Malicious Attacks from AK ads!

Advally,

The reason I activated ad-blocker software was related to problems I had on AK. As I already stated, I have run into major delays with ads having to load before I could see the content I wanted. This happened to me on AK, and was related to a string of Google-referenced ad calls. There were times when I would have two sets of banner ads across the top of AK pages, the first being the typical audio-related ads that I usually see, the second being something random or related to Google searches made outside of AK.

A perfect example is that I wanted to replace my old vehicle (a 2000 Lexus RX300 with 280,000+ miles). So in October and November of 2017, I did extensive searches for local, low mileage, RX300s and RX330s. I was also researching prices for some non-audio collectibles I wanted to sell, often with Google searches.

I installed Ad-blocker software because I would often get a second set of banner ads on AK related to older Lexus SUVs and to the collectibles (at best), or more nefarious offers at worst. At the time I thought perhaps AK was allowing more ads, or had inadvertantly allowed some Google-Ads-based media company a little too much access. I see similar ads on other pages (CNN, FOX, and NBC news homepages, for example) but I don't see the double ads.

My machine was protected, so my primary complaint was how long it took for pages to load. Even text pages were taking 10, 15, even 20 seconds to load. The delay was always an unanswered call to Google Ad databases or Google Analytics. I modified my machine to block ads, block pop-ups, and whatever else I could to speed up my Internet experience. I even tried other browsers, but because I work with WebGL applications some browsers, like Edge, are not even feasible.

So the first part of this, where you performed the car search is a great example of how modern advertising works. Note: I'm not making a philosophical statement of right or wrong, just an explanation.

When you make searches like that on Google, and visit sites that are selling the various products you are interested in consuming - you leave a trail of data behind you. This data is made anonymous from your personal details, and then ads are targeted to browser sessions which look like the visitor they remember. You would notice if you cleared cookies, changed browsers and went to an internet shop that your ads would be entirely different. Advertising is seeking to deliver "The Right Message to the Right Person at the Right Time." - and modern technology has brought the entire industry much closer to that goal. If you want a 2000 Lexus RX300 with 280,000+ Miles, then someone selling one is a perfect fit for an ad to display to you.

The two sets of banners across the top are a mixture of the companies that buy ads directly with AudioKarma, and the ones that buy through the programmatic markets, which is what I described above. The really great thing that these bring to a site is the fact that you can't close general purpose deals with large companies as a small player. AudioKarma as compared to say the NFL, is a tiny molecule in the advertising ecosystem. Previously they could sell to Endemic advertisers only, and were passed over by companies selling Cars, Cheeseburgers, Dish Soap or Toothpaste. These new markets actually allow sites like AudioKarma to extend their pool of advertisers, and make the money necessary to keep the site running.

The page load speed of the programmatic units should be mitigated through Asynchronous ad loads, meaning you get your content irrelevant of the ad load. I will run some testing to make sure that is optimized though, because we absolutely don't want ads messing up page loads. That is a terrible user experience, and isn't a good future for advertising!

Personally, I understand that some people use Ad Blockers. I get it. What we're here to try and come up with is a fair balance where people who really like the site are willing to whitelist the ads to help support keeping it alive. I got into the advertising business because a few friends of mine had started a really cool website, but they both were about to quit because they had to work jobs to pay the server bills. Advertising helped them build that thing into a really amazing place for their fans, and I was really happy to be a part of it.

We're here to develop that balance with you guys, so please share any and every thought you have about the ads, and we'll either address it, explain it or kill it.

Thanks for listening... /rant.

--Doug
 
Doug,

Just so you know, I've been playing with computers for decades, and was active on the Internet well before it became the World Wide Web. I've done coding and app development, been a system admin for many networks, and for almost a decade was a Management Science and Information Systems professor at a leading university. I know how the Internet works. I know how Internet media models work. I know how Google and Facebook work, in the personal information they collect, and in how they attempt to monetize me. Any claims that they don't know who I am are belied by the personal information they hold and in the statistical significance of their targeting.

The numerous banner ads are irrelevant to me. I will never willingly click, and will never buy anything from a banner ad. I don't care for distractions. In many of the sites I frequent, being a paid subscriber would relieve me of the burden of banner ads. Sadly, being an AK subscriber does not convey such a benefit. The ads become bothersome because they slow my user experience, often to a crawl. The joy of a web page unable to load is the information you can gleam as to why the page content won't load (what it is waiting for).

I already block most cookies. Yes, I could constantly clear all remaining cookies and cache, or even browse in stealth mode. But there are benefits to me in not flushing my identity and interactions on sites that aren't so advertising-aggressive, and are more careful with my personal information.

I limit my use of information accumulators like Facebook and Google, but unfortunately I can't avoid their outreach completely. I purposely avoid sites with too many ads.
 
Off topic posts will be summarily deleted on general principles.
Trying to gather important info here for AdVally and Luther - distractions don't help.
Thanks for your understanding ...
 
Doug,

Just so you know, I've been playing with computers for decades, and was active on the Internet well before it became the World Wide Web. I've done coding and app development, been a system admin for many networks, and for almost a decade was a Management Science and Information Systems professor at a leading university. I know how the Internet works. I know how Internet media models work. I know how Google and Facebook work, in the personal information they collect, and in how they attempt to monetize me. Any claims that they don't know who I am are belied by the personal information they hold and in the statistical significance of their targeting.

The numerous banner ads are irrelevant to me. I will never willingly click, and will never buy anything from a banner ad. I don't care for distractions. In many of the sites I frequent, being a paid subscriber would relieve me of the burden of banner ads. Sadly, being an AK subscriber does not convey such a benefit. The ads become bothersome because they slow my user experience, often to a crawl. The joy of a web page unable to load is the information you can gleam as to why the page content won't load (what it is waiting for).

I already block most cookies. Yes, I could constantly clear all remaining cookies and cache, or even browse in stealth mode. But there are benefits to me in not flushing my identity and interactions on sites that aren't so advertising-aggressive, and are more careful with my personal information.

I limit my use of information accumulators like Facebook and Google, but unfortunately I can't avoid their outreach completely. I purposely avoid sites with too many ads.

Totally understand, and support your right to choose what you do with your own computer setup.

As @hjames said - we're here to make the ad experience better for everyone, and to be transparent for others exactly how it works. I appreciate your input and assistance here!
 
I still think a good approach would be to REMOVE ads completely from Subscriber's view. Sure, maybe (maybe) raise the subscriber rate slightly to do so,
but since these malware issues are tied to the AK/Google ad experience, getting rid of the ads would do a lot to speed up the load time of the site
and also eliminate the hostile adware issues!

Thats just my personal opinion, of course, but I am a member of other sites that do not pound me with ad copy for less that relevant stuff ...
I mean, really, can't that one vendor find something from this decade other than showing electron tubes in Boobs?
 
I still think a good approach would be to REMOVE ads completely from Subscriber's view. Sure, maybe (maybe) raise the subscriber rate slightly to do so,
but since these malware issues are tied to the AK/Google ad experience, getting rid of the ads would do a lot to speed up the load time of the site
and also eliminate the hostile adware issues!

Thats just my personal opinion, of course, but I am a member of other sites that do not pound me with ad copy for less that relevant stuff ...
I mean, really, can't that one vendor find something from this decade other than showing electron tubes in Boobs?

The ad problem isn't nearly as severe as it is seeming as far as I can tell, and we're working every day to get it all cleaned up. There's some reports blended into all the different threads about this issue which are due to locally infected computers. That isn't at all to say there isn't legitimate issues, but we've been rolling out solutions and nipping these in the bud.

Load times is something else we're looking into. The way it should be working is that the page content loads independently of the ads, so they won't slow anything down. Working on the other issues first and then we'll get to this one next.
 
I do understand that as an Adman, you see Ads as an integral part of a website,
but those of us who already PAY to use the site have a different perspective,
and have ad free experiences elsewhere.

The ad problem isn't nearly as severe as it is seeming as far as I can tell,
Load times is something else we're looking into. The way it should be working is that the page content loads independently of the ads,
so they won't slow anything down. Working on the other issues first and then we'll get to this one next.
 
I do understand that as an Adman, you see Ads as an integral part of a website,
but those of us who already PAY to use the site have a different perspective,
and have ad free experiences elsewhere.

I do understand your perspective, and many websites operate in all kinds of different ways. Traditional media always had a subscription + Advertising model, which is where it comes from. I do however leave that part of decisions up to the site owners and communities they represent. No one model is right for everyone.

What I can promise is that we're going to go to the ends of the earth to make the Advertising experience as good as possible!
 
Load times is something else we're looking into.

First thanks for all your work!! Second my page loading experience is as it should be, page loads first and then "Google" ad banner. Its never slow and I have only ever had a pop up once with my iPhone, changed so stuff and it hasn't happened again.

locally infected computers
I can see this as a big part of peoples problems
 
Hiya,

Fixing the "Internet" from a "Web Site" (Web Site Being AK) is very complicated to do. So many things at play.

Leave the experts at it and let them figure it out.

Frannie
 
I unblocked this site to see if I was getting "targeted" stuff like noogies. Nope. I have a dark theme and all the blinking / twinkling banners remind me of Times Square / Canal Street back in the day. So I'm keeping it unblocked cuz it's kinda groovy.
 
First thanks for all your work!! Second my page loading experience is as it should be, page loads first and then "Google" ad banner. Its never slow and I have only ever had a pop up once with my iPhone, changed so stuff and it hasn't happened again.

Nice! Just let us know quick and snap a screen shot if you ever see anything weird again. That stuff really helps!

Hiya,

Fixing the "Internet" from a "Web Site" (Web Site Being AK) is very complicated to do. So many things at play.

Leave the experts at it and let them figure it out.

Frannie

I must say, I love your posts in all of these discussions. Tech is hard, it always breaks and most of the time its just a PEBKAC... so I always love seeing your perspective.

I unblocked this site to see if I was getting "targeted" stuff like noogies. Nope. I have a dark theme and all the blinking / twinkling banners remind me of Times Square / Canal Street back in the day. So I'm keeping it unblocked cuz it's kinda groovy.

Thank you very much for doing that!
 
fwiw, I just notice that on my AOL login screen (yes,I use AOL, my email is 26ish years old) there are ads you can click from 'AdChoice' that have shown up since they are merged with yahoo/oath now.

every one, not some, not a few, every; contains a malicious redirect or phish attempt or trojan attempt. Im assuming that the malware authors are paying AdChoice for the privilege of being there?

I have run a background test of the same thing I did the other day, with the same exact usage - im fairly boring and dont click ads and its the same BUT, I noticed that every day when I log on, some entity is trying, and failing to alter the security settings on some local registry key. Not pointing a finger, but somewhere in the payload delivered when a person logs on, is an actor who likely needs to succeed on a previously infected computer. I dunno if its worth looking into.
 
I had a pop up last night, but it just disappeared when I used the back button. I run purify on this iPad and today I set it to also monitor background app refresh. So far, that one pop up has been the only issue.
 
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