this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2023
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Online Ads Can Infect Your Device with Spyware (www.scientificamerican.com)
submitted 1 year ago by Bebo@literature.cafe to c/technology@lemmy.world
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An investigative report reveals that new spyware can slip in unseen through online ads—and there is currently no defense against it. So not only that online ads are intrusive and can infect devices through malware, they can also be used for spying.

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[–] plz1@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago

Defense against it

  • uBlock Origin
  • NextDNS (I highly recommend this to everyone because you can easily get it for mobile devices and block ads served over mobile networks)
  • PiHole
  • Plenty of other options

But if corporate media reported on ways to block ads, it'd eat into their own bottom line, so I can understand their choice to skirt the whole "ads are blockable with some level of effort" conversation.

I've been blocking online ads for nearly the entirety of my multi-decade usage of the internet, to the point where seeing them now is actually quite jarring. The fact that they're now a prime vector for malware and spyware/capitalist surveillance just one-ups the decision to block them just for the annoyance factor.