Three is going to block “excessive and irrelevant” mobile advertising
Ad-blockers create debate at the best of times (as anyone at City PM can tell you…) – but now Three appears to have taken a side, saying it will block "excessive and irrelevant mobile ads" for all its users.
The company said it was collaborating with Shine Technologies to "give customers more control, choice and greater transparency" over the ads served to them.
"Our objective… is not to eliminate mobile advertising, which is often interesting and beneficial to our customers," it added.
Read more: How publishers can beat ad-blocking
The roll-out has three principal goals: firstly, to prevent customers from paying data charges to receive adverts; secondly, to protect privacy and security; and thirdly, to limit advertising to ads that are "relevant and interesting" to the user.
Online advertising – of which mobile is a more important component – has been at the centre of a fierce debate in recent years, as ad-blocking software become increasingly popular.
While some users argue they should be able to limit the ads they are served with, many content publishers rely on online advertising to fund their businesses.