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Lately I noticed that after installing the Chrome extension AdBlock Plus, my internet bandwidth was used more than ever before.

Does AdBlock Plus use your internet, anonymously? I'm a little worried since it's being used every time you load a page.

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    I would think that it uses less bandwidth, because it blocks ads coming from a list of sites, but I'm not sure.
    – ChrisN
    Jan 5, 2013 at 15:22
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    @Nick_inaw: it will use a tiny amount of bandwidth to update its subscription. In practice, as ChrisN stated, it should actually reduce data consumption overall. Just be sure you are using the official plugin.
    – James P
    Jan 5, 2013 at 15:29

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No, adblock does not use internet bandwidth for every site you load. Rather it blocks HTTP GET requests to scripts, iframes, and embedded object based upon their source address. The source address is determined to be that of an advertiser based upon looking through a known list of IPs for advertisers. This list may be auto updating, and that is why you may be seeing increased bandwidth usage. However, overall usage should decrease as you end up requesting less objects per webpage.

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