4 ms·

I actually wonder if the whole anti-ad movement is moving in the wrong direction. And I’m right there with the author running a pi-hole, but I wonder if it woul

by twodave 10mo ago

I actually wonder if the whole anti-ad movement is moving in the wrong direction. And I’m right there with the author running a pi-hole, but I wonder if it would be better to have an extension that will click all of the ads in a way that is invisible to the user. Make all those companies burn thru their budgets for no gain.

array_key_first 10mo ago
You'd have to, like, spawn a background browser or profile or something to capture the click to prevent tracking or even zero-click exploits.
- twodave 10mo ago
  For sure, it would be technically challenging. Especially if the click requires use of a secure cookie. But it doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective, either, at least at first.
- gruez 10mo ago
  >or even zero-click exploits. You'd need a VM to safely contain any exploits, although you're probably safe from 0days if you're just doing some run of the mill ad clicking. Nobody is burning a 6-7 figure 0day on a public ad network, when they need to save that for targeted attacks like politicians/journalists, so keeping your browser reasonably up to date will be sufficient.
notpushkin 10mo ago
You’re in luck: https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/
- twodave 10mo ago
  Oh awesome, thanks for linking.
- gruez 10mo ago
  see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188039 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188039
  - notpushkin 10mo ago
    It probably is filtered by now, yes. No harm in trying, though, and it puts some pressure on ad networks at least.
odie5533 10mo ago
Big players like YouTube can create detection for that behavior. So it would only harm small sites that are trying to run ads to get by.
- twodave 10mo ago
  That assumes two things: 1. That such a tool couldn’t be limited to the big players (it could) and 2. That “small sites trying to run ads to get by,” aren’t part of the problem. I can understand why someone would believe this, but I believe the web would be a better place without them. These sites are all pretty much designed (poorly) around their ads, which limits their usefulness. Have you tried looking up recipes online? A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!!
  - oneeyedpigeon 10mo ago
    > A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!! Is that anything to do with ads? I've always read that the padding is to make it copyrightable.
    - twodave 10mo ago
      It’s only 15 pages without the ads ;)
- notpushkin 10mo ago
  I don’t think it harms the publishers. If the ad network (well, Google) does detect it, I think they just won’t pay for the “fraudulent”¹ clicks? (And in best case scenario, you’re actually helping small sites!) Advertisers on the other hand will pay for nothing, yes. Some of them are small businesses. I wonder if there’s a way to click on big corp ads only... Edit: ¹ – added scare quotes, see https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-does-adnauseams-clicking-differ-from-click-fraud https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-does-adnause...

by twodave 10mo ago

array_key_first 10mo ago

You'd have to, like, spawn a background browser or profile or something to capture the click to prevent tracking or even zero-click exploits.

twodave 10mo ago
For sure, it would be technically challenging. Especially if the click requires use of a secure cookie. But it doesn’t have to be perfect to be effective, either, at least at first.
gruez 10mo ago
>or even zero-click exploits. You'd need a VM to safely contain any exploits, although you're probably safe from 0days if you're just doing some run of the mill ad clicking. Nobody is burning a 6-7 figure 0day on a public ad network, when they need to save that for targeted attacks like politicians/journalists, so keeping your browser reasonably up to date will be sufficient.

notpushkin 10mo ago

You’re in luck: https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/

twodave 10mo ago
Oh awesome, thanks for linking.
gruez 10mo ago
see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188039 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46188039
- notpushkin 10mo ago
  It probably is filtered by now, yes. No harm in trying, though, and it puts some pressure on ad networks at least.

odie5533 10mo ago

Big players like YouTube can create detection for that behavior. So it would only harm small sites that are trying to run ads to get by.

twodave 10mo ago
That assumes two things: 1. That such a tool couldn’t be limited to the big players (it could) and 2. That “small sites trying to run ads to get by,” aren’t part of the problem. I can understand why someone would believe this, but I believe the web would be a better place without them. These sites are all pretty much designed (poorly) around their ads, which limits their usefulness. Have you tried looking up recipes online? A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!!
- oneeyedpigeon 10mo ago
  > A bread recipe with 5 ingredients is 30 pages long!!! Is that anything to do with ads? I've always read that the padding is to make it copyrightable.
  - twodave 10mo ago
    It’s only 15 pages without the ads ;)
notpushkin 10mo ago
I don’t think it harms the publishers. If the ad network (well, Google) does detect it, I think they just won’t pay for the “fraudulent”¹ clicks? (And in best case scenario, you’re actually helping small sites!) Advertisers on the other hand will pay for nothing, yes. Some of them are small businesses. I wonder if there’s a way to click on big corp ads only... Edit: ¹ – added scare quotes, see https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-does-adnauseams-clicking-differ-from-click-fraud https://github.com/dhowe/AdNauseam/wiki/FAQ#how-does-adnause...