>The AdNauseam approach to ad blocking isn't great for the security side of ad blocking
It's for this reason, I'll never use it. Some kind of automated headless version of AdNauseam that could be installed on a Raspberry Pi is something I would be more comfortable with using.
Re:YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin
by dantyti on Sunday October 29, 2023 @04:23PM
(#38062364)
The issue with this is that google might show you ads that distribute malware.
Re:YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin
by shiroiuma on Monday October 30, 2023 @02:18AM
(#38066261)
It seems like a technical solution might work here: instead of opening the ads within the browser, open a separate, containerized browser and copy the ad link over there and open it, in the background, so any malware is unable to affect your data.
Re:YouTube's Anti-Adblock and uBlock Origin
by jeroenhd on Monday October 30, 2023 @03:20AM
(#38066542)
It's possible, and that's why I wouldn't broadly recommend it. It's been a while since I heard anyone use browser 0days through ads, but it's still rather annoying to have to keep in mind.
I ran AdNauseam for a while but in combination with a PiHole the result wasn't interesting. Every clicked link ended up blocked by PiHole anyway. Perhaps it's for the best.
I wonder if one could set up an isolated VM that can click these links for you in a Firecracker style 5 second VM isolated from anything important. It could probably run in the cloud, all you'd need to do is forward the GET/POST request the Google Ads redirect causes and let a virtual browser do its thing.
If users would want to make Youtube change its policy, there's a better way: get together and start acting like a click farm. If you click every ad on every page and immediately open the tabs you opened, advertisers will start paying Google for nothing. Something like a subreddit coming together would definitely have a noticeable impact on larger advertisers.
The AdNauseam approach to ad blocking isn't great for the security side of ad blocking, but it'll hit advertisers where it hurts the most: their wallets, and being forced to expand filtering (potentially flagging more users as false positives).