SAN FRANCISCO – The official invitation process for the initial Acceptable Ads Committee (AAC) is underway, as leaders from advertising, digital rights and other related fields get the opportunity to apply for a seat on the newly organized committee. The AAC will take over management of the Acceptable Ads program that Adblock Plus, AdBlock, and Crystal all abide by to offer users the ability to block unwanted ads while allowing through better, more respectful ones.
Adblock Plus, AdBlock and Crystal would like to invite anyone interested in applying to be part of the inaugural Acceptable Ads Committee to visit https://acceptableads.com/en/committee/apply. To publicize the AAC and open up nominations to a wide audience, eyeo hosted two public meetings: one in New York City in December and one in San Francisco last week. In all, more than 250 people registered to attend the two meetings.
The AAC will formally assume authority over the Acceptable Ads criteria on March 15, 2017, a role previously assumed by Adblock Plus maker eyeo, based upon user feedback. The first iteration of the AAC will have complete authority to alter and suggest new criteria and will recruit members for the next iteration of the committee. The Acceptable Ads Committee will consist of up to 11 committee members including the following categories:
1. For-profit Coalition (4 votes total):
- Advertisers: 1 member
- Advertising Agencies: 1 member
- Ad-Tech: 1 member
- Publishers and Content Creators: 1 member
2. User Advocates Coalition (4 votes total):
- Digital Rights Organizations: 3 members
- Individual Users: 1 member
3. Expert Coalition (3 votes total):
- Creative Agents: 1 member
- Researchers / Academia: 1 member
- User Agents: 1 member
While only 11 representatives will sit at the meetings, each category (e.g. Ad-Tech, Creative Agents, etc.) can have a large number of members; the committee member then represents the interests of his/her respective category.
About Adblock Plus
Adblock Plus is an open source project that aims to rid the Internet of annoying and intrusive online advertising. Its free web browser extensions (add-ons) put users in control by letting them block or filter which ads they want to see. Users across the world have downloaded Adblock Plus over 500 million times, and it has remained the most downloaded and the most used extension almost continuously since November 2006. PC Magazine named the extension as one of the best free Google Chrome extensions, and it received About.com readers’ choice award for best privacy/security add-on. #BlockBetter
Adblock Plus is a free browser add-on for Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Maxthon and Opera for desktop users, and offers a free browser for mobile users on iOS and Android.
AdBlock
AdBlock is a small team dedicated to the idea that users should control their web browsing experience, not advertisers and data mining companies. With more than 200 million downloads and more than 40 million users, AdBlock is one of the most popular browser extensions in history. It works in all major desktop browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox, and on iOS and Android devices. For more information, visit https://getadblock.com/.
Crystal
Crystal is a content blocker for iPhone, iPad & Samsung Devices designed to make the mobile web a great experience again while improving the mobile advertising ecosystem. Crystal blocks intrusive advertising alongside user tracking and improves the speed at which web pages load by 4X on average. Crystal launched in 2015 and topped the App Store charts, reaching the #1 position in over 30 countries. For more information, visit http://crystalapp.co/.
