Browser adblocking should be installed by default

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If the project is dependent on advertising revenue then a whitelist entry for linuxmint.com can be shipped by default. Users who don't want to see ads here can easily remove the entry in far less time than it takes to install and configure multiple addons. Whitelisting the project itself is still far superior to sending default users wading into a cesspool of consent-free tracking and advertising.

The FOSS community is usually quite vocal every time a government or ISP wants to log every URL visited as part of some ill-conceived and nebulous appeal to public safety, yet so many here seem willing to allow browsing histories to be turned over to hundreds of poorly regulated private advertisers to be used for much broader, more nefarious, and longer lived purposes.

The data collected by advertisers concerning user browsing habits will probably never be deleted. It will survive bankruptcies because advertisers sell this data from one to the next.

In the modern age there is no way to get your privacy back once it has been compromised. This is why Google is so insistent on requiring real names and collecting phone numbers on its G+ identity platform.

If hundreds of thousands of Mint users can be saved the time it takes to install and configure ad and tracking blocking, at the expense of a very small number of users who must click the disable button, then how does that not result in a positive time balance in the community? Shipping it by default makes as much sense as shipping a text editor and a calculator.