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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

#101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

"without fault"? Is it reasonable to assume that a cheap internet connected toy with a video camera and microphone is secure enough to use without any precautions?

" secret embedded camera "

I bought "child's toy" and sold you "child's today", you expect seller to check every toy if there is "secret camera" ?

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

#102
post #36
post #11

I am amused that the article detailing a very good reason to use an adblocker asked me to disable mine.

Hey, there are no ad blockers for apps, right? Messing with other apps is a ToS violation for both Google and Apple, as I recall. Edit: OK, you can. But not with other apps from the official stores.

NetGuard is on Google's store, and (at least in pro version) you could use it to monitor and block individual addresses any app wants to access. It's a bit involved, though I recommend at least the basic functionality: the ability to selectively allow and deny access to Wi-Fi/mobile connection for apps. I don't run any ad-filtering for apps, but I disabled networking for any app that IMO shouldn't use it, and I'm surprised by which apps suddenly start popping up in NetGuard's notifications (especially when I'm not using them).

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

#103
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

So no different than leering self interested political posturing masquerading as altruistic innocuity

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

#104
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 o…

>More people seem to be suffering from anxiety and depression and I personally think these companies are a major part of the cause.

That trend pre-dates Google or Facebook. Before them and Snapchat and instagram, it was text messaging. The basic ability to send messages to your friends in real-time is the problem. Individual services can make it incrementally better or worse, but it's the behaviour that's the actual problem and even very trivial modern technology enables that behaviour just fine.

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

#105
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Imagine if literally the only way to get a phone, or even find out what phones there are, was through a carrier store.

Take away advertising and the only way someone could find out about a product is word of mouth, or walking into a shop. Functionally everything would originate in shops. That means looking at the available options would be very time consuming, involve a lot of travel and be dominated by very powerful gatekeepers who would control you access to goods and information. It would revitalise the high street, that's for sure, but in a very controlling, rent-seeking way.

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

#106
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

I think it's a little bit more complicated. There's a point where this becomes somewhat questionable. Say the toy has a reputable certification and the company, up until now, never had any track record of mistreating their customers. In this case I'd argue the company is responsible, not the parent, and that it is actually worthy following through to find whoever acted maliciously rather than just picking the last person in the chain.

Now in the particular case of ads in applications, I think there are surely many developers who fail to do their due diligence when picking advertisement partners, but without a doubt there are also advertisement companies who excel at duping the developers they work with.

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

#107
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Voters are critical to democracy. Advertising isn't critical to society Advertising is absolutely critical to society. Without advertising we can't figure out what companies are selling, because they can't tell us. That puts a real crimp of having a functioning economy. I don't have statistics handy, but I assure you that if advertising were generally banned there would be a lot less, say, smartphone owners. If you…

> if you weren't allowed to advertise, say, smartphones there would be a lot less smartphone owners. That would certainly be a net benefit to societies mental health.

Not necessarily. Mobile phones are hugely important economic enablers and poverty is bad for every kind of health, not just mental.

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

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People used to really notice when a movie, TV programme or video game was violent. Blood, graphic death, etc. As those things became more common and more extreme, people stopped noticing. Now we don't really talk about it at all anymore. Does that mean non-violent movies and video games are on their way out? (No it does not.)

And yet, the raison d'etre of movies and video games is not to be noticed . For advertising, it is. If the non-extreme forms of advertising are not being noticed, it means they are indeed dying out.

The purpose of advertising isn’t to be noticed, it’s to make people give you their money. It’s an open question whether being consciously noticed is a prerequisite for this or not; can ubiquitous but ignored Coca-Cola logos successfully change someone’s answer to “What would you like to drink?”

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

#109
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…

Is there an ad network that doesn't use JS? You make a call to the ad network server, it returns an image, you display it in a native UIImageView (not a web view), and if the user taps it, you open a URL in a web view.

Unless the user taps the ad, no JS or HTML is involved, which eliminates the possibility of such tricks.

I looked for such a library a while back, but didn't find any.

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

#110
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Imagine if literally the only way to get a phone, or even find out what phones there are, was through a carrier store. Take away advertising and the only way someone could find out about a product is word of mouth, or walking into a shop. Functionally everything would originate in shops. That means looking at the available options would be very time consuming, involve a lot of travel and be dominated by very powerful…

There are ways to optimize access to this information. Trade shows that display new products. Mail-order catalogs for companies or industry groups. Companies would find a way to make information - not ads - available for interested people to peruse. The core difference would be "pull not push", i.e. people with a problem would go looking for solutions, and very little space to compete on product information - preventing runaway zero-sum games.
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