Adblock, a popular extension for blocking advertising, was quietly sold. The extension displayed a popup on October 1 saying that it is now allowing EyeO’s acceptable advertising — which allows advertisers to buy their way onto the whitelist — through the filter.

Buried in the bottom of that message, however, was a more notable change: Adblock has been sold. What’s strange is that the company won’t disclose who it’s been sold to, why it was sold, or how much it was sold for. For the extension’s claimed 40 million users this raises an interesting question: Can the extension continue to be trusted if the new proprietor is entirely anonymous?

I have a confession to make as an internet writer: I block ads. It’s not a habit I formed recently – I have pretty much blocked ads my entire life, in every medium that I can. 

I have installed the comprehensive set of browser plugins needed to block not just ads, but every single tracker known to exist to provide the highest level of security and privacy. Sadly, this is only possible on desktop, since my iPad doesn’t have similar plugins to be able to do this. The status quo seemed to work great. I was part of a small minority of nerdy internet users who were willing to edit JavaScript to get the internet experience they wanted.