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Princeton's Ad-Blocking Superweapon May Put an End to the Ad-Blocking Arms Race
An ad blocker that uses computer vision appears to be the most powerful ever devised and can evade all known anti ad blockers.
A team of Princeton and Stanford University researchers has fundamentally reinvented how ad-blocking works, in an attempt to put an end to the advertising versus ad-blocking arms race. The ad blocker they've created is lightweight, evaded anti ad-blocking scripts on 50 out of the 50 websites it was tested on, and can block Facebook ads that were previously unblockable.
This fulfills the dream, that I'm sure I'm not alone in having, of "what if something could see the entire page, and show me a copy of the page with the ads visually blocked, but with the advertiser's scripts interacting with the original copy filled with thousands and thousands of blinking, dancing, flashing, seizure inducing ads."
Ads ruin everything they touch. Radio. TV. Magazines. Newspapers. Billboards. I could go on, but on the web ads, like they always do, started out unobtrusive. Then there were deceptive ads designed to lure you to "punch the monkey". Then more deceptively to look like an OS dialog warning of something with horrible consequences demanding immediate response luring you to install malware. Ads. Ad blockers. Ad blocker blockers. Then better ad blockers. Now this. Maybe something that will finally kill ads dead.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @04:57PM (13 children)
If this thing is using "computer vision" to determine whether or not to display an ad, presumably it has to allow the content to be retrieved in order to evaluate it. That defeats one of the many benefits of ad-blocking. Along with all the other damage they do, ads soak up valuable bandwidth. As long as ISPs charge by the byte, something unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, one of the reasons I'll continue to run ad-blockers is to not waste my precious limited monthly allocation on that scum.
(Score: 2) by shipofgold on Saturday April 15 2017, @05:11PM (2 children)
I think the argument of "wasting valuable bandwitdh" is becoming obsolete. Video Ads that start automatically are evil and the Video ads may burn a few bytes...but the average WWW page load, even if it is loaded with javascript, sidebars and popunders and other crap are not going to blow your Internet cap or slow the content by that much.
What I want is an adblocker that allows static image ads that link to something if I click on them, but NOT allow them to track me, get in my face or use my CPU for anything other than attempting to entice me with their product or service.
Google and the other Ad servers could solve this problem quite quickly by banning JavaScript and other tracking methods.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 15 2017, @06:40PM
Actually the resource hogging on the machine costs in equipment investment.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:51PM
TFA loaded a video AD on me without prompting. This moved page elements around forcing me to scroll.
When the AD finished p[laying it removed itself, and I had to scroll back.
Was real tempted to come back with lynx.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday April 15 2017, @06:37PM (8 children)
In what country is a fixed line ISP that charge by the bit still a thing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 15 2017, @10:51PM (1 child)
Umm, most of Canada?
Bell Canada Look at the fine print. [www.bell.ca] Internet data usage 50 GB/mo.; 4.00/additional GB (max. $100/mo.)
Rogers Lower priced packages [rogers.com] 500GB / 250GB / 25GB
Now, I have a smaller independent supplier for DSL, unlimited service, but less than 6MB down and about 500kB up.
Welcome to the land of great internet, NOT!
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday April 16 2017, @06:48AM
Stupid Rogers detected that they don't offer DSL where I live :P
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Sunday April 16 2017, @03:26AM
In the United States, Xfinity Internet by Comcast includes 1000 GB per month.
In the United States, there exist residences served by no fixed line ISP.
(Score: 1) by Didz on Sunday April 16 2017, @11:02AM (3 children)
Australia.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 16 2017, @08:53PM (2 children)
Is it that Australian government initiative to put fiber to the people that got shutdown due vested corporate interests that is casting a shadow still? (Ted Turner empire stroke back?)
(Score: 1) by Didz on Monday April 17 2017, @04:05AM (1 child)
From the very start the whole business model in Australia was to charge more for speed, bandwidth or both. Truly unlimited service isn't very common and ones that are cost a lot.
With websites and a lot of advertising networks being outside of the country latency is increased so ad blocking not only helps with lowering bandwidth consumption but makes things finish loading quicker too.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday April 17 2017, @05:30AM
Any chance to start an ISP by oneself?
I'll guess the obstacle is access to international sea cables. Otoh, even the price for those perhaps can be had low these days?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 16 2017, @09:55PM
http://www.centurylink.com/home/help/products/internet-and-data-usage-limits.html [centurylink.com]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 15 2017, @07:20PM
Yep - you've got something there. I installed it on Chrome. It's supposed to highlight all the ads - but nothing is marked. Oh - well - I block the adservers on the router, so this addon isn't finding any advertisements.
It is apparently all but worthless. At best, it will make the unaware aware. But, they won't be aware that they are being tracked anyway.