AdNauseam: Clicking ads so you don't have to | Hacker News Reader

AdNauseam: Clicking ads so you don't have to

adnauseam.io

67 pointsthunderbong67 comments

Obligatory caution that's shared whenever AdNauseam is promoted on HN:

Indiscriminately clicking links to ads on web pages will get you flagged as a bot or for "unusual behavior" and you may start seeing more captchas and things like that as your IP / browsing behavior are flagged.

This is kinda good if you think about it since it'd create more friction in using ad-laden websites. Those that aren't blnuts with ads will be more likely rewarded with your attention. Seems fair.

Except then it happens on every cloudflare-protected website and you're banned from 60% of the web

I use tor and see captchas everywhere, some sites give me 403 and Youtube reguraly blocks the video and tells me to prove that I am not a bot by signing in (which I assume will block the Google Account as well). And in some cases any page on Youtube gives me 403 (and I don't even use an adblocker).

You should do this on CGNAT IP for maximum effect. I want to watch cloud flare ban an entire userbase.

"banned from 60% of the web" suggests a terrible choke-point that everyone should avoid, regardless of convenience.

Agreed, still sounds like a win for me.

I wonder what you'll say the day you cannot connect to your bank's website anymore

On most of those days, I say "Don't banks realize that they are IT shops?" and suggest that they invest more in reliability.

which they do by going to cloudflare

I've had this plugin for like 2 years I think (possibly more), and never had any issue with this. Neither Cloudflare's nor Google's non-interactive captchas have ever labeled me as a bot, and I've never been blocked from any site.

That could be because I've been so thoroughly tracked throughout my life already that they can detect me from mouse movements/keystrokes alone, or that adnauseam's behavior isn't obviously bot-like, or that the trackers already account for it's behavior patterns and filter it out as noise.

In any case, if it has the potential to cause advertisers grief, then I'm going to continue to use it.

yeah, what the parent commenter said makes little sense. Google search certainly won't do this and not a lot of people use google as a cdn (and even if they did I doubt there is an adword/adsense integration like that). Maybe if you click like every result from a google search. Most annoying ads aren't served by the top ad providers anyways, there are a lot of ad networks and ad delivery services out there.

The #1 cause of that bot experience is vpns and proxies. I get that 3rd rate experience myself, but even then it is bad but not unusable bad.

I've been using it for so many years that I'm not sure when I started, but I've never had issues being labeled as a bot.

What should actually be noted is that Google has rejected the plugin from their store for ages so it does seem to do some damage to adtech.

And this is probably the best argument in favor of AdNauseam.

You can still install it on Chrome, but it is a manual process instead of just downloading from the Google Store.

I remember making an ad clicker. I got the idea after my Banjo-Kazooie website earned $12 in banner ad clicks organically. That check in the mail inspired 11-year-old me to create InfiniteMoneyGlitch.js. It chugged away all night. And when I woke up, I saw that I was promptly banned for life.

This made me laugh. Thanks for the story.

I've been using it for atleast five years on every single device. This does not happen.

What did happen was that Google banned it from the Chrome store and this sounds like the exact kind of rumor they would spread if it actually does work to help poison your ad profile.

Using an ad blocker already does that. I can’t even use reddit outside a private browsing session because the main session is somehow identified to be a bot already and I get the “whoa there partner…” page. Same thing with other sites amazon serves a ton of captchas, so does google.

Maybe I am lucky, but I have been using AdNauseam for many years, and never had this sort of issue.

Using this would be unlawful in the UK.

Could you share which specific UK law using something like this would violate?

Computer Misuse Act 1990. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/18/section/3

(1)A person is guilty of an offence if—

(a)he does any unauthorised act in relation to a computer;

(b)at the time when he does the act he knows that it is unauthorised; and

(c)either subsection (2) or subsection (3) below applies.

(2)This subsection applies if the person intends by doing the act—

(c)to impair the operation of any such program or the reliability of any such data;

Interesting, depending on how someone interprets 1c2c, it looks like the U.K. made it illegal to lie on the internet. I don't know about the U.K., but in the U.S., I would think that would run afoul of the 1st Amendment.

In the US even the president lies every day, so I guess the US can't forbid to lie.

Would running an ad blocker not fall under 2.c?

Ad blocking happens on your own computer, which you are authorised to make changes to. But simulating a click, therefore making an entry in another person's computer is what makes it unlawful.

I sent a get request. If you put something in your database that's on you. Could we all be less eager to be the devil's advocate? "Chug your mandatory mountain dew in order to continue"

Yes but technically you are not making an entry in someone's database; you merely send a request and it is not your problem that the remote computer misinterpreted this as displaying an interest in an ad. Remote server doesn't use any password, SMS confirmation or similar measure to restrict the users that are authorized to send requests so sending it sould be 100% legal.

But as a proverb says, "the law is like a drawbar, you can bend it as you like".

If I purposefully click an ad even though I know I have no intention to purchase anything also unlawful?

Following that logic I should never click any links on the internet, since I would be potentially logging as activity on someone else's computer

who allowed them to make entries in MY computer in the first place?

I had the same question. I don't wanna your tracking cokies and I don't wanna you draw strange pictures on my computer to fingerprint me. But when I click your link in backround thats not ok.

> But when I click your link in backround thats not ok.

Why not?

If you don't want bots clicking on your link you should put a captcha on it. If your link is publicly accessible, my background click is authorized by consequence.

Doesn't running ads on my computer without consent fall under 1a?

Clicking ads is exactly what they exist for. Not convinced this breaks the law any more than just clicking an ad would.

How is that? Sounds unbelievable.

What can i use to get rid of the admiral pop ups?

u block origin and the annoyance filters should work. make a custom one for the pop up element if you have to?

Thanks

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