French ISP Removes Google Adsense From Websites

Hey guys, french guy here. There is few things you actually need to know. First the ISP Free has always been a game changer in France. First they introduced the "triple-play/low cost internet" wich is TV + unlimited phone call over 150 countries + high speed internet for under 30 euros Then they started to be a mobile carrier and they broke de price with unlimited call over 150 countries, unlimited text/media messages and unlimited internet for 15 euros.<p>And now they just setup a built-in adblock in their modem and enabled by default.<p>But you also need to know that since several year Free is fighting against Youtube(own by Google) because they basically wants Youtube to pay a fee for all the bandwidth the users are "wasting" on youtube".<p>EDIT: I forget to tell you that he is also behind online.net wich is a very big internet hosting company and back then he was the first to introduce low cost dedicated server(<a href="http://www.online.net/fr/serveur-dedie/dedibox-sc" rel="nofollow">http://www.online.net/fr/serveur-dedie/dedibox-sc</a>).<p>He is also behind Kima Venture, a pretty good VC I guess.<p>And he recently launch an internet shcool: <a href="http://www.eemi.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.eemi.com/</a> and is planning to launch a computer science school.

Alarmist bullshit headline.<p>From what I can figure out, this ISP merely provides a modem/router with a built-in <i>optional</i> adblocker.<p>I don't see anything wrong with that in particular, especially in the context where virtually all display ads violate European privacy laws because of cross-site user tracking without explicit permission.<p>It's just one more additional security/privacy feature on a consumer router to help ordinary users protect themselves.

I've read speculatiom [1] that while the freebox blocks ads more broadly, the move is meant as a slap at Google's revenue specifically in a longer dispute over the cost of bandwidth consumed by YouTube watchers.<p>The same article suggests that this move to block ads without user consent breaks net neutrality, in the sense that the ISP doesn't let all content pass on the same terms.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1237031" rel="nofollow">http://www.facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1237031</a>

The Arstechnica story has already been posted on Hacker News: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5004621" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5004621</a>

The article doesn't mention Google Analytics and I haven't seen a drop from my Free users in GA. Any source for that ?

At a certain point it becomes financially viable for Google to start an ISP in France just to circumvent the block. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

The best answer from Google would be to install a optical fiber network in France!!!

Just for the record , the owner of FreeBOX (ISP)(Xavier Niel) doesn't appear to be blocking ads on websites that he owns.(Monde.fr) Can't wait for that filter list to be public.

I wonder whether it would be unethical of Google to the ISP's customers.

It seems Free already has an investigation against them for violating net neutrality (they've been throttling Youtube traffic):<p><a href="http://gigaom.com/europe/french-isp-blocks-online-ads-by-default-just-a-beta-feature-glitch" rel="nofollow">http://gigaom.com/europe/french-isp-blocks-online-ads-by-def...</a><p>This is most definitely a vindictive move against Google. I don't see this ending too well for them.