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Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

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Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#361

Post by dTal »

ehnto wrote: post #316
dabeeeenster wrote: post #76

"It's not very straightforward to find where it's coming from, but we are working on it." This encapsulates the entire problem with the current state of digital advertising in 1 simple sentence.

It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all. It wasn't long ago that this would have been seen as a massive security risk by site owners and ad platforms alike. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps it's a structured service provided by the ad network, and the ad buyer just checks a box. But as a site owner even that would be too much for me. I've been playing aroun…

>It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all.

I'm not fully up to date with how these things are usually set up - is there anything in the web security model that prevents "ads" from exfiltrating arbitrary information from any page that they're on? Could an ad read my keystrokes, or scrape private messages?

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#363

Post by Aeolun »

dTal wrote: post #361
ehnto wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all. It wasn't long ago that this would have been seen as a massive security risk by site owners and ad platforms alike. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps it's a structured service provided by the ad network, and the ad buyer just checks a box. But as a site owner even that would be too much for me. I've been playing aroun…

>It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all. I'm not fully up to date with how these things are usually set up - is there anything in the web security model that prevents "ads" from exfiltrating arbitrary information from any page that they're on? Could an ad read my keystrokes, or scrape private messages?

Short answer is yes.

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#364

Post by aembleton »

H8crilA wrote: post #271
colinbartlett wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They realized it was a risk so they built their own browser to have more control. And it worked. Only now, users are wising up and moving to Firefox.

No meaningful fraction of users is moving to Firefox [1] [2]. I wish this was the case, but it sure is not. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers#... [2] https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx

If Firefox is blocking trackers by default, how will you know if more are using it now?

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#365

Post by kowdermeister »

vbsteven wrote: post #328
ehnto wrote: post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all. It wasn't long ago that this would have been seen as a massive security risk by site owners and ad platforms alike. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps it's a structured service provided by the ad network, and the ad buyer just checks a box. But as a site owner even that would be too much for me. I've been playing aroun…

It’s not the internet we want but it is the one we have. In the end it is your own responsibility for which code gets executed on your machine. I run NoScript with all JS blocked by default and only whitelist the domains I want. On most sites you can get by with no JS or just scripts from the same domain whitelisted. Maybe a CDN from time to time

It's indirectly what most people wanted: good content for free.

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#366

Post by xhgdvjky »

johnwheeler wrote: post #48

I wonder if the top brass at alphabet ever worry that their trillion dollar empire is based on fragile foundations like web audio fingerprinting, etc. that sure would keep me up at night. obviously, i know google does more, but it seems like a large chunk of their revenue must be dependent on shady technical tricks like these working.

the internet is already a shady hack that only usually works

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#367

Post by islon »

DCoder wrote: post #280
zeta0134 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Vizio's built-in software tries to do that. There's a reason it's not allowed to connect to wifi.

When you say "it's not allowed", do you trust its own settings? Are you sure it's not doing something like [0]? How do you even protect against that? [0]: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacy/comments/bpr6xs/if_you_choo...

My wifi router has an interface that shows every connected device and I can blacklist them based on their physical address.

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#368

Post by Wowfunhappy »

nerdponx wrote: post #199
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> what's stopping you from "double dipping" and serving ads anyway? People looking at the source code, like what happened here.

You think the NY Times, Linkedin, etc. is going to have the same response as StackOverflow? Good luck even getting in touch with someone who knows what you're talking about.

If LinkedIn (to choose a random example) advertises one of the perks of subscribing is that you won't be tracked, and then tracks you anyway, that's a story for The New York Times et al.

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#369

Post by dTal »

Aeolun wrote: post #363
dTal wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's amazing to me that an advert can run arbitrary javascript at all. I'm not fully up to date with how these things are usually set up - is there anything in the web security model that prevents "ads" from exfiltrating arbitrary information from any page that they're on? Could an ad read my keystrokes, or scrape private messages?

Short answer is yes.

Yes, the security model stops them, or yes, they can do those things?

Re: Why is Stack Overflow trying to start audio?

#370

Post by aerique »

manigandham wrote: post #242
mikeash wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, don't allow them to run JavaScript. That's not necessary, just convenient.

See my other comment for how it all works: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20290673 It's not that simple. There are many layers in the supply chain that currently requires JS. Publishers can't disable the JS and they can't demand JS-free creatives either.

Well, my browser hasn't been running JS for ages and more people are going to do that. If the business isn't going to fix it, users will.

And yes, I'm enjoying my 90's internet and enable JS when it is needed (rarely) for specific domains.

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