Confuse Google Ads With This Chrome Extension
lifehacker.com
In an online world in which countless systems are trying to figure out what exactly you enjoy so they can serve you up advertising about it, it really fucks up their profiling mechanisms when they think you like everything. And to help you out with this approach, I recommend checking out the Chrome/Firefox extension AdNauseum. You won’t find it on the Chrome Web Store, however, as Google frowns at extensions that screw up Google’s efforts to show you advertising for some totally inexplicable reason. You’ll have to install it manually, but it’s worth it.

As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks’ databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile (that’s the theory anyway).

So this works similarly to the Firefox extension TrackMeNot, and the AdNauseum website also links to a paper that explains further how the obfuscating should be effective.

Note though this extension is not in the Google Chrome store, so you need to install it separately along with whatever risks that can entail. I see the extension is open source on Github so it is possible to examine the code if you wish.

See https://lifehacker.com/confuse-google-ads-with-this-chrome-extension-1846337139

#technology #browsers #trackers #privacy #adnauseum

    • GadgeteerZAOP
      3·
      4 years ago

      Not sure at that level actually although if Google could prevent it they should not have banned it from their app store, they do recommend disabling similar apps though as the other may well block before this one can act.

  • AgreeableLandscape
    3·
    4 years ago

    What benefit does this give over just blocking Google advertising domains with uBlock Origin?

    • GadgeteerZAOP
      2·
      4 years ago

      They do explain that a bit more in the article and if I remember correctly at the end they linked to a more detailed study about that.

  • NixBits
    1·
    4 years ago

    There was a big fuss about this addon on PTIO on Reddit, I’m still curious if it’s worth using instead of good old uBlock.

    • GadgeteerZAOP
      1·
      4 years ago

      uBlock Origins very good at ad blocking - only reason to use this is if you wanted to acknowledge each one and confuse Google and the advertisers. For plain ad blocking though it’s no better than uBlock Origin.