established in these filter lists that determine what should be blocked or not blocked on webpages you are visiting. 
Filter lists are typically maintained by a third party community that is not affiliated with the developers of adblockers or ad companies. Examples of filter lists
EasyList: A huge blocklist collection of URLs of known ads on English-language websites all over the web. The goal of this blocklist is to automatically remove any type of unwanted content that doesn’t belong ..

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