4 ms·

My first thought is that this is really Google's problem to fix. How is it even possible to do this on Android? Or is this also possible on iOS?

baybal2 8y ago
How? Google's last secret bastion of defence was a common opengl driver glitch that was checked from well hidden webgl shader code. Even that was said to be cracked in no time. Simple explanation is that people on the other side of adfraud war are the ones getting incomparably bigger money than any ad-fraud specialist hired by ad companies (and they both hire pretty much the same people...) Imagine, the more Google cracks down on it, the bigger is the monetary reward for cracking the protection. I remember reading mid-naughties era Russian computer journals with pics of "advertising specialists" racing off their new Ferraris in Moscow right at the moment it was said a big crackdown was going on.
- EE84M3i 8y ago
  I'm curious about this "hidden webgl shader code" you're talking about, but only getting google results for this comment. Do you have a reference for this?
product50 8y ago
This is irrespective of the OS. Basically, on the webview, they are running a downloading and running hidden video with all the trackers going off.
- whalesalad 8y ago
  Not necessarily. You can’t run wild on iOS.
  - product50 8y ago
    You can continue to believe that iOS is your temple of all great things and nothing bad can happen there. Or you can wake up and smell the coffee. It has nothing to do with the OS but everything to do with how HTML works on in app browsers.
  - underwater 8y ago
    What makes you say that? Ads are generally powered by webviews, and there is little that Apple can do to determine what is desired behaviour and what is nefarious. Unless you are suggesting iAds should be the only game in town? Web standards are introducing resource limits that can be used to prevent this abuse in the future, but that is not platform specific.
- hrdwdmrbl 8y ago
  It's not clear from the article, but this is only possible when the app is being viewed right?
onion2k 8y ago
Google could ignore it but that would make users use their phones less, which would impact Google's bottom line. Users associating video ads with fraud would also be bad for Google's brand. There are lots of reasons why Google would want to resolve this problem. I imagine Google might even employ risk assessors to figure out the cost impact and decide if it's worthwhile spending time fixing it.

baybal2 8y ago

How? Google's last secret bastion of defence was a common opengl driver glitch that was checked from well hidden webgl shader code. Even that was said to be cracked in no time. Simple explanation is that people on the other side of adfraud war are the ones getting incomparably bigger money than any ad-fraud specialist hired by ad companies (and they both hire pretty much the same people...) Imagine, the more Google cracks down on it, the bigger is the monetary reward for cracking the protection. I remember reading mid-naughties era Russian computer journals with pics of "advertising specialists" racing off their new Ferraris in Moscow right at the moment it was said a big crackdown was going on.

EE84M3i 8y ago
I'm curious about this "hidden webgl shader code" you're talking about, but only getting google results for this comment. Do you have a reference for this?

product50 8y ago

This is irrespective of the OS. Basically, on the webview, they are running a downloading and running hidden video with all the trackers going off.

whalesalad 8y ago
Not necessarily. You can’t run wild on iOS.
- product50 8y ago
  You can continue to believe that iOS is your temple of all great things and nothing bad can happen there. Or you can wake up and smell the coffee. It has nothing to do with the OS but everything to do with how HTML works on in app browsers.
- underwater 8y ago
  What makes you say that? Ads are generally powered by webviews, and there is little that Apple can do to determine what is desired behaviour and what is nefarious. Unless you are suggesting iAds should be the only game in town? Web standards are introducing resource limits that can be used to prevent this abuse in the future, but that is not platform specific.
hrdwdmrbl 8y ago
It's not clear from the article, but this is only possible when the app is being viewed right?

onion2k 8y ago

Google could ignore it but that would make users use their phones less, which would impact Google's bottom line. Users associating video ads with fraud would also be bad for Google's brand. There are lots of reasons why Google would want to resolve this problem. I imagine Google might even employ risk assessors to figure out the cost impact and decide if it's worthwhile spending time fixing it.