The Interactive Advertising Bureau Calls Ad Blocking 'Highway Robbery' and Ramps Up Its Call to Arms

Scott Cunningham, senior vice president at the Interactive Advertising Bureau and general manager of the IAB Tech Lab, said that he's been privy to ad-blocking data from major publishers that have recently begun using software that detects ad blocking. Pressed to characterize what the data means for advertisers, he declined further comment, but it's hard to imagine such stats contain good news for people who depend on digital-media paychecks. "We don't want to see this type of highway robbery," Cunningham said. "We'd like [ad blockers] to play fair."

The ad-blocking topic picked up steam earlier in September with the release of Apple's IOS9, the mobile operating system that lets developers for the first time create ad blockers for the uber-popular iPhone. Publishers are pushing back with software to detect ad blockers and sometimes work around them. "There's a war between engineers," said Cunningham.