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Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

dhowe.github.io

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Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#111

Post by rdtsc »

carrier_lost wrote: post #39
forca wrote: post #19

I realize this won't be popular, but I really have no feelings for ad networks. - They allow shoddy security on their servers - They track users against their will - Info on me is sold w/o my knowledge or consent - Ads are a poor business model since they can be blocked - There is no moral imperative for me to view ads since I've paid to access the Interwebs I block all ads, tracking cookies, beacons, all of it... I…

"There is no moral imperative for me to view ads since I've paid to access the Interwebs" When I go to McDonald's, I don't pay for my Big Mac. I already put gas in my car!

When I go to McDonald's I don't have to pay for wear and tear on the roads because I already put gas in my car!

Wait, that is actually how it works. In US typically you pay more for the gas because it has rolled into its cost the cost of maintenance for the roads.

It is a flawed analogy line to begin with. But even here you can see how there are cases where this happens.

It would probably be more accurate to say that you get a free McDonald's if they can send one of their clowns home with you and he can watch you eat it and records everything. Here the author just block the clown from following him. And presumably would prefer to actually pay for a McDonald's sandwich.

(I personally would pay a negative sum for it, but that is just me).

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#112

Post by Nursie »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #105
forca wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is something also mean-spirited about tracking users. Yeah, yeah, I've heard it's all anonymous, but I've been in the IT industry for a very long time, and I know for a fact they can identify the users with enough time. Because all of this is bought and sold behind the scenes. I would be OK with ads that went straight to the site selling an item with no tracking other than click-thru stats but not using the IP…

Auto-clicking bots will punish the people who run sites, not the people who run ads. They'll get shut down for fraudulent use. Meanwhile, unless this has something like >50% adoption, ad networks won't even notice. Edit: When I say "people who run ads", I mean the ad networks, ad suppliers, etc.

>> Auto-clicking bots will punish the people who run sites, not the people who run ads.

If you've got ads on your site, you're someone that runs ads... Not that I disagree with your point.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#113

Post by mpeg »

adjwilli wrote: post #27
mpeg wrote: post #10

I don't understand this, they say it prevents tracking but, actually, this helps ad companies track you since they will now know you will click their ads whenever you are visiting a certain site. With ad blockers that prevent the HTTP request, those third party sites aren't able to track you. The publisher can always track you but that won't be shared with their advertisers or networks. Disclaimer: I work in the adte…

I'm not endorsing AdNauseam, but the idea is that the information the ad companies track will be useless since the target person will appear to have clicked on every ad regardless of true interest in the product. For instance it will make it appear that a single, heterosexual male is interested beauty products or diapers.

Yes and that will screw up the advertiser's stats, but in terms of tracking you actually give more third parties access to your data.

All they need to track you is either access to your device (by serving you code, or saving data in it, like cookies), or ip address + http headers and timestamp (which they would definitely get if the HTTP request goes through by clicking on the ad).

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#114

Post by serve_yay »

forca wrote: post #19

I realize this won't be popular, but I really have no feelings for ad networks. - They allow shoddy security on their servers - They track users against their will - Info on me is sold w/o my knowledge or consent - Ads are a poor business model since they can be blocked - There is no moral imperative for me to view ads since I've paid to access the Interwebs I block all ads, tracking cookies, beacons, all of it... I…

Buy, I sure wonder what made you think that wouldn't be popular here.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#115

Post by jmount »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #87
jmount wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Strongly agree. Ads (and even ads placed by primary distributors and authors) hijacked the internet without permission from browsers/surfers and routinely have additional negative consequences. The reader doesn't need permission to defend themselves.

>Ads (and even ads placed by primary distributors and authors) hijacked the internet without permission from browsers/surfers Isn't actively visiting a site you know to be ad supported implying permission?

Permission for what?

To see a single text ad? To see a series of gifs? To have an autoplay video start? To accumulate tracking cookies? To accumulate permanent flash storage? Permission to do some reverse lookup and call your phone? Permission to capture later browsing and re-write links in a i-Frame?

I am not currently using an adblocker/clicker (broke too many things). By a similar argument if the site doesn't want to serve content to those not reading they ads they can selectively choose not serve it. Isn't something being placed in public implying some permission? I really don't understand why so many people are unsympathetic to attempting to defend oneself.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#117

Post by karmacondon »

This exposes a fundamental flaw in the internet advertising model. On some level I've known that a script like this could be easily written for a long time, but seeing this working product really made it clear. It's unlikely that millions of people would use something like this, but if they did it would be chaos in the advertising industry. They love online ads because it allows them to gather empirical metrics that can't be gathered from television or radio. It's impossible to know objectively what kind of an impression a tv made, but you can see exactly how many people clicked on a banner.

But this could also be a fatal flaw. If a lot of people wanted to, they could destroy payperclick advertising. It would be almost impossible to know which clicks were real and which were fake. Companies would lose a lot of faith in the industry because an update to the script could play havoc with the online ad budget of this company or that on a whim. I don't know why anyone would chose the attack the online advertising industry and it wouldn't be a good idea, but it's interesting to that it's possible. Online ads is a huge market space but also one could also be severely disrupted by a greasemonkey script. They'd better be careful not cross the line with tracking and privacy invasion because this is one of the rare cases where people can take direct action to fight back.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#118

Post by Deregibus »

Wouldn't this just enforce the existing ad preferences? Say the ad networks determined that you're looking for a car. They then start showing you car ads, this software clicks on them, and now they think that you must really, really want a car. That hasn't messed up the fundamental information, it's just adjusted the scale.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#119

Post by pjc50 »

hagbardgroup wrote: post #94
forca wrote: post #19

I realize this won't be popular, but I really have no feelings for ad networks. - They allow shoddy security on their servers - They track users against their will - Info on me is sold w/o my knowledge or consent - Ads are a poor business model since they can be blocked - There is no moral imperative for me to view ads since I've paid to access the Interwebs I block all ads, tracking cookies, beacons, all of it... I…

This is pretty close to ad fraud. However, I agree with you that display ad networks suck. I'm also not sold on the idea that the web should be free. The happy medium is to have users pay for content, making it so advertisers don't need to track users to verify that they're real humans, and improving the web for everyone except poor people. One way that this could be done is to use bitcoin for tiny micropayments, bil…

Frictionless billing is harder than it sounds, because it opens the door to frictionless fraud. If I can automatically bill you for a thousanth of a dollar I can automatically do that hundreds of thousands of times. If it's with bitcoin I can obfuscate the destination of the money.

Re: Ad blocker that clicks on the ads

#120

Post by blumkvist »

forrestthewoods wrote: post #21
androidb wrote: post #8

Bad idea, ads are also a way to support the site/service you are using. Automatic ad clicks can get that site banned (i.e. Adsense will surely do that) so that's a sure way to kill the site. Google for instance wouldn't have existed without ads. Lots of people on HN saved millennia with help from Stackoverflow (ad supported) and so on. I'm now "ad-aware" so I know how to differentiate content from ads, but I will cli…

I often wonder what the internet would be like without ads. First of all, you're right that it would totally kill sites. Let's say it happens. What's next? I would be ecstatic if sites like BuzzFeed and Gawker died. That'd be great[1]. But it also kills good sites like Stackoverflow. That sucks. Right now people don't have to pay for content. Almost everything is ad based. Because of this people almost never pay for…

And what if you live in poor Romania and you don't have money? Or in even poorer Egypt?

There is no model better than advertising. Nothing beats free. Get used to it. It's not going anywhere and such initiatives are futile.

* blumkvist maximizes back the SAS Miner window and laughs.

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