Question

Pop-up ads, those unsolicited messages that sometimes pop onto your computer screen and block the site or information you're looking for until you close or respond to them, are inexpensive to product and cost nearly nothing to send. But they are so annoying to some computer users that dozens of special programs have been written to block them from appearing on the screen during Internet use. Do you think that because they are unsolicited, pop-up ads are intrusive? Are they an invasion of privacy or just savvy marketing? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 1

Yes, I do believe that the unsolicited nature of pop up ads can be intrusive to some users. If a user receives an advertisement on a webpage that is embedded and only opens up when you click it, users are not distracted from their work and these embedded ads prove no harm to the user. On the other hand, pop up ads are both intrusive and annoying because the user has no control over their working. When people lose the element of control over the functionality of a particular process, they consider this unsettling and it further adds to the intrusive nature of the advertising technique. It may be a tech-savvy approach but it is annoying to the users, to the point where embedded advertisement which earns money for companies also suffer the consequences of their action in the form of various ad blocking techniques.

It is a known fact that pop up ads are sometimes the cause of phishing attacks and therefore, their nature is not a tech-savvy advertisement but some utilize it for their nefarious purposes in the form of phishing attacks and invade the privacy of the user, steal their personal information and exploit them.