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It garbles advertisers' data as a result, but you must disable uBlock Origin to run it; they can't work simultaneously. I recently moved to it and, so far, am never looking back!

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[-] renzev@lemmy.world 130 points 3 weeks ago

You know this is the good shit because when it first came out a few years back google was running a huge disinformation campaign against it. You'd search for "adnauseum" in google and the first result would be an article from some weird advertising company calling is "insecure" and "malware" without any actual argumentation behind those claims, while no other search engine returned that article (I lost the screenshots, so yall are just gonna have to take my word for it). They also delisted it from the chrome store for not discernible reason. They were afraid.

But nowadays I'm willing to bet that they figured out how to detect adnauseum's fake clicks and filtering it out. Stuff like that needs a talented development team to keep it up to date.

[-] lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works 48 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Has the same limitations as uBlock Origin with Manifest v3 and won't work in Chrome.

[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 154 points 3 weeks ago

If you're still using chrome at this point that's on you.

[-] lemmeBe@sh.itjust.works 17 points 3 weeks ago

I use Librewolf. The comment was meant as info for those who think that having uBlock as a base still holds significance in light of Manifest v3.

[-] roofuskit@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I meant the general "you." "People" would have worked.

[-] ripcord@lemmy.world 15 points 3 weeks ago

Or a Chrome derivative

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[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 36 points 3 weeks ago

The solution is simple. Chrome ditches manifest v2? Ditch Chrome.

[-] NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml 96 points 3 weeks ago

I always liked using this on the premise of privacy-through-obfuscation. If the powers that be must get information from me, then i'd prefer to give them garbage information.

[-] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 weeks ago

And lots of it.

[-] rimu@piefed.social 91 points 3 weeks ago

Google has put a lot of effort into detecting and blocking stuff like this. They call it "click fraud", if you want to look it up.

It'll just mean they start ignoring clicks from you.

[-] diffusive@lemmy.world 75 points 3 weeks ago

That, I guess, it’s the whole point. Stopping being tracked 🙂

[-] cageythree@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 weeks ago

This feels like reverse psychology on a little kid.

"That's it, I'm not tracking you anymore! >:("
"Oooh nooo, what have I done! Oh how much I would wish to be tracked :("
"No, you won't convince me to change my mind >:("
"Oh well, guess I'll have to live without being tracked, what a shame that is."

[-] reksas@sopuli.xyz 33 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

if enough people start doing it might be effective

[-] bamboo 11 points 3 weeks ago

Not sure how true it was, but there was a YouTuber claiming that their videos were getting entirely demonetized because too many of their viewers had Ad blockers enabled. So even though 75% of people were seeing ads on the video, Google was keeping that ad revenue, withholding it all from the creator because 25% weren't getting ads. The claim the youtuber made is that this will probably predominantly impact creators with a more tech savvy / privacy aware audience, resulting in less of that niche content.

Anyway, this is anecdotal, but I wouldn't put it past Google to pass the issue to the creators for the actions of their consumers, even though it's not their fault.

[-] reksas@sopuli.xyz 7 points 3 weeks ago

google has way too much power. its threat to everything

[-] ITGuyLevi@programming.dev 21 points 3 weeks ago

Throw in a dash of track-me-not (https://www.trackmenot.io/) and maybe they'll start ignoring your search queries too! Worst case my actual searches are so buried in the bs deciding what to market would be easier from my screen-name.

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[-] x00z@lemmy.world 47 points 3 weeks ago

This would still make a connection to the ad servers that can then track me though.

I guess with a hardened browser and a VPN it would be alright.

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[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 38 points 3 weeks ago

Good start. Now make a version that clicks each ad a random number of times from randomly generated IP addresses.

[-] Tja@programming.dev 58 points 3 weeks ago

That's not how IP addresses work.

[-] yarr@feddit.nl 22 points 3 weeks ago

What if we use a Visual Basic UI to hack the IP address by netmask?

[-] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 9 points 3 weeks ago

Yes, but this only works if you connect your VPN via 3 block chain proxies.

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[-] umbrella@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 weeks ago

maybe we can setup a botnet to poison advertiser data.

click all the ads, all over the planet!

[-] randamumaki 6 points 3 weeks ago

Feed it SQL injections?

[-] pebbles@sh.itjust.works 10 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

You can fake your IP. There isnt really any authentication at the IP level. Just make a packet and overwite the IP field.

Edit: I was corrected. The TCP handshake requires you to have a valid IP you can respond from. So even though you can fake your IP, you can't use that to talk to most websites.

[-] Tja@programming.dev 17 points 3 weeks ago

You need a TCP handshake prior to sending any http payload.

[-] pebbles@sh.itjust.works 6 points 3 weeks ago

Oh yeah. Forgot about that.

[-] Evil_incarnate@lemm.ee 10 points 3 weeks ago

Have it form connections to all the other browsers using the extension and they all send a click.

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 6 points 3 weeks ago

Nothing is random

In bot cases like this you would have a proxy list that it “randomly” picks from

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[-] GenosseFlosse@feddit.org 16 points 3 weeks ago

Ad Networks use browser fingerprinting to detect duplicate clicks, which is tied to your hardware, system locale, installed fonts etc.

[-] morphballganon@mtgzone.com 19 points 3 weeks ago

Sounds like a solvable problem

[-] lemmylommy@lemmy.world 17 points 3 weeks ago

Some ads have used browser exploits to infect visitors in the past. So this is a very, very bad idea, if it actually is implemented in a way that is hard to filter for ad networks.

[-] DarkSurferZA@lemmy.world 37 points 3 weeks ago

So the way I understand this to work, it's 100% safe from the type of attack you're describing.

You are clicking the link (asking the advertiser for the data) but then never actually fetching it.

So you can never get the malicious payload to be infected.

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[-] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 16 points 3 weeks ago

Interesting, was wondering about this. This would also "help" the websites with more ad income right?

[-] giacomo@lemm.ee 17 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

if thats true, brb setting up a website and a bot farm

[-] LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee 6 points 3 weeks ago

Haha I imagine they need at least unique ip addresses to count. Now I wonder if for clicks to count you need to properly click through and load the target website with the same "browser fingerprint".

[-] joshchandra@midwest.social 6 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

Careful: that then enters the world of ad fraud, which randos like us doing the clicking isn't considered as.

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[-] Geodad@lemm.ee 16 points 3 weeks ago

This would just give money to the advertisers.

[-] fossilesque@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I've used this for a while. Also, I love filling out corpo surveys because I feed them bad data. It's the little acts of chaos.

Another great extension:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fake-data-haterapps/

If they want real information, they can pay me, and even then, well... :) Don't work for free.

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[-] dantheclamman@lemmy.world 6 points 2 weeks ago

Just curious- if ads are for something illegal, couldn't this expose me to liability for theoretically "clicking" it from my IP/device? And if ads are for something unsavory ( like a "chat with local cougars" site or something similar), wouldn't they start to deliver me more such ads, thinking, wow this IP is the only one clicking every sex chat ad, send them more!

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[-] yool_ooloo@lemmy.world 6 points 3 weeks ago

Why can't uBlock Origin and this thing work at the same time?

[-] noodlejetski@lemm.ee 43 points 3 weeks ago

because it's a modified uBlock Origin, so it's like running two ad blocking plugins at once, which isn't recommended. and if uBO blocks an ad first, AdNauseam won't be able to detect it and click on it.

anyway, I remember reading a long time ago how that approach isn't going to harm ad companies anyway, because [technical reasons that I don't remember at all].

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[-] Famko@lemmy.world 7 points 3 weeks ago

It's a bit redundant to run both at the same time, considering they both practically do the same thing and one is built off of the other.

[-] pyre@lemmy.world 5 points 2 weeks ago

I don't know, just sounds like I'd be contributing to the marketers metrics so they can show "it works". it'll only make them invest in ads more. if anyone thinks capitalists are these genius level manipulators who know how everything works I only refer to the richest person alive being the least charismatic, least knowledgable, unfuckable troglodyte who keeps making an ass of himself.

if any of these companies suffer any losses or reduced profits they'll just fire hardworking people, not one of them will turn around and say maybe the ads aren't working when you actively work to show them that it is working.

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this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2025
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