With a claimed 40 million user-base, there is certainly a very good reason for search engine companies to buy the popular extension in Chrome and Safari, Adblock. The ad blocker software has caused massive loss in profits to companies that make their money off advertising on popular sites.

Millions of users are now thrown into uncertainty as Adblock was sold to an unnamed buyer.

If you installed one on your search engine, then you might have seen the pop-up message on 1 October announcing the change in ownership for Adblock.

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The Next Web have reported failed attempts to weasel out the name of Adblock’s new owner. No comment or statement has been issued by Adblock’s creator, Michael Gundlach, regarding the reason for such secrecy on the sale. All we know is that the remaining staff of Adblock has insisted that the purchaser of the technology specifically asked not to be named.

This raises the question as to why the new owner would want to keep their identity a secret. Users and observers are certainly speculating whether Adblock will continue to function as it did with the change of ownership.

What’s more certain, with the sale of the extension software, Adblock is now added into the Acceptable Ads program. The program allows “useful ads” to be shown on your browser. This means the new mysterious owner can monetise the ad blocker by charging advertisers who wants to buy their way off the blacklist.

Although Gundlach assures users that they can easily disable the program, which is turned on by default, concerns are still being expressed that the anonymous company, who now owns Adblock, may have a hidden agenda that would harm its users like shutting it down completely.