5 ms·

I've never understood the use-case of Adnauseam. This just, essentially, allows the adbroker (e.g. Google) to get more money from the business putting up the ad

by figmert 8mo ago

I've never understood the use-case of Adnauseam. This just, essentially, allows the adbroker (e.g. Google) to get more money from the business putting up the ad. Unless every single person uses it, it's not going to stop business from advertising, it just makes the likes of Google get more revenue.

digiown 8mo ago
Assuming it actually works (which I'm not sure about), it increases the cost on the business putting up the ad (presumably targeting you). It acts as a small punishment to the business buying the ads I guess.
- gruez 8mo ago
  >Assuming it actually works (which I'm not sure about), Which it probably doesn't, given that it uses XHRs to "click" on ads, which is super detectable, and given the proliferation of ad fraud I'd assume all networks already filter out.
  - Lalabadie 8mo ago
    The other assumption here is that ad networks want to filter out all clicks but the most legitimate. I don't think that's a very lucid assessment of how advertisers operate on the Internet. We all agree that they could take these steps. If AdNauseam doesn't look like outright fraud in the logs (which they don't if it's all distinct IPs and browsers), I don't think they want to cut it out from their revenue and viewer analytics.
    - gruez 8mo ago
      >If AdNauseam doesn't look like outright fraud in the logs (which they don't if it's all distinct IPs and browsers) You think ad networks don't have logs more sophisticated than default nginx/apache logs? XHRs are trivially detectable by headers alone.
  - Larrikin 8mo ago
    Google wouldn't have gone out of their way to block it on Chrome if it didn't work.
- malfist 8mo ago
  It also pollutes the data collection on you by advertisers. If you're seemingly interested in EVERYTHING they have no clue about you.
  - mminer237 8mo ago
    I mean, you're also telling them almost every site you visit. That's strictly worse from a privacy perspective than blocking ads outright.
    - prophesi 8mo ago
      https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3112/ObfuscationA-User-s-Guide-for-Privacy-and-Protest https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3112/ObfuscationA-User-s-G...
phkahler 8mo ago
>> This just, essentially, allows the adbroker (e.g. Google) to get more money from the business putting up the ad. It lowers the effectiveness of internet advertising. When advertisers feel they're paying too much for the business the ads generate, they'll stop advertising in that way. That's probably the thinking anyway. A less generous stance would be: I hate advertisers so I'm gonna get back at them by making them pay more.
- mminer237 8mo ago
  It would just cut the rates they'll pay to account for the erroneous clicks. I guess that might just be limited to defunding the sites popular with the really techy group of people that use Adnauseam and instead shift to niches with better effectiveness.
direwolf20 8mo ago
When the advertiser is paying a bunch of money to Google for ad impressions but not getting increased sales, what will they do?
- rvnx 8mo ago
  Raise the price of their product you might have been interested to cover the marketing losses ?
  - direwolf20 8mo ago
    If they could raise the price they already would have
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
dooglius 8mo ago
I view it in the same vein as the thing where people waste scammers' time by pretending to be falling for it and being slow/unhelpful
martian0x80 8mo ago
it's actually the opposite, google adsense and every major ad-network will ban you or put a hold on your account if they think the ad impressions or clicks are automated, so this is a good way to get someone blocked from the ad-network
- prophesi 8mo ago
  Please block me from the ad-network.
prophesi 8mo ago
If that's the case, it makes it all the more curious as to why Google banned the extension[0] on Chrome. [0] https://adnauseam.io/free-adnauseam.html https://adnauseam.io/free-adnauseam.html
culi 8mo ago
Google is selling their data to advertisers. If you poison their data, you are making the thing they sell less valuable As a user you still don't have to see the ads but you are also "fighting back" rather than just "hiding from" the advertisers I think it's great

by figmert 8mo ago

digiown 8mo ago

Assuming it actually works (which I'm not sure about), it increases the cost on the business putting up the ad (presumably targeting you). It acts as a small punishment to the business buying the ads I guess.

gruez 8mo ago
>Assuming it actually works (which I'm not sure about), Which it probably doesn't, given that it uses XHRs to "click" on ads, which is super detectable, and given the proliferation of ad fraud I'd assume all networks already filter out.
- Lalabadie 8mo ago
  The other assumption here is that ad networks want to filter out all clicks but the most legitimate. I don't think that's a very lucid assessment of how advertisers operate on the Internet. We all agree that they could take these steps. If AdNauseam doesn't look like outright fraud in the logs (which they don't if it's all distinct IPs and browsers), I don't think they want to cut it out from their revenue and viewer analytics.
  - gruez 8mo ago
    >If AdNauseam doesn't look like outright fraud in the logs (which they don't if it's all distinct IPs and browsers) You think ad networks don't have logs more sophisticated than default nginx/apache logs? XHRs are trivially detectable by headers alone.
- Larrikin 8mo ago
  Google wouldn't have gone out of their way to block it on Chrome if it didn't work.
malfist 8mo ago
It also pollutes the data collection on you by advertisers. If you're seemingly interested in EVERYTHING they have no clue about you.
- mminer237 8mo ago
  I mean, you're also telling them almost every site you visit. That's strictly worse from a privacy perspective than blocking ads outright.
  - prophesi 8mo ago
    https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3112/ObfuscationA-User-s-Guide-for-Privacy-and-Protest https://direct.mit.edu/books/book/3112/ObfuscationA-User-s-G...

phkahler 8mo ago

>> This just, essentially, allows the adbroker (e.g. Google) to get more money from the business putting up the ad. It lowers the effectiveness of internet advertising. When advertisers feel they're paying too much for the business the ads generate, they'll stop advertising in that way. That's probably the thinking anyway. A less generous stance would be: I hate advertisers so I'm gonna get back at them by making them pay more.

mminer237 8mo ago
It would just cut the rates they'll pay to account for the erroneous clicks. I guess that might just be limited to defunding the sites popular with the really techy group of people that use Adnauseam and instead shift to niches with better effectiveness.

direwolf20 8mo ago

When the advertiser is paying a bunch of money to Google for ad impressions but not getting increased sales, what will they do?

rvnx 8mo ago
Raise the price of their product you might have been interested to cover the marketing losses ?
- direwolf20 8mo ago
  If they could raise the price they already would have
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]

dooglius 8mo ago

I view it in the same vein as the thing where people waste scammers' time by pretending to be falling for it and being slow/unhelpful

martian0x80 8mo ago

it's actually the opposite, google adsense and every major ad-network will ban you or put a hold on your account if they think the ad impressions or clicks are automated, so this is a good way to get someone blocked from the ad-network

prophesi 8mo ago
Please block me from the ad-network.

prophesi 8mo ago

If that's the case, it makes it all the more curious as to why Google banned the extension[0] on Chrome. [0] https://adnauseam.io/free-adnauseam.html https://adnauseam.io/free-adnauseam.html

culi 8mo ago

Google is selling their data to advertisers. If you poison their data, you are making the thing they sell less valuable As a user you still don't have to see the ads but you are also "fighting back" rather than just "hiding from" the advertisers I think it's great