Re:AdNauseam: Browser extension to fight back against tracki...
by TeMPOraL on Thursday May 30, 2019 @05:39AM
(#20049646)
> Also this "fighting back" attitude is not very constructive. If you hate the direction of this industry, consider paying for shit that you consume, instead of pushing for extensions that will inevitably get banned (due to this being essentially fraud) and that are pushing more and more publishers towards native apps and towards DRM, because the open web is a risky platform due to these extensions.
Fighting back is very constructive. It's a market signal. People aren't only restricted to express their dissatisfaction through buying elsewhere (people on the producing side would love everyone to believe that, though). Complaining loudly, accurately portraying adtech as the scoundrels they are publicly, to discourage others from using such products, are also valid market signals. And so is AdNauseam.
AdNauseam is definitely not fraud. Clicking on random ads with no intention of buying is something I, as a user, can do. I've signed no contract with advertisers saying otherwise, and the tech is deployed in such a way that I get to view and click (or not view / not click) how I please. AdNauseam just automates my preference for clicking on random ads while not looking at them. My preference to express that the whole industry is bullshit and should simply die in a fire. It's perfectly legal, perfectly by the rules of the Web and the HTTP protocol, and runs entirely on the User-Agent side of Browser/Server border.
Remember, Google didn't ban AdNauseam because it's wrong. They banned it, because it went against their commercial interest, and being a private platform they could just ban it without asking anyone.
Fighting back is very constructive. It's a market signal. People aren't only restricted to express their dissatisfaction through buying elsewhere (people on the producing side would love everyone to believe that, though). Complaining loudly, accurately portraying adtech as the scoundrels they are publicly, to discourage others from using such products, are also valid market signals. And so is AdNauseam.
AdNauseam is definitely not fraud. Clicking on random ads with no intention of buying is something I, as a user, can do. I've signed no contract with advertisers saying otherwise, and the tech is deployed in such a way that I get to view and click (or not view / not click) how I please. AdNauseam just automates my preference for clicking on random ads while not looking at them. My preference to express that the whole industry is bullshit and should simply die in a fire. It's perfectly legal, perfectly by the rules of the Web and the HTTP protocol, and runs entirely on the User-Agent side of Browser/Server border.
Remember, Google didn't ban AdNauseam because it's wrong. They banned it, because it went against their commercial interest, and being a private platform they could just ban it without asking anyone.