Fifty per cent of web users are running ad blockers. Zero per cent of app users are running ad blockers, because adding a blocker to an app requires that you first remove its encryption, and thatās a felony. (Jay Freeman, the American businessman and engineer, calls this āfelony contempt ofĀ business-modelā.)
So when someone in a boardroom says, āLetās make our ads 20 per cent more obnoxious and get a 2 per cent revenue increase,ā no one objects that this might prompt users to google, āHow do I block ads?ā After all, the answer is, you canāt. Indeed, itās more likely that someone in that boardroom will say, āLetās make our ads 100 per cent more obnoxious and get a 10 per cent revenue increase.ā (This is why every company wants you to install an app instead of using its website.)
Thereās no reason that gig workers who are facing algorithmic wage discrimination couldnāt install a counter-app that co-ordinated among all the Uber drivers to reject all jobs unless they reach a certain pay threshold. No reason except felony contempt of business model, the threat that the toolsmiths who built that counter-app would go broke or land in prison, for violating DMCA 1201, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, trademark, copyright, patent, contract, trade secrecy, nondisclosure and noncompete or, in other words, āIP lawā.
IP isnāt just short for intellectual property. Itās a euphemism for āa law that lets me reach beyond the walls of my company and control the conduct of my critics, competitors and customersā. And āappā is just a euphemism for āa web page wrapped in enough IP to make it a felony to mod it, to protect the labour, consumer and privacy rights of its userā.
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