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Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

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Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#81

Post by dkersten »

kbenson wrote: post #23
AngryData wrote: post #20

Advertising is a scourge upon society.

> Advertising is a scourge upon society. I understand where you're coming from, but that's painting with a pretty broad brush. Advertising covers everything from the signage stating the name of the mom-and-pop shop on the corner (which is why cities often limit the size of logos/names on building) to billboards on the side of the freeway. It covers movie trailers I seek out ant watch to see what's coming soon to comm…

A’s Banksy said:

> ...They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers...

> ...You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs.

Full quote here: https://trickygirl.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/quote-of-the-day...

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#82

Post by underwater »

mirimir wrote: post #60
jjeaff wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On both, you can block the ads at the DNS level. Not quite as effective, but still workable.

What apps do you use? Or do you mean using pihole or whatever? Edit: OK, I see. Adguard, for example.

Blokada DNS works reasonably well.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#83

Post by rahimnathwani »

stestagg wrote: post #69
hannob wrote: post #65

It is interesting how this article starts. A guy has an app which drains users batteries. But it's not his fault of course, because it's the ad company. Except the ad company says it's not their fault, because the ad came from some other company. This fingerpointing points to one of the core problems of the ad industry: They created a system where nobody knows who's responsible for anything, so malware and fraud has…

Just as if you were to buy a child’s toy that has a secret embedded camera that streams to some foreign server. It may be the manufacturers fault, but the person who sold it to you (the provider) is liable. Should be the same here

Right, and from the POV of the child, the parent is liable.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#84

Post by TeMPOraL »

roenxi wrote: post #74
chronogram wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voters are also usually not responsible enough to handle democracy either, and yet here we are. What a weird way to start off. You should probably elaborate on that for it to make any sense outside of a high school economics class. Regarding number 1: like what? I’ve never met anyone who looked really happy about seeing an ad for hot singles in their area, that they should feel insecure about how they look in linge…

> What a weird way to start off. You should probably elaborate on that The point I'm trying to get across is that something can be critical to a functioning system even if on its own it doesn't look very impressive. Voters are the scourge of every democracy, they push for all sorts of stupid policies and usually get them. > Regarding number 1: like what? Literally everything? You've identified 3 product categories fo…

> The point I'm trying to get across is that something can be critical to a functioning system even if on its own it doesn't look very impressive. Voters are the scourge of every democracy, they push for all sorts of stupid policies and usually get them.

I'd love if you could expand how this applies to advertising. Voters are critical to democracy. Advertising isn't critical to society, it's mostly a way for a lot of people to waste a lot of time, man-hours and natural resources on zero-sum game, while polluting the physical and mental space around us. If it were to suddenly disappear (a wide ban, perhaps), it wouldn't make much difference to anyone except people working in ad/adtech space. Sure, the Internet would get leaner, but I strongly believe that what would disappear is mostly just garbage that's just contributing to information noise.

I go further than the OP: to me, advertising is - quite literally - a cancer on society.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#85

Post by dkersten »

roenxi wrote: post #56
AngryData wrote: post #20

Advertising is a scourge upon society.

Voters are also usually not responsible enough to handle democracy either, and yet here we are. 1) If you don't tell people about your product, they won't know about it and probably won't use it. Word of mouth is ok, but it is surprising how many people are left uncertain and in the dark about what their options are if they aren't directly told what their options are. 2) Without advertising, the internet collapses. G…

> Google, in particular, collapses. ... Facebook probably goes as well.

You say this as if it’s a bad thing. In my personal opinion, both of these companies have ultimately done more harm than good. Maybe Facebook more so than Google, and some Google products have pushed various tech forward, but at the expense of being tracked and watched and having garbage we don’t want or need constantly punch us in the face for our attention. More people seem to be suffering from anxiety and depression and I personally think these companies are a major part of the cause. If they were to collapse, good riddance I say.

> Most media companies too.

Most media companies are garbage peddling clickbait or misinformation, or at least empty-calorie/low substance content. I read a lot of stuff online because I’m just as addicted as everyone else, but the amount that is a truly insightful, actionable or entertaining in an any way memorable way is tiny. Good riddance to these too.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#86

Post by TeMPOraL »

masonic wrote: post #38
AngryData wrote: post #20

Advertising is a scourge upon society.

I would rephrase as " fake advertising is a scourge on society" with "fake" specific to artificially generated "impressions" that, by design, no user ever actually selects or sees .

Nah, that's actually slightly positive in so far that it hurts the advertising industry.

The problem is with actual ads. The ones that distract, cajole and coerce people to do things against their best interest.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#87

Post by bluesign »

hannob wrote: post #65

It is interesting how this article starts. A guy has an app which drains users batteries. But it's not his fault of course, because it's the ad company. Except the ad company says it's not their fault, because the ad came from some other company. This fingerpointing points to one of the core problems of the ad industry: They created a system where nobody knows who's responsible for anything, so malware and fraud has…

This totally depends on unspoken agreement and assumptions.

- You invited me to dinner, went to shopping, bought some stuff to cook, one ingredient was bad, I got poisoned.

In my opinion, here you don't have responsibility, because you acted with your best knowledge and good expectations from shop.

This kind of stuff is happening on google a lot too, this is not totally about some small shady company, working with another shady company.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#88

Post by realusername »

geocar wrote: post #72
ndnxhs wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The internet existed before advertising and it could continue to exist without it. People still desire instant communication and they would pay for it if a free option did not exist. A lot of garbage like Facebook would fall and real social networks would take place with real interactions not algorithms trying to drive fake engagement.

> The internet existed before advertising Advertising has been around for centuries, perhaps even millennia. I mean, I think you mean "before online advertising", but that's not true either! Online advertising predates the web and even the Internet by decades; We had ads in the BBS days, and people didn't hate it. So what's going on? China does a lot of "social" advertising and doesn't have the problems with ad fraud…

> Advertising has been around for centuries, perhaps even millennia.

Not really, unless you stretch the definition so much that it does not make sense anymore. The problem here is the advertising industry, not the small sign on a local business, when you stretch definitions, of course the reasoning does not work anymore.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#89

Post by TeMPOraL »

rjbwork wrote: post #19
drilldrive wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that the issue here is little to no access to a more detailed portfolio of the ads ran on your platform, as you are generally going through a middle-man, which in this case is the scammer by selling to providers on their front than they are paying you for.

One of the issues is that there just isn't that many advertiser focused platforms that give the advertisers the data they need to actually do the analysis of that ROI. So they just kind of spray and pray sometimes.

It's not in the best interest of advertising platforms to give accurate data; their interest lies in giving data that makes you believe the money you spend on their platform is giving you good returns.

Re: Ad Fraud Scheme Drained Users’ Batteries By Running Hidden Video Ads In Android

#90

Post by bluesign »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #83
stestagg wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just as if you were to buy a child’s toy that has a secret embedded camera that streams to some foreign server. It may be the manufacturers fault, but the person who sold it to you (the provider) is liable. Should be the same here

Right, and from the POV of the child, the parent is liable.

Liable is a bit strong word here, liability without fault is mainly rejected concept in modern world.
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