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Closing the Loop on Online Advertising

posted by n1 on Monday October 27 2014, @11:53PM   Printer-friendly
from the advertising-arms-race dept.

Nerdfest writes:

The next shot in the advertising/blocking war. AdNauseam is a FireFox plug-in, currently in beta, that works in conjunction with AdBlock and clicks ads while it blocks them.

The project was "initiated" by Helen Nissenbaum, Professor of Media, Culture and Communication, and Computer Science, at New York University.

As online advertising is becoming more automatic, universal and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating all ad-clicks universally and blindly on behalf of the target audience. Working in coordination with Ad Block Plus, AdNauseam quietly clicks every blocked ad, registering a visit on the ad networks databases. As the data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user profiling, targeting and surveillance becomes futile.

They also state "AdNauseam serves as a means of amplifying users' discontent with advertising networks that disregard privacy and facilitate bulk surveillance agendas".

Will this help things with online advertising, or make them worse, assuming that's possible?

 
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  • (Score: 2) by buswolley on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:10AM

    by buswolley (848) on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:10AM (#110713)

    Sounds like a fast way to get malware

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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by TrumpetPower! on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:35AM

    by TrumpetPower! (590) <ben@trumpetpower.com> on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:35AM (#110718) Homepage

    Only if they're completely clueless. The plugin damned well better not actually render or otherwise execute any content the advertisers are serving up; rather, it should simply do an HTTP GET for the target that Adblock is blocking, and send whatever the remote server replies with straight to /dev/null.

    b&

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:47AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @01:47AM (#110721)

      Only if they're completely clueless. The plugin damned well better not actually render or otherwise execute any content the advertisers are serving up; rather, it should simply do an HTTP GET for the target that Adblock is blocking, and send whatever the remote server replies with straight to /dev/null.

      And chew up your bandwidth in the process? No, thanks. I'll stick with AdBlock, thank you very much.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @06:26PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @06:26PM (#110929)

        I predict that extension to not become very popular in Hungary [soylentnews.org] ;-)

  • (Score: 2) by Snotnose on Tuesday October 28 2014, @02:59AM

    by Snotnose (1623) on Tuesday October 28 2014, @02:59AM (#110736)

    Came here to say this. Not to mention a lot of sites have rather dodgy ads, clicking on them at work could result in a visit from IT and HR.

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    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @04:56AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 28 2014, @04:56AM (#110759)

      a decent IT department should have centralized adblocking not letting any of the ad junk into the company at all

    • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday October 28 2014, @05:24PM

      by FatPhil (863) <reversethis-{if.fdsa} {ta} {tnelyos-cp}> on Tuesday October 28 2014, @05:24PM (#110906) Homepage
      But does "I have AdNauseum installed" count as plausible deniability now?
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  • (Score: 1) by m2o2r2g2 on Tuesday October 28 2014, @04:42AM

    by m2o2r2g2 (3673) on Tuesday October 28 2014, @04:42AM (#110756)

    or to get arrested. Blindly clicking links can send you to all kinds of places on the interwebz.