Ad blockers' impact on your feature management and testing tools

Ad-blocking technology is used by approximately 40% of global internet users and has evolved from simply stopping display and video ads to affecting various vendor tools for analytics, feature management, and experimentation. Ad blockers, which include tools like AdBlock and Adguard, focus on blocking unwanted ads and content, while privacy blockers, such as uBlock Origin and Ghostery, aim to prevent websites from tracking user behavior. These blockers utilize "block lists" to identify and suppress unwanted content and tracking attempts by canceling HTTP requests to listed hostnames. The criteria for inclusion on these lists are not well-defined and are managed by open-source project maintainers. While circumventing these blockers is possible, it is a nuanced decision for website owners who must balance user privacy preferences with the need for effective feature management. Solutions such as fully-managed proxies are available to mitigate the impact of DNS-based blockers, ensuring key features and optimizations are delivered without compromising user trust. Statsig offers tools and support to navigate these challenges, emphasizing the importance of respecting users' privacy preferences while maintaining effective software deployment processes.