As a website publisher, is there an ad network available for me to use that doesn’t allow advertisers to run JavaScript?
If so, what kind of rates can I get?
Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
211–220 of 416 posts
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#212Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm hoping in 10 years the world will have figured out that allowing arbitrary Turing-complete code to automatically run on one's personal machine is a terrifically terrible idea, and that the World Wide Web will instead orient itself around something that doesn't make security and privacy extraordinarily difficult to achieve (whether that's still HTML/CSS or something entirely new). At the very least, though, eventu…
With absolutely no disrespect intended, the hope that we'll forget about the WORA dream is delusional. WORA is inevitable and the Web, for all its flaws (and they are plentiful), is far and away the closest we've ever come. Even on mobile, which was a bit of a setback for the Web as WORA, JS has only been getting better over time. There's just no turning back the clock. Security-wise, I think the best we can hope for…
> WORA is inevitable
Indeed it is. It is not, however, dependent on running arbitrary Turing-complete code in my browser automatically and without my permission. Write-once-run-anywhere is perfectly possible and feasible under the traditional "download and install this program and run it" model.
I'm optimistic about WebAssembly (on that note) because of its usefulness beyond the browser; like I described in a different comment, it's only a matter of time before we start seeing GUI-enabled WASM runtimes that allow WASM-modules-as-programs to work as desktop or mobile apps indistinguishable from their native (or kinda-native, in the case of Android) counterparts.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#213I just wanted to chime in from Stack Overflow here and let people know: we are aware of the issue. And we're NOT okay with it. We're trying to sort out how to kill the audio behavior now. It's not very straightforward to find where it's coming from, but we are working on it. We've also reached out to Google for their assistance in tracking it down. If anyone can offer advice, we'll more than happily take it. - Nick C…
Why are you allowing arbitrary javascript to be served to your users?
More money that way
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
The only reason it’s not the same situation is because they’re willing to throw their users under the bus for a little extra cash. If they wanted to exert more control, they absolutely could. Ads would cost more and we’d see fewer distinct ads as a result.
That is absolutely not the only reason. Digital ads work entirely different from the TV medium and its more than "a little extra cash". No single publisher today really has the power to change much, no matter how big they are. The issue likes with adtech (like Google) and advertisers.
Digital ads could work where every single one is vetted by people before it’s served to any users. There is no reason it can’t work this way, other than it being a lot cheaper to skip that step.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#215I guess it's part of Googles Ads's endless battle against "robot" clicks. A site as big as SO should not use Google ads, but instead use their own ad service. Just make an automated system where people can signup and show an ad. Make it cost 1$ per 100 page views. That would probably earn SO two orders of magnitude more then they get from Google Ads.
> $1 per 100 page views
Eh, that's like 10x average CPM nowadays. And advertisers usually are paying per click, not impression.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#216Has there been any serious thought / discussion about how the cat and mouse chase of the ads vs ad blockers is going to end? It would be interesting to see where we are in ten years.
Tracking is more than just ads. A website owner wants to know who his visitors are. Where they come from. Which devices they use. Maybe he can support an other language, optimize for other devices, offer deals for a group of customers. But he doesn't want the risk to be fined by GDPR, so he skipps all this. Less optimisation, less/worse contacts - everybody lose.
I don't think most people have an issue with that single sites tracking usage on said site. (Also, much of that can be obtained with server logs.)
This issue is cross domain tracking like we see with ad network that profile you over many different sites.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#217I don’t get how it can get the fingerprint to be so unique as to attribute ads. Most mobile browsers are exactly the same, you have the same screen resolution and so on. And most desktop browsers when maximized are the same resolution. I mean there must be groups of thousands of users for each combination of fingerprinted features. So it’s not all the way down to the person, right? It’s just correlations?
https://amiunique.org/fp gives a unique fingerprint for both my Mac and my iPhone. To be honest, I don't know how they manage to fingerprint the iPhone, but they claim it's a unique fingerprint.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#218Earlier quoted context omitted.
> most will be on Android/iOS where ad blocking will be minimal Safari on iOS allows for content blocking, and Firefox for Android allows users to install extensions.
On android many links are open in a Webview (e.g. opening links on Gmail app) and many ads come through webviews inside apps themselves (e.g. some ads inside the youtube app itself)
You can install hostfile blocking on rooted android devices.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#219Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is absolutely not the only reason. Digital ads work entirely different from the TV medium and its more than "a little extra cash". No single publisher today really has the power to change much, no matter how big they are. The issue likes with adtech (like Google) and advertisers.
Digital ads could work where every single one is vetted by people before it’s served to any users. There is no reason it can’t work this way, other than it being a lot cheaper to skip that step.
All creatives (and the root templates of dynamically construted ones) are actually audited on the advertiser-facing platforms before they ever get to the publisher.
Unfortunately running javascript means these ads can do anything at any time and change into malware. Other than adding some technical guardrails, the best practice would be to ban bad actors (of which many are known and usually the same shady people) but many large adtech companies look the other way because it makes money and they have no consequences.
Malware and adfraud is primarily a business problem, not a technical one.
Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?
#220Earlier quoted context omitted.
Digital ads could work where every single one is vetted by people before it’s served to any users. There is no reason it can’t work this way, other than it being a lot cheaper to skip that step.
All creatives (and the root templates of dynamically construted ones) are actually audited on the advertiser-facing platforms before they ever get to the publisher. Unfortunately running javascript means these ads can do anything at any time and change into malware. Other than adding some technical guardrails, the best practice would be to ban bad actors (of which many are known and usually the same shady people) but…
So, don't allow them to run JavaScript. That's not necessary, just convenient.